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Trumka, Union Leaders Headed to Jobs Summit Dec. 3 |
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President Barack Obama this week is convening a jobs summit to address the urgent need to create jobs for the more than 26 million unemployed or underemployed workers looking for work in an economy in which there are more than six workers for every one job.
An economy in which one in three Americans have either lost his or her job or live in a household with someone who has.
The summit, set for Thursday, Dec. 3, will include more than 100 experts and leaders from business, labor, government and community organizations, including AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and Nobel laureates Joseph Stiglitz and Paul Krugman.
At the summit, Trumka will discuss the five-point plan proposed by the AFL-CIO and our allies to create jobs and boost the economy, which involves:
- Extending the lifeline for jobless workers through unemployment insurance, food aid and health care assistance.
- Rebuilding America’s schools, roads and energy systems.
- Increasing aid to state and local governments to maintain vital services and prevent layoffs.
- Putting people to work doing work that needs to be done.
- Put the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) funds to work for Main Street by increasing lending from community banks to small and medium-sized businesses.
We’ll be reporting on the White House jobs summit all this week, including follow-up coverage after the event closes at 5 p.m. EST. It’s imperative to create good jobs now and put our country to work.
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[...] AFL-CIO NOW BLOG | Trumka, Union Leaders Headed to Jobs Summit Dec. 3 By admin | category: cio | tags: 100-experts, afl, cio, community-organizations, [...]
This “Jobs Summit” will be little more than empty rhetoric and worthless “wish lists”. Is there any among all these supposedly pro-labor advocates, ANY understanding of WHAT has happened to the capitalist economy in the last 30 years? Or do these attendees know WHY the globalized and now collapsed capitalist economy is incapable of providing “living wage” jobs, let alone essential benefits, for tens of millions of today’s unemployed workers?
How can you appeal to the corporate controlled government
or urge the Democrats (only 10 percent pro-labor) to somehow miraculously fix things? Wall street banking gangsters, put in place by Obama, have looted the public treasury. Obama and the Democrats are ramming through another looting of public health with the phony “health care” reform.
Obama is continuing and expanding the Bush wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan, at the cost of tens of billions of additional looting of the treasurey and additions to the debt now in the TRILLIONS of dollars.
The organized labor movement must develop a new strategy that encompasses the needs of all working people. Some of the essential elements:
1. End corporate and capitalist looting of the federal government. A transition away from gangster capitalism towards a socialist economy that fills the survival economic needs of all the people, and not just the greed needs of a tiny minority.
2. Develop a strategy to secure these needs. This must now involve the creation of a new socialist political party that involves all working people, not just “middle class” workers or not just “organized workers”. This means dumping the corporate owned and controlled Democratic Party, as well as the Republicans or any other “third party”.
3. The labor movement must now realize that “simple” trade union organization to struggle for benefits and wages from employers has NOT WORKED FOR THE LAST 30 years! The benefits traditionally won from employers must now be secured by political struggle from national, state and local governments. (Social Security, Medicare, Section 8 housing support, food stamps, national minimum wages, OSHA standards, etc. are all needs of working people that are NOW SECURED THROUGH POLITICAL STRUGGLE FROM GOVERNMENT AT EVERY LEVEL. EMPLOYERS, ESPECIALLY SMALL BUSINESS, ARE UNABLE AND EVEN UNWILLING TO PAY FOR THESE ESSENTIAL BENEFITS AND STAY IN BUSINESS (secure profit).
4. To minimize and hopefully reverse the corporate looting, with a new party platform dedicated to the needs of the people,
some of policies must include:
4.1 Immediate end of foreign wars, which are forever supported by Obama and the Democratic Party. Cut the bloated and corrupt military “defense” budget by at least 50 percent. Shut down the 700 military bases around the world.
