WORKPLACE JUSTICE
Tennessee Citizen Action believes strongly in ensuring that working Americans can care for themselves and their families through the right to organize, an effective and equitable workers’ compensation program, a higher minimum wage as a step toward a truly livable wage, guaranteed health care benefits, and workplace safety standards.
Tennessee Citizen Action Demands Congressional Movement on Critical Labor-HHS-Education Bill
Advocates to Release “State-of-the-State Report on Tennessee Workers”
NASHVILLE – Tennessee Citizen Action (TNCA), the state’s leading advocate for economic justice in public policy, will release a major, eye-opening report on the status of Tennessee’s workers on Thursday. The report is titled “Are We Investing in Our Workers? A State-of-the-State Report on Tennessee’s Workers.”
The report outlines disturbing details of major cuts proposed by the Bush Administration in vital worker-oriented programs at a time when corporate profits are soaring, wages are stagnating and poverty in on the rise .
Thousands of Tennesseans rely on a number of federal initiatives to ensure workplace safety, adequate job training and re-training, assistance after mass layoffs (including services to help find new employment), and minimum wage enforcement. Yet, the Workers Investment Act, the Trade Adjustment Assistance program, the Federal-State Employment Service, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA), and enforcement of wage laws all face large budget cuts.
Along with the release of the report, TNCA will urge Tennessee’s Members of Congress to help bring about an immediate vote on the Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Act, which would determine funding levels for FY2007. Over the past two years, funding for essential programs included in the Labor-HHS- Education bill has fallen behind by $12 billion.
