Saturday stats: Rest in power Richard Trumka
Posted August 07, 2021 in eNews
$5.3 billion: That’s how much money Ohio’s local governments will receive from the American Rescue Plan (ARP). Local officials should use the resources to make sure working people are paid fairly and protected on the job. We have a great new resource page for all things ARP, including highlights from our Livestream series, reports and analysis, and new video produced by our friends at the United Labor Agency.
700: Policy Matters joined the Children’s Defense fund and more than 700 state and local groups to call on Congress and President Biden to make the expanded child tax credit permanent. In a Plain Press article that we republished as a blog, Will Petrik explained that the increased tax credit will reduce child poverty in Ohio by nearly 49% and give families more money for things like food, diapers, housing and health care.
56: Fifty-six years ago President Lyndon Johnson signed laws that created Medicare and Medicaid so people with very low incomes could get the health care they need. Director of Black Women Rising Bishop Marcia Dinkins and our Wendy Patton published an essay about how both programs have been critical for Ohioans of all races. Medicaid has been especially crucial for Black women who have been the most excluded, oppressed, and exploited due to years of racist public policies.
25%: In Ohio, only 25% of families with incomes low enough to qualify for cash assistance through the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program actually get it. A new report by our national partner, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) shows how some policymakers erected deliberate barriers to the program in order to exclude Black women. It’s part of a shameful legacy of paternalistic policies that “sought to control Black women’s behavior and compel their labor.”
10: Black women’s equal pay day is the approximate day a Black woman must work into the new year to make what white man made the year before. Arriving this year on August 3, it came 10 days sooner than in 2020, according to the Economic Policy Institute. That might seem like good news, but it likely reflects the fact that Black women are more likely to work in industries hit hard by layoffs due to COVID. This year, the median Black woman made $.63 cents to the median white man’s dollar.
One: There was only one Richard Trumka. The President of the AFL-CIO died unexpectedly this week. A third-generation coal miner, Trumka was a tireless champion for working people. Most recently, he was a driving force behind getting the U.S. House of Representatives to pass the PRO Act, which would expand protections for workers who want to organize in unions. He organized mine workers to oppose Apartheid in South Africa and led a 10-month strike that forced the Pittston coal company to provide workers with better health care and pensions.
100: This year marks the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Blair Mountain when strikebreakers and law enforcement violently suppressed mineworkers and their families as they marched to demand fair treatment. After the loss of Rich Trumka, it’s even more critical that we all remember and honor the working people who struggled to make life better for themselves and future generations.