4.2. Single-payer “medicare for all” universal health insurance that eliminates corporate profiteering.
4.3. Re-instate progressive taxation to bail out the public school systems and state governments around the nation.
4.4. Nationalize (socialize) the entire energy industry (oil, gas, nuclear, coal etc.) to end profiteering, to end wars for oil, to end the destruction and reverse global warming from oil pollution, coal mining destruction, to end nuclear power development, etc.etc. To redirect government resources and treasury away from capital accumulation (corporate greed) to funding the critical essential needs of the people
4.5 Millions of good jobs that are needed to fill the economic needs of society, and to provide jobs to the unemployed,
must eliminate the parasitic profiteering of capitalism. New industries to be replace bankrupt and obsolete industries must be created to be created and owned by society, but managed by the workers themselves. (Workers here means the engineers, computer operators, the skilled workers, supervisors, accountants, etc. who together make the enterprise function.)
5. Once a new strategy and new direction is determined, new radio and television programs must be created to inform, educate and organize working people into new ways of thinking about jobs, labor and how individually we become involved in the new economy. Decades of corporate propaganda must be overcome as new programs and strategies are developed by the collective involvement of working people at the job.
Left, right!, Cherry.
Oils wells that ends?
Well?
Yup?
A total fulcramatic reversal learning away from the the disastrous fallacy of the “supply-side” “revolution”.
Give me a call at (541) 343-3808 and/or write at peoplesequityunion@earthlink.net. We NEED to strengthen such alliances and move forward an agenda of eduaction.
In Peace, Friendship, Community, Cooperation, and Solidarity,
Mike Morin
Peoples Equity Union
Eugene, OR
It’s great that the AFL-CIO has issued this policy, and even greater that Trumpka will get to present it to the thinkers and decision makers at the highest level.
I think that efforts should be made to create action groups around the country to try to implement the plan. The fact that 1 million workers are going to run out of benefits right after Christmas really adds urgency.
Gene Lantz, UAW 848 and Jobs with Justice
http://www.labordallas@sbcglobal.net
Not Good enough!
Jobs and Equity!
Debuilding roads and true Green Jobs Initiative with the goal of reversing within the next 20 to 40 years the spurious ill-conceived twentieth century of sprawl and automotive domination!
Who the hell are Stiglitz and Krugman (New York Times? No, thank you!)
And do we want to work with O’Bama O’Bomber after the decision that he is reportedly going to make tonight?
In Peace, Friendship, Community, Cooperation, and Solidarity,
Mike Morin
Peoples’ Equity Union
Eugene, OR
An open letter to Richard Trumka,
I was optimistic when I heard the AFL-CIO was going under new management, but your “Five Point Plan” deflated the air out of my balloon. In case you didn’t notice, unions are getting screwed even with the Democrats running Washington. Because unions always are and always will be outspent.
You stated, “Millions are losing not only their jobs but also their homes, their healthcare and their hope.” Union members are losing their homes and their jobs because their healthcare costs too much. And when I saw the AFL-CIO just sit there at Max Baucus’ “healthcare roundtable” as union doctors and nurses advocating single payer were thrown out and arrested for showing up invited, yeah, I lost all hope.
I submitted a single payer healthcare plan to the Illinois Republican House Leader. I have bi-partisan support for the bill, but I need someone who can get inside Blue Cross, like say, the AFL-CIO of Illinois? The plan pools all 12.9 million Illinois residents and 550,000 illegal immigrants together and we pay Blue Cross $100 per person per month through a state contract. That’s $13.6 billion a month. If they don’t want it, WellPoint of Indiana is right next door - do they? Employers will deduct the premiums from employee gross pay, so the only thing that changes for union contractors is how much they pay. “We must extend the lifeline for jobless workers.” If you pass healthcare reform in the blue states, where most of your members are, they wont need a life line or extended credit lines from banks.
