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Coalition of Working People and the Poor

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Brief History

CWPP was formed in early 2007 to be a force for economic justice in the Houston area. It arose from two years of networking among groups seeking very different federal budget priorities than the Bush Administration had adopted: increase human needs spending, reduce military spending, and make the wealthy pay their fair share of taxes.

Once formed, CWPP broadened its focus to add a range of issues critical to the well-being of the large majority of Houston's people: a living wage, affordable health care, support of union organizing among low-paid workers in the service sector, and reform of the Harris County criminal justice system (the unfairness of which imposed heavy financial burdens on poor people).

In March, 2007, CWPP announced its formation with a rally in the plaza in front of Houston City Hall. Speakers included U.S. Representatives Al Green and Sheila Jackson Lee; Rep. Gene Green sent greetings. Among those in attendance were several members of Houston City Council and the Texas State Legislature. The keynote address was delivered by Bishop James Dixon II of the Community of Faith.

In December, CWPP held a well-publicized "Bread and Stones" news conference in front of the Mickey Leland Federal Bldg. Leaders of CWPP member organizations presented loaves of bread to members of the Houston area Congressional delegation who had voted in support of the concerns of working people and the poor in Washington in 2007, and stones to those whose votes were mean-spirited. Reps. Al Greene, Gene Green, and Sheila Jackson-Lee, and Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (who had strongly championed expansion of the Children's Health Insurance Program) got bread. Reps. Kev Brady, John Culberson, Tom DeLay, and Mike McCaul, along with Sen. John Cornyn, got stones.

The main focuses in 2008 were supporting organizing work among Aramark's 5000 low-paid food service workers, reform of criminal justice in Harris County, and voter registration. All three campaigns scored successes. Bargaining units were formed in three of the public facilities where Aramark has the food services contract—the Harris County jail, the George R. Brown Convention Center, and Texas Southern University. District Attorney Charles (Chuck) Rosenthal resigned under pressure, and Sheriff Tommie Thomas was sufficiently discredited to ruin his chance for re-election. Much of CWPP's criminal justice reform agenda is now moving forward. Voter registration and get-out-the-vote work in the Third Ward, Sunnyside, and parts of southwest Houston helped produce record turn-outs in November.

In early 2009, CWPP rallied area understanding and support for the new priorities in President Obama's first budget, including expanded funding for critical human needs programs and renewable energy development. In addition, CWPP promoted single payer universal health care reform ("Medicare for everyone"). That work began with a major rally the previous October and will continue until the United States institutes the only just and economically sustainable system of health care.

CWPP's quarterly newsletter and timely e-mail action alerts are important ways that it informs and involves grassroots participants in the struggle for justice.

Mission

For a Caring Nation:

The Identity and Mission of the

Houston Coalition of Working People and the Poor

We are community leaders, civic associations, faith-based institutions, service organizations, and concerned individuals alarmed by the continuing and increasing hardship our nation’s public policies are imposing on large numbers of people in the United States and in Texas.

We believe that our economic priorities reflect our values, and that we must value above all else the well-being of our people, especially the well-being of our children. We are convinced that most of our national and state policy makers are not being guided by this value.

The federal minimum wage remained at $5.15 an hour from September 1, 1997 until July 24, 2007, while the cost-of-living rose 26% during that time. Even though Congress finally mandated an increase, a full-time minimum wage worker cannot earn enough to lift a family of three above the federally established poverty level.

In shocking contrast, the remuneration of those at the highest levels in the workforce has skyrocketed. As the Economic Policy Institute observed: “An average CEO earns more before lunchtime on the very first day of work in the year than a minimum wage worker earns all year.”

Despite these gross income disparities, tax benefits for the wealthiest members of society are being given precedence over funding of health care, education, nutrition, housing, safe neighborhoods, job training, and environmental protection. Additionally, at the national level, spending on military procurement and war-making keeps rising even though such spending now almost equals that of all other nations combined and entails a chronic level of waste that would be intolerable in any other area of public spending.

We are certain that such morally distorted economic policies are jeopardizing the security of our nation, that their ill effects are already manifesting themselves in lost human potential, and that their impact will become even more apparent in years to come.

