Thursday, December 15, 2005

Hot News


This afternoon, US Senator Tom Carper of Delaware and DOL
Sec. Elaine Chao will meet in Sen. Carper's office. The topic will
be 80-20's letter to Sec. Chao of May 17, 2005. Senator Carper
will be accompanied by his Chief of Staff and Legislative Asst.
Paige Jennings who is a labor expert.

80-20 has worked with Senator Carper's office for the last 8
months regarding the issue of glass ceiling on Asian Americans
and Executive Order 11246 which was enacted to assure that ALL
Americans will enjoy equal opportunity in workplaces.

The central point of 80-20's letter to Sec. Chao is:

"When compared with average Am. workers in the same
positions, Asian Americans have only 55% of their
chance to rise to the top rank in the private Industries (1.9
million AsAm workers), 41% of their chance in the universities
(70,000 AsAm workers), and 30% their chance in the Federal
government (86,000 AsAm workers)."

80-20 requested Sec. Chao to enforce E.O. 11246 on hehalf of
Asian Americans so that the glass ceiling over them will be
removed within a reasonable time period.

The history of how this meeting came about is stated below:

80-20 President S. B. Woo requested help from Sen. Tom Carper
to get the Senate Labor Comm. to hold a hearing on the glass ceiling
on Asian Americans. Sen. Carper suggested an informal & friendlier
method first. He proposed to act as the host to get Sec. Chao and
S. B. Woo to meet in Carper's office with Carper being the third person.
The topic will be 80-20's letter to Sec. Chao of May 17, 2005.

Sec. Chao refused the meeting on the ground that she'd not meet
with the head of a PAC, political action committee. It so happens that
Sec. Chao's husband, Sen. Mitch McConnell of KY and at least half of the
US Congressional Delegation are also heads of PACs. However, to
accommodate Sec. Chao's wish, 80-20 proposed that Prof. Larry Ho,
a Harvard professor and Nat'l Academician and Gareth Chang, a
C-100 member, would meet with her. She refused to meet with them, as
well. So it was good of Sen. Carper to insist on meeting with her to
talk about the same issue.

80-20 shall keep you posted on the outcome of the meeting.

If we have a problem then WE must work hard to solve it
OURSELVES. Recall that the recent Gallup poll found AsAms to have
the highest % of workers who have perceived discrimination at work
when compared with other races or gender groups. WE need to each
do our share to build up our political clout painstakingly. We must be
willing to give time and money to achieve such goals. We must unite.

Join 80-20 to help achieve those goals. Using a credit card, go
http://www.80-20initiative.net/membership.html (easy to use) or
http://www.80-20initiative.net/paypal.html
PERSONAL checks are payable to "80-20 PAC", mailed to:
Jing-Li Yu 80-20 special Assistant
P.O. Box 527340 Flushing, NY 11352-7340 .
Write down your E-MAIL address & PHONE no. on the BACK of the
check. Basic membership is $35; Family (2 voters) is $50, Life
Membership is $1,000. Student membership is $15.