“We must fix our nation’s school buildings and invest in transportation, green technology, energy efficiency and more…” Unions are dropping the ball on the Green Revolution. We act like welfare mothers waiting for government cheese that‘s never coming anyway. Rather than invest millions of dollars in member dues to stuff the politicians pockets, why don’t union halls train their members (especially the ones who are sitting on the books) how to get certified and ready for Green Technology? Every government building and facility could be filled with union construction workers implementing it. The savings will make everyone else want it then too….
“Put TARP funds to work for Main Street.” Wall Street doesn’t have any money unless Americans give them money. Eighty percent of small businesses are not publicly traded. The only way Wall Street can get their mitts on that cash is if we send it to them. Now that Congress has passed that new credit card regulation, the same bailed out banks are scrambling to screw their customers before the effective date. My solution? CANCEL THE CARD AND OPEN UP A NEW ONE AT THE LOCAL CREDIT UNION. They are always 2 percent above prime…
Unions need to STOP giving our money to politicians and START investing in our own “corporations.” Organic farming is BIG TIME BUCKS, and the farmers and tree huggers will need help going up against and organizing against scum like Monsanto…
And who made the deal with GM and Obama’s car czar to make the United Auto Workers take worthless GM stock in exchange for their pensions? Where were the unions to protest that the money from those pensions was used to pay off the outstanding GM bonds of two recently bailed out Wall Street banks - in full? Where were the unions to stand up and tell American that the real reason GM went under was because GM realized they could make more money financing cars through GMAC Finance than they could making them, and let’s not forget about their GMAC Mortgage endeavor.
We don’t need our leaders going to Washington and wasting time - we need leaders who will start making our money work for us. With investments and jobs…
I have listened to many who have worked on President Obama’s election, and there is frustration.
We need change, and an improvement in NAFTA, CAFTA, ultamatums to the Chamber of Commerce to change corporate HR practices, and VISA containment of H1B and L1 abuse, which brings foreign labor to the US at foreign labor prices. We need to improve higher education opportunities, subsidize it’s cost, and to help those educated/experienced blue collar and white collar professionals (manufacturing, doctors, nurses, IT, finance, engineering) from being outsourced and rejected from job opportunities they deserve.
I wish the labor movement would get back to its roots and consider supporting proposals for a permanent reduction in work hours at this time. The bill proposed by Rep. John Conyers in 1983 provides a model. It proposed to amend the Fair Labor Standards Act by reducing the standard workweek in stages to 32 hours and increasing the overtime penalty rate to double time. I think, however, that the overtime premium should not go to the employee but the the government so it becomes a true disincentive to scheduling or accepting longer hours.
We should also look to diplomatic efforts to encourage other industrialized countries to cut their work hours so this will not be seen as an obstacle in world trade. China reduced its workweek in 1995 and some are envisioning further reductions there. The Europeans are way ahead of us in this respect. Instead of free trade, we should be talking about using flexible tariffs as a tool to reduce hours and increase wages in all countries.
Reduced work time can be undertaken in the context of a free-market economy. It is useful government regulation in response to progressive increases in labor productivity. Aggregate work hours serve as a rough proxy for labor supply. If you cut average work hours and employment remains at about the same level, total work-hours decrease. Decreased supply relative to demand for a product - in this case, labor - tends to raise the price. Therefore, price regulation is unnecessary when work hours fall. Studies conducted by Paul Douglas and others in the 20th century showed that rising wages and reduced work hours go hand in hand if undertaken over a period of time rather than during a crisis.
But, of course, reduced work hours also have a positive effect on employment, especially in the short term; and that’s what we need now. It’s virtually certain that if the Obama administration proposed a permanent four-day, thirty-two hour workweek, many employers would panic and hire people immediately. That would fix our jobs crisis.
Are “the people,” the citizens of America, the Country’s most important resource? If you really believe that to be true, then ending 2 deadly wars, providing real and affordable health care, enacting a green energy policy, breaking-up the “too bigs” and creating jobs should be our most important objectives.