Thus, we are committed to new economic policies guided by the values that all deeply caring people share. To that end:

We will educate the public about the way all too many of their elected officials are working in contrast to the public interest;

We will organize and energize the rapidly increasing number of people being harmed to advocate for themselves and their families;

We will hold elected officials accountable for their decisions.

We will challenge and invite conscientious Americans who may not be directly impacted to advocate for their fellow citizens.

Members

CWPP welcomes both organizational and individual members. There is no membership fee. An organization wishing to join is encouraged to designate one person as its liaison. To join, see the following section. Here is the list of current organizational members:

Catholic Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston’s Office of Justice and
Peace
Children at Risk
Children’s Defense Fund
Dominican Sisters
First Unitarian Universalist Church
Gateway to Care
Harris County AFL-CIO
Houston Area Urban League
Houston Metropolitan Baptist Ministers’ Alliance
Houston Peace and Justice Center
Houston Interfaith Worker Justice
Houston Votes
Knowledge-First, Inc.
Live Oak Friends Meeting
Mennonite Central Committee
NAACP-Houston Branch
National Nurses Organizing Committee
Nigerian Christian Association
Northwest Community Baptist Church
Pax Christi Houston
Real Urban Ministry, Inc.
RESULTS
Service Employees International Union, Local 100
SEIU Local 1/Janitors for Justice
Texans Together
Third Ward Community Cloth Cooperative
Veterans for Peace-Chapter 12
Women's International League for Peace and Freedom-Houston Chapter

How to join

Print out this membership form, fill out the appropriate section (organization or individual), and mail to Houston Peace and Justice Center, P.O. Box 66234, Houston, TX 77266.

CWPP Membership Form

For organizations and institutions

We have read “For a Caring Nation” and are in full agreement with the identity, mission, values, and intentions of the Coalition of Working People and the Poor. We therefore wish to be a member of the Coalition, and to remain a member unless and until we give notice of our intention to withdraw.

As our resources permit, we will work with other Coalition members to secure a greater measure of economic justice for working people and the poor living in the United States. We understand that membership authorizes the use of our name when the Coalition addresses public officials and the general public.

Group’s official name: ________________________________________________________________________

Our primary representative in the Coalition will be (representative’s name and contact information):

________________________________________________________________________

For individuals

I have read “For a Caring Nation” and am in full agreement with the identity, mission, values, and intentions of the Coalition of Working People and the Poor. I therefore wish to be a member of the Coalition, and to remain a member unless and until I give notice of my intention to withdraw.

As my resources permit, I will work with other Coalition members to secure a greater measure of economic justice for working people and the poor living in the United States.

Name and desired identification (if any):

______________________________________________________________________________

Contact information, including email address:

_______________________________________________________________________

Current agenda

Federal budget

· Adequate funding of human needs programs

· Reduce military spending

· End tax breaks for top 10% of income

Health care

· Adopt system of single payer universal health care coverage ("Medicare for everyone")

· Include coverage for medicine, vision, and long term care

Worker solidarity

· Secure Congressional passage of the Employee Free Choice Act (H.R.1409, S.B. 560)

· Support organizing and bargaining struggles of low-paid workers in the Houston area, including building janitors, food service workers, security personnel, and nursing home staff

· Secure Congressional passage of the T.R.A.D.E. Act (H.R.3012)

The waste of war

· End the occupation of Iraq

Criminal justice reform

· Expand Drug Courts: Harris County should divert more nonviolent drug offenders from county jails to mandatory drug treatment programs.

· Independent Citizens Review Board: The independent citizens review board would investigate and judge complaints of misconduct by all local law enforcement, including sheriff’s deputies and municipal police officers.

· Public Defenders Office: Houston is the largest city in the U.S. without an adequate system of indigent defense.

· Personal Recognizance Bonds: If people have roots in the community and pose no realistic flight risk, they should not be held in jail because they are too poor to post bail.

· Ticketing Option: The Harris County Sheriff and local police chiefs could institute policies permitting citations rather than arrests for certain nonviolent crimes.

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