Green Party on Jobs Party Platform

America's 25+ million jobless is intolerable

Five years after Obama's historic mandate, the conditions of the great mass of Americans remains intolerable. And yet to hear his 5th State of Union address, an uninformed listener might think America's problems are limited and manageable.

The reason for this dissonance is that this State of the Union was not delivered by the man elected in the mandate of 2008. This State of the Union might as well have been given by a robot, or an actor, or a media spokesperson. In fact, a media spokesman is what this President of the United States has long since become. His is a voice that modulates the reality experienced by an ever more disconnected political establishment for a polity that grows smaller by the year.

$10.10 federal contractor minimum wage still not living wage

Pay liveable wages, not just minimum wage

Green Party activists noted that a minimum wage that matched current productivity growth would be more than $16.50 an hour and said that this figure should factor into the calculation for a liveable-wage guarantee. Greens said that enacting a liveable wage would boost the economy by providing millions more Americans, especially low-income families, with spending power.

The Green New Deal, advocated by Green candidates including 2012 presidential nominee Jill Stein, calls for the creation of millions of new green jobs that pay liveable wages

Irreducible right to form a union without hindrance

• The right to organize unions, bargain freely and strike when necessary is being destroyed by employers and their representatives in government. Today, nearly one out of ten workers involved in union organizing drives is illegally fired by employers who wage a campaign of fear, threats, and slick propaganda to keep workers from exercising a genuinely free choice.
• The Green Party supports the irreducible right of the working people, without hindrance, to form a union and to bargain collectively with their employer. This right was guaranteed under the National Labor Relations Act of 1935.
• We support the right of workers, without penalty, to inform other workers on the premises of a union being formed. This includes advertising and recruiting.

Pay a living wage which reflects real value of work

We recognize it is essential to create a vibrant and sustainable economic system, one that can create jobs and provide a decent standard of living, for all people, while maintaining a healthy ecological balance.

A successful economic system will offer meaningful work with dignity, while paying a “living wage” which reflects the real value of a person’s work.

Support a Living Wage

We support public funding for the development of living wage jobs in community and environmental service, for example, environmental clean-up, recycling, sustainable agriculture and food production, sustainable forest management, repair and maintenance of public facilities, neighborhood-based public safety, aids in schools, libraries and childcare centers, and construction and renovation of energy-efficient housing. We oppose enterprise zone ‘give aways’ which benefit corporations more than inner city communities