On jobs, there isn’t a community in the Country that couldn’t use resources to help restore neighborhood quality. The Administration and the Congress should consider creating a
matching funds program that links to States and their counties, targeted towards neighborhood restoration.
Program rules, applications, fund distribution and program oversight can be done through county and local planning and engineering departments. It would immediately create
millions of individual work sites, create meaningful jobs, boost public moral, and in stimulating the domestic economy
How bout this one. Make up to 8 million jobs available immediatly by implementing E-Verify, forcing criminal employer’s to replace illegal aliens with unemployed Americans! But why would the American labor movement care about Americans?
The “10-to-4 Plan” is an economic recovery roadmap.
The “10-to-4 Plan” is a full employment plan with 17 components. By design, it stimulates employment opportunities in a wide variety of sectors to ensure economic prosperity reaches beyond Main Street to Side Streets and Back Streets.
The 10-to-4 Plan will re-start mothballed, closed or idled factories and re-employ unemployed and underemployed workers. When executed, only the frictional unemployed (people who are transitioning from one employment opportunity to another) and the unemployable are not re-absorbed into the work force.
The “10-to-4 Plan” addresses persistent problems in certain areas that effect cost containment issues in another area of federal funded programs.
Moreover, the “10-to-4 Plan” creates jobs in a majority of Congressional districts to ensure support by the electorate and grass root organizers.
The “10-to-4 Plan” does not throw “sand” into the gears of commerce. Rather, it strategically channels government-funded activities to maximize results and expedite re-starting of the domestic economy, which in turn will bring accelerated relief to our export-dependent trade partners.
My clients … and their former employees and customers … in my first and second careers have been hurt. I feel their pain. I share his or her losses. Everyone shares the economic pain, including shareholders. A vacant factory in Elkhart, Braddock, Flint or Cleveland affects property values for everyone because demand for homes plummet when factories close. Beer companies, like Anheuser Busch, face shrinking profits when their customers switch brands from premium beers to low cost beer brands. Even automobile insurance companies, like Nationwide or Progressive, are hurt when policyholders stop buying cars or drop their auto insurance.
Whether one likes it or not, we are all in the same boat. Economic prosperity in isolation does not exist. We share our economic prosperity with our neighbors on Wall Street, Main Street, Side Street and Back Street. We are bound to individuals and their families in the smallest tribal villages in the farthest corners of the world.
We must start catalyze the economic recovery now. To defer this fight … the fight to protect and preserve economic stability and prosperity … would be negligent.
The “beggar-thy-neighbor” “race-to-the-bottom” solutions concocted by well-meaning civic leaders in right-to-work states or foreign countries continue the downward spiral for all. The solution to the current economic malaise is not to “steal from Peter to pay Paul”, but to use this moment to shift gears and chart a new course that brings prosperity to America’s Forgotten Middle Class.
We are not through the worst of it yet. The collaterized debt obligations (CDOs) were instrumental in the meltdown of the mortgage market of 2007-2009. Next, the collaterized loan obligations (CLOs) will hit. We have already seen the carcasses of companies bought, required to take out debt, and crippled by oppressive loan repayment obligations and management fees before failing. More unemployment notices will come. Once again, civic leaders will call on the electorate to play safety net and absorb the CLOs when they come due.
The “10-to-4 Plan” is not a panacea. Strictly speaking, it will not stop the CLOs credit crisis. It will do what it can do to re-absorb workers efficiently to re-start the largest, most efficient singular economy in the world, which will enhance economic opportunities abroad.
If our representative leaders truly want a sustained economic recovery, then they should summon forth those champions of non-traditional macroeconomic solutions, like the “10-to-4 Plan”, to December 3rd Jobs Summit.
If invited, I would come.
I was fortunate to live in many places and work with wonderful clients in many industries over the course of my six decades. My goal is to see people walk home to their families knowing that they can afford a good, well-balanced meal, shelter and a little something special for their loved ones because they have purