Laura Barrett

44 Posts

Laura Barrett is the executive director Interfaith Worker Justice.
View of a worker's hard hat as they climb on a ladder in a tunnel.
Policy

Administration’s Assault on Workers Continues in Congress

A proposed 20 percent reduction to the Department of Labor’s overall budget would make working people less safe, and will discourage them from speaking up when abuses happen.

Organizing

Organizing Will Win

  For anyone who organizes and advocates for worker justice, the last months of 2016 felt like an unmitigated disaster. But even as we begin 2017 facing grave uncertainty about […]

Organizing

Our Denial and Inaction On the Issue of Lead

How far does the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) denial about leaded drinking water go? This week, I was having tea with a friend who had been an intern at the […]

Organizing

Fracking Waste and Drinking Water, A Toxic Combo

Environmentalists have succeeded in making fracking, renewable energy, safe water, and climate change part of the presidential campaign. Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders are doubling down on who is more […]

Health

Flint: Tainted Choices, Tainted Water

Like the water itself, the situation in Flint, Mich., should be crystal clear: elected and appointed officials, at the state and federal levels, have done harm, some even irreparable, to the […]

Organizing

A Community is Organized, But Where’s Superfund?

It’s probably the worst Superfund site in the U.S.: a smoldering fire in a mismanaged landfill is less than 1,000 feet away from a radioactive waste dump in Bridgeton, Missouri. […]

Organizing

EPA Should Make Environmental Justice Job One

The EPA is making news lately.  Unfortunately, it’s not for protecting the environment or victims of pollution. Activist groups, low income residents of communities plagued by toxins, and journalists are […]

Organizing

Breaking Up the Pipeline to Prison

[Editor's Note: This is our friend and regular Rooflines blogger Laura Barrett's last post as campaign director of Gamaliel. Laura will continue posting to the blog as the new director […]

Local Hire: Popular and Controversial

In March, USDOT Secretary Anthony Foxx began moving toward fully implementing “Local Hire,” a new, year long model program to test innovative local hire policies. Local hire policies, piloted in […]

Uncategorized

A Bigger, Better Vision for the Left

What would full employment look like? Minority contractors, pastors, and faith leaders flew to the Capitol last week to get Congress and the Obama administration to wrestle with that very […]

Cut the Red Tape – Local Hire Needed

Last month, USDOT Secretary Anthony Foxx announced a new, year long model program to test innovative local hire policies. For many of the Transportation Equity Network (TEN) leaders, like Ron […]

Organizing

Needed: A Fair Way to Fund Infrastructure

As most people's opinion of Congress as a do-nothing body continues to grow, some members, like Senators Orrin Hatch (R-UT) are starting to talk about how to fund the transportation […]