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Hi John,
Across the country, corporations are pressuring state lawmakers to rig the rules so they can continue to exploit our communities for profit. How are they doing it? Corporations use their money and power to drive statewide bans on local policymaking so we can’t work together to care for our families, friends, and neighbors.
New research from our affiliate Stand Up Nashville and We Decide Tennessee exposes how corporations are driving harmful state bans on local policymaking on a wide variety of issues, such as affordable housing, wages, paid sick leave, and even municipal broadband access. This report reveals how corporate influence has shaped the priorities of Tennessee state lawmakers and shows how corporate-driven state bans harm Tennessee communities, particularly low-income, Black, and brown communities.
Read State Interference in Tennessee [[link removed]]
Read and share We Decide Tennessee’s report
Here are just some of WDTN’s findings:
*
AT&T
is
pressuring
state
lawmakers
to
block
municipalities
from
expanding
their
own
broadband
infrastructure
to
areas
that
need
it,
restricting
access
to
employment
and
education
opportunities
for
thousands
of
rural
Tennesseans.
*
Uber
has
worked
with
other
transportation
network
companies
to
pressure
state
lawmakers
into
passing
bans
on
local
policies
protecting
app-based
rideshare
drivers.
Tennessee
communities
are
effectively
banned
from
protecting
people
working
in
some
of
the
most
dangerous
jobs
in
the
US
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.
*
Corporations
have
banded
together
through
industry
groups
like
the
Tennessee
Chamber
of
Commerce
&
Industry
to
repeatedly
push
state
legislators
to
block
local
communities
from
raising
the
minimum
wage
above
the
federal
minimum
of
$7.25,
provide
health
insurance,
or
offer
paid
leave.
From
rural
communities
to
big
cities,
Tennesseans
are
blocked
from
setting
wage
standards
that
meet
their
unique
needs
and
keep
their
families
fed.
This report is just the tip of the iceberg. We’ve found corporate fingerprints on harmful state bans all across the country.
Read Unmasking Corporate Interference [[link removed]]
Find out more in our report exposing corporate influence on statewide bans
In the last decade, we’ve seen an increase in corporate-driven state bans across the country, and things are only getting worse for our communities. We are under constant attack from corporations that hide behind lobbying groups to exploit us. Time and time again, our communities are being blocked from achieving change at the local level because of the corporations driving policy at the state level.
Just last month, corporate landlords like Greystar Real Estate worked through the Colorado Apartment Association to shoot down a bill that would have allowed local communities to stop huge rent hikes. Our affiliate, United for a New Economy [[link removed]] , organized tenants in an effort to repeal a statewide ban on local rent control policies. But lobbyists for Greystar and other corporate landlords pressured lawmakers to ignore the repeal so it died before it even left the committee.
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Watch and share our video explaining what happened in CO and how this is part of a larger trend. ( Twitter [[link removed]] | Instagram [[link removed]] | TikTok [[link removed]] | Facebook [[link removed]] )
It’s becoming more and more evident that we need to focus our fights on the corporations that are driving harmful state bans blocking our communities from working together to ensure our communities have roofs overhead, food on the table, and access to important resources. What we’re seeing with tenant organizing in CO and the work of SUN and We Decide Tennessee is part of the beginning of a movement to fight back against corporate-driven state bans. Our communities are starting to unmask the corporations driving these bans and fight back.
If we’re going to win this fight, we need to keep exposing the corporations driving these harmful state bans. By taking the fight directly to the corporations behind these laws, we can stand up for our communities’ freedom to care for each other and remind our state leaders that we are the people they have been chosen to represent and protect, not corporations.
Because corporations shouldn’t be setting the rules for us; we should be setting the rules for them.
[[link removed]] In solidarity,
Jessie Vollmer
Campaign Director, Corporate State Interference
PowerSwitch Action
1305 Franklin St.
Suite 501
Oakland, CA 94612
United States
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