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Solis Meets Workers of Future |
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Union workers will play a key role in rebuilding the nation’s infrastructure and revitalizing the economy. Last week, Labor Secretary Hilda Solis saw firsthand how unions are preparing workers to meet the needs of the country now and in the future.
After meeting with the AFL-CIO Executive Council in Miami, Solis toured the Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 349 training center where she met and talked with young workers who are learning the skills that will prepare them for better jobs with a decent wage and benefits. IBEW taped the visit for its news broadcast.
Accompanied by AFL-CIO President John Sweeney and IBEW President Ed Hill on the tour, Solis told the trainees they “are the face of our future of jobs that stay here.”
These jobs are here. They’re available. They’re already being done with partnerships with private industry and the unions. I think it is a very attractive program that certainly could be used as a model that could be replicated in other parts of our country where we’re finding people who have just lost their job. Or maybe they want a career change so they can upgrade their skills and have a livable wage and provide for their families.
The tour of the IBEW center was Solis’ third meeting with union workers in two days and her first public appearance since she was confirmed as labor secretary. The day before, she had joined the council and 700 community members in a community forum. She also spoke to the council as members met at the Local 349 union hall. Solis told union leaders the Obama administration understands the true role of unions.
So many people across the country lose sight of what union representation really means: safe, health standards and enforcement of our codes. Our labor laws say you protect every worker. My job is to protect our jobs here in America and I want to continue to do that working side-by-side with you.
Click here to check out a video of Solis at the council meeting and touring the IBEW training center.
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What future can there be for workers, young or old, union workers or unorganized? How can union membership be of great help under conditions of economic collapse? For example, here are the latest figures:
US companies slash thousands more jobs in early March
By David Walsh
11 March 2009
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/mar2009/jobs-m11.shtml
“More than one in seven workers in the US—an estimated 23.1 million people, according to the Economic Policy Institute—were either out of work or underemployed in February. The percent of the population employed stood at 60.3 percent, down from 63.4 percent in December 2006.”
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Here are some brief interviews, with photos, of what the above statistics mean in the lives of working people.
Unemployed in Michigan
“There’s just nothing here—everybody is fighting for the same jobs”
By Andre Damon
11 March 2009
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/mar2009/mich-m11.shtml
“Reporters from the World Socialist Web Site traveled earlier this week to the Michigan unemployment office in Livonia, a suburb of Detroit. The unemployed people we interviewed all told common stories. Many face plummeting home values and the prospect of foreclosure. Others were looking for a way to get out of Michigan. Workers complained of the abusive manner in which they had been laid off, and the difficulty they encountered claiming their unemployment benefits.”