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HISTORY & ACHIEVEMENTS


Tennessee Citizen Action has a 16-year legacy of working to preserve and promote overall health, well-being, and quality of life for all Tennesseans. Here is a history of some of our achievements:

Safe and healthy work places:

  • 1998: TNCA helps to pass a bill that makes it a crime to remove a safety guard or warning from a piece of machinery.
  • 2000: TNCA helps to pass legislation which sets up a fund for injured employees of businesses without workers comp insurance.
  • 2011: Organized and led rallies to preserve worker’s rights.

A responsive civil justice system:

  • 2004: TNCA joins with a national coalition to oppose the ironically named “Class Action Fairness Act” because if passed it would mean that millions of consumers harmed by violations of state consumer protection laws will have no avenue to recover their losses and hold corporations accountable.
  • 2007: TNCA successfully fights off a bill that seeks to protect nursing home owners from any legal liability for neglect.
  • 2011: Organized and led media events to educate the public on victim’s rights.

Affordable, quality health care:

  • 2009: TNCA joins and works closely with Health Care for America Now (HCAN), the nation’s largest health care reform campaign, to help pass comprehensive health care reform.

Better living conditions for the poor, elderly, disabled, and unemployed:

  • 2005: TNCA organizes the Nashville “Protect Social Security” rally in conjunction with 35 other states and the District of Columbia. The featured speaker is U.S. Rep. Harold Ford Jr.
  • 2006: TNCA helps to usher passage of the Tennessee Home Loan Protection Act, the first ever anti-predatory lending bill in Tennessee’s history.
  • 2010: TNCA fights to establish a reasonable ceiling for interest rates on predatory payday loans. In Tennessee, there are more payday loan centers than McDonalds and Starbucks combined.

A democracy in which the public interest comes first:

  • 2002: TNCA works on the “First Things First” campaign, which helps to put the priorities of working people before Bush Tax Cuts and giveaways to corporations.
  • 2006: TNCA releases a report on the status of Tennessee’s workers titled “Are We Investing in Our Workers? A State-of-the-State Report on Tennessee’s Workers,” which outlines disturbing details of major cuts proposed by the Bush Administration.
  • 2008: TNCA conducts a civic engagement plan resulting in 350 newly registered voters and 4,000 GOTV contacts in rural West Tennessee, and 11,500 GOTV contacts in Middle Tennessee.
  • 2010: TNCA helps to fend off legislation that would gut workers compensation.
  • 2011: Created “Priorities Day on the Hill” to focus legislators attention on what’s important to the hardworking people of the state: quality jobs and an economy that works for everyone.
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