Labor & Employment Law

Working America, Union Members Speak Out on Need for Jobs

By Seth Michaels

Working America and union members held roundtable discussions of the jobs crisis in Albuquerque and other cities across the country.

While top leaders from government, business and labor gathered yesterday at the White House, grassroots union members and struggling families held their own job summits across the country.

In roundtable discussions in Ohio, Minnesota and New Mexico, members of the AFL-CIO’s community affiliate, Working America, joined union members to discuss the continuing challenge of high unemployment and the need to start creating new jobs.

Working America member Pablo Trujillo hosted a roundtable discussion at his home in Albuquerque and said the jobs crisis must be addressed for today’s workers so we can build a stronger economy for generations to come:

We need to be vigilant in the actions we take as a community. The economy is one of those actions we need to focus on, not only for the present but for the future of New Mexico. I want to see my grandchildren grow up with opportunities and be able to prosper.

Bruce Bostick, who attended a roundtable in Columbus, Ohio, said he had to take early retirement from his job, and he’s seeing similar challenges facing friends, family and neighbors:

For all the people I know, we have been facing an emotional as well as an economic depression for a long time now. The problems we are seeing are a result of an approach by politicians of redistributing wealth upward. The upward redistribution is now greater than it has ever been. We need to produce jobs for Main Street.

Through door-to-door visits and the Unemployment Lifeline, Working America has been reaching out to families in economically distressed areas and workers struggling with the jobs crisis, helping them deal with immediate needs and mobilizing them behind action to create jobs.

The AFL-CIO has proposed a five-point plan to create jobs and rebuild a strong, fair economy:

1. Extend the lifeline for jobless workers.
2. Rebuild America’s schools, roads and energy systems.
3. Increase aid to state and local governments to maintain vital services.
4. Put people to work doing the jobs we need done in our communities.
5. Put the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) funds to work for Main Street by increasing lending to small and medium-sized businesses.

These steps will help give people the paychecks?and the confidence?they need to get our economy moving again. In Ohio, Minnesota and New Mexico, workers get it: we must create good jobs now.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on December 04, 2009 (boomark / email).