A JOBS FIRST AGENDA

A JOBS FIRST AGENDA

Exploring a Jobs First Agenda


In the wake of WWII, the United States led the way to reform by signing, with other industrialized nations, a Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In addition to cherished fundamental political rights such as freedom of speech, and due process, the Declaration included “economic” rights, such as the right to work and earn a good wage, medical care, public education through college, and many more of what were believed to be the components of basic human dignity and security. All of these rights were to be protected by rule of law to prevent tyranny. Yet, in the years since, these economic rights have been ignored or even vilified in the United States; the gap between rich and poor has continued to grow; fairness and empathy have been purged from the economic and justice systems and replaced by selfishness as the guiding star. Employees are treated as mere commodities to be bargained for at the lowest possible price, while meaningful consideration of a “living wage” is dismissed as socialist rhetoric. Greed permeates every level of society and contributes to the collapse of small towns, the budget deficit, energy and climate issues, seemingly endless wars, global terrorism, racial tensions, the drug addiction epidemic, and more.

The Jobs First Agenda seeks a better way: to create, collaboratively, a new narrative based on truth; a nonpartisan, grassroots philosophy of action based on fairness that can facilitate the pursuit of a just economic life for all Americans – the elusive “third way” emerging from the wreckage of Marxism and laissez-faire capitalism.

What is a Jobs First Agenda?


> DOWNLOAD: A “Jobs First Agenda” brochure.

> READ: A Jobs First Agenda: Exploring a New Narrative and the Legal Framework to Effectuate It (a transcription of the Jobs First Agenda program presented on September 7, 2017 by WALS President Patrick Cassidy)

The Top Ten Feautures of a Job First Agenda


1) Amend the U.S. Constitution to guarantee living wage jobs for all Americans who want to work; free universal health care; and free public education through college or vocational school for those who want to learn.

2) Change state employment laws to require good faith and fair dealing in all employment relationships, and re-introduce “empathy” in our courts of law.

3) Abrogate the King’s law of “employment at will” to provide job security based on the doctrine of good faith and fair dealing.

4) Make the government the employer of last resort, rebuilding the national Infrastructure like the Civilian Conservation Corps did during the Great Depression.

5) Change to a green, new energy economy in response to the existential threat of climate change, and offer more jobs than the dying fossil fuel industries in the process.

6) Reform the tax code using incentivized tax rates and multiple deductions as a reward for hiring employees at a “living wage;” eliminating favorable treatments for corporations and special interests.

7) Implement a “living wage” through reformed collective bargaining by allowing every employee to choose or decline a labor union or professional association at the time of hiring in the private sector.

8) Abrogate the King’s law of “Sovereign Immunity” by reducing unnecessary “red-tape,” making the government “responsible” and “accountable” for making employment easy, and living up to the new narrative.

9) Broaden the scope of “fiduciary duty” laws to be more than the “bottom-line” to shareholders, but to include avoidance of harm to the workforce; to the community; and to the environment. 

10) Implement all future laws and policies based on the New Narrative: A Jobs First Agenda, to make America again the leader of the free world in values, not just military strength.

The Accountability Amendment


We know, but hesitate to confront the reality, that no Republic can survive if what’s left of its justice system is eroded by corruption–whether by outright bribe, private interest, or greed.

So here is the last of the Constitutional Amendments proposed as part of the Jobs First Agenda, which we refer to as the “Accountability Amendment,” and is necessary to hold public officials and employees from every level of government, as well as private persons or corporations engaging in “public service, accountable. Like the other proposed Amendments of the Jobs First Agenda, it too is adapted from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948.

The proposed language is a follows:

PUBLIC ACCOUNTABILITY AMENDMENT

Everyone is entitled to a social order in which the rights and freedoms set forth in this Constitution can be fully realized; and in the exercise of each and every citizen’s rights and freedoms, everyone shall be subject only to such limitations as are determined by law solely for the purpose of securing due recognition and respect for the rights and freedoms of others and of meeting the just requirements of morality, public order, and the general welfare in a democratic society. (Adapted from Articles 28 and 29 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948).

Section 1. Such a limitation required solely for the purpose of securing due recognition and respect for the rights and freedoms of others includes the necessity of declaring all Public Employees, at the federal, state, and municipal level, including, but not limited to, all elected public officials, non-elected public employees, public police officers, and any private persons, corporations, or other entities that provide essential public services, shall be considered holders of positions of Public Trust; and shall have fiduciary duties of good faith and trust to all citizens in their respective jurisdictions, and shall be held to a high standard of honesty and full disclosure in regard to all citizens in their respective jurisdictions, and shall not obtain a personal benefit at the expense of any citizens in their respective jurisdictions, and shall be subject to personal liability at common law for violations of the public trust as herein defined. Such actions shall be brought under the common law, and for violations of this Amendment by Federal public officials, in any federal court of any state, on behalf of one or more citizens of The United States of America, and such actions against state or local public officials shall be brought in the courts of general jurisdiction of the appropriate state where the violation of Public Trust shall have occurred. Any actions at common law under this Amendment shall not be subject to a defense of “lack” of standing, so long as brought by any citizen of the United States or State as specified herein; nor shall the defense of “sovereign Immunity,” “absolute immunity,” or “qualified Immunity” be a defense to said action, or the creation of a “common-fund” for damages for said breach to the benefit of the citizens of the United States, or citizens of the appropriate state or local jurisdictions as defined herein. In all such actions, Trial by Jury shall be preserved, in accordance with the Seventh Amendment to the United States Constitution.

Please note, when you read section 2, that the “Accountability Amendment” also requires compensation for destruction to the environment and contribution to climate change, and serves as the mechanism to make the Jobs First Agenda a vehicle for a “non-socialistic” New Green Deal. It seeks reasonable and what we now realize is “necessary” accountability for actions being taken by any person or corporation to destroy our climate and environment, which would be expected to make the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy nearly immediate, and based on economic feasibility, which the consensus of scientific evidence requires, if we are to save our way of life, and our climate, for ourselves and our posterity.

Section 2. Such a limitation required solely for the purpose of securing due recognition and respect for the rights and freedoms of others includes the necessity of declaring that no person, corporation, or other entity shall contribute to damage to the environment, including, but not limited to, unreasonable contribution to “global warming,” or in the alternative, shall pay an amount equal to the unavoidable damage they cause to ameliorate the effects of any such contribution; nor shall any person, corporation, or other entity otherwise cause harm or destruction to the “public commons” for private gain; including, but not limited to, the right of every citizen to affordable clean water; clean air, and an environment healthy and safe to our citizens and their posterity, without compensation equal to the harm or destruction caused. One or more citizens shall have standing in any appropriate state or federal court to bring actions at common law in their respective jurisdictions to remedy any damage to the environment, the public commons, or for unreasonable contribution to global warming, in the nature of creating a “common fund” for the benefit of all citizens, or citizens in their own jurisdiction, if such damage is confined thereto. In all such actions, Trial by Jury shall be preserved, in accordance with the Seventh Amendment to the United States Constitution.

Section 3. “Non-Preemption” Clause. Nothing herein shall be deemed to limit the right of any individuals or other person or citizen personally harmed by any breach of Public Trust, or personal harm to themselves or their property, under any other laws heretofore existing, or that may be enacted in the future; it being the purpose of this Amendment to afford “a more perfect Union” by requiring accountability to all citizens for harmful acts to our citizens and their posterity, without interfering with any existing laws with a more limited purpose.

Jobs First Agenda Community Discussions


In 2017, the WALS Foundation hosted a series of community discussions of how a Jobs First Agenda could impact the most critical issues confronting our nation today. You can listen to some of the programs by clicking on the links below.

Listen to our Discussions


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