Campaigns
Wage Theft
Wage theft ranks number one among all other financial crimes combined in the U.S., at some $30 to $50 billion a year; it almost exclusively victimizes the lowest-paid and more precariously situated workers. Adding wage theft to already low wages leads to evictions, consumer debt, water and utility shut-offs and more as workers cannot afford the basics of life. Join in the campaign to stop wage theft!
Sustainable Development Goals
In 2015, the United States, along with 192 other nations in the United Nations, adopted 17 Sustainable Development Goals, with 169 targets to be accomplished by 2030. They include the elimination of poverty and hunger, guarantee of access to water and energy, as well as combating climate change. CCLP endorses those goals and highlights SDG goal 16.2, which targets implementing the rule of law. Join in the campaign to implement the SDGs!
Rights Without Remedies
The federal government is doing nothing to protect consumers from being scammed by large corporations. The supposed safeguards put in after the 2008 financial crash have been removed and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Congress purportedly set up to be a watchdog for the rights of consumers has been defunded. At the same time, the United States Supreme Court is allowing a full frontal assault on the legal system as we know it, limiting access to the courts, limiting class actions and blocking attempts to protect individuals from overreaching corporate entities. At the same time, the Executive and Legislative branches have ganged up to defund the courts, undermining the checks and balances that are supposed to form a basis of our governmental system.
The Supreme Court is upholding the right of corporations to utilize mandatory arbitration agreements to deny consumers their day in court against banks, credit card companies, phone service providers, even nursing home corporations and hospitals. Employers are forcing employees to sign mandatory arbitration agreements as a condition of employment, undermining even the dubious benefits of the National Labor Relations Act. Such agreements force the use of individual arbitration, no class actions or even class arbitration. Paid for by the corporate entity being sued, the arbitrator finds in favor of the corporate entity involved against the consumer or employee in two out of three cases.
Meanwhile, the government is outsourcing its responsibilities to private companies, giving itself plausible deniability when those companies deny the resources due to those who are supposed the benefit from the program. For example, in the Bayview in San Francisco, CA, families in HUD financed housing are continually subjected to a management company that allows garbage to accumulate, leading to vermin, mold and other unhealthy conditions for living. HUD takes a hands-off approach and only through persistent CCLP advocacy, legal advice to the tenants and pressure has the management company been moved to do their job. CCLP began small claims clinics where attorneys assist residents in filing small claims actions to get recourse, resulting in a number of judgments in their favor. CCLP has continually demanded that the government not only fully fund the courts, but also the enforcement agencies responsible for ensuring the health and safety of the population. Claims by state and federal governments that there are laws to protect the residents mean nothing if the enforcement arms for those laws, such as the health inspectors, OSHA (occupational safety and health) inspectors and others are defunded.
Join with us to fight for the rule of law! Join to build a legal system that functions for everyone, not a select few!
