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Scrooge of the Year: Jobs with Justice group to roast local bosses (video)

by on Dec. 06, 2010, under Arizona, corporatists, jobs, John McCain, Jon Kyl, Tucson

Tucson’s Jobs with Justice (JwJ) group will host its annual Scrooge of the Year event on Saturday, December 11. Each year JwJ asks Arizona workers to nominate bad…errr… less than perfect… bosses for the distinction of Scrooge of the Year.

Individual employees or employee groups are free to nominate bosses for the honor of being label a Scrooge. The short nomination speeches– when employees pitch their boss’ “qualifications” for Scrooge of the Year– proved to entertaining and sometimes a bit sad last year. After the presentations, the audience votes for the most deserving Scrooge among the field of bosses.

Arizona Senator Jon Kyl (Source: Project Vote Smart)

Personally, I think Arizona Senator Jon Kyl, who won the 2009 Scrooge of the Year Award, should win again this year. Let’s look at Jon’s performance in 2010: voted against extending unemployment benefits; voted against financial reform and health care reform; lobbied for exclusion of many women’s health benefits in the healthcare reform legislation; continues to fight for tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, while stalling the New START Treaty. (Need I go on? After all, this is just a short list off the top of my head.)

In addition to the entertainment value of watching employees openly crack on their bosses, the evening includes dinner, refreshments, and music for a $10 donation to JwJ. The event will begin at 6 p.m. on December 11 and will be held in the Goddard Hall at the Unitarian Universalist Church, 4831 E. 22nd Street. Jobs with Justice coalitions around the country work for justice on the job and in communities. It was founded in 1987 with “the vision of lifting up workers’ rights struggles as part of a larger campaign for economic and social justice.” For more information about the local group, check this link.

CREDIT: C-SPAN-3

This entry was posted on Monday, December 6th, 2010 at 6:00 am and is filed under Arizona, corporatists, jobs, John McCain, Jon Kyl, Tucson. Tags for this post: , , . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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  • Jim Hannley

    Thanks for posting, Pam. Among the many times I helped to deliver the award, the best was to Cochise County Ed Reinheimer. We were accompanied by reporters from Univision. Derechos Humanos nominated him for failure to indict a local rancher who had held people he suspected of being undocumented immigrants under gunpoint. They were local people, including minors who were in the desert hunting. When we told the receptionist we were from Tucson, there to present him with a community award, he came to the desk all smiles. Little did he know what was to come.

    • Jim Hannley

      That should read “Cochise County Attorney”

  • leftfield

     “the vision of lifting up workers’ rights struggles as part of a larger campaign for economic and social justice.”

    A laudable vision, one that I am skeptical can ever be acheived within the context of the current system of relations.  Nonetheless, I am hard-pressed to think of a better place to spend $10 or a better way to spend an evening. 

    Kudos

  • Trek

    Nice article.  I would prefer John M. be lumped with Jon K. Both of them are “Bad” bosses. They are do nothing, say “Hell No” guys with a very narrow agenda that benefits only a chosen few.

  • Carolyn Classen

    Any link to who were their past “Scrooges”?  I’m curious. Thanks for this article Pam.

    • Pamela Powers

      Yes, a list of past winners would be interesting; unfortunately, the link to the local website didn’t work when I tried it. The Scrooge Award is a national Jobs with Justice effort.

  • Jim Hannley

    Regarding the list of past winners: One of them was Metric Roofing. They had been blocking attempts at their workers to organize; we had a major wholesale food distributor, Sysco Foods in Phoenix who was not bargaining in good faith with the Teamsters to organize their truck drivers (Teamsters won that with our help); the CEO of Raytheon Missile Systems following the successful strike led by the IAM in the winter of 2005 or 6, I believe. We had Jon Kyl last year, as Pam mentioned. I’ll have to get Steve Valencia to weigh in here to get the rest of them.

    • Carolyn Classen

      Thanks Jim, I like to learn about past winners of such dubious honors.

  • robbie

    What a bunch of liberal jerks!  Now I know what I don’t need to read unless I want to barf on my key board.  Reward of  “NO NOTHING of  THE YEAR” should go to the author of this ridiculous commentary

    • Jim Hannley

      You object? Why? Are you self employed? Do you work for a beneficent employer? Do you feel that all politicians have the best interest of the masses at heart? Maybe you think there are no scurrilous employers? There were in Charles Dickens day, apparently, witness “A Christmas Carol”. Was that pure fiction? Has society moved past that point to where we have enlightened employers? Pray tell, my friend.

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The Tucson Progressive

Pamela Powers Hannley writes the Tucson Progressive blog on the TucsonCitizen.com and contributes articles to the Huffington Post and Salon.com. She has had more than 30 years of experience in written, visual, and electronic communication—including freelance writing, photography, graphic design, and consulting. In addition to blogging for the Citizen, she is the Managing Editor of an international medical research journal.

Hannley has authored medical research articles, print magazine and newspaper stories, and numerous cancer prevention and self-help publications.

She has been a blogger since 2006, joined the ranks of Tucson Citizen bloggers in October 2010, and started contributing to the Huffington Post in 2011 and to Salon.com in 2012.

Hannley holds a masters’ degree in public health from The University of Arizona and a bachelors’ degree in journalism from The Ohio State University. She is a native of Amherst, Ohio but has lived in Tucson since 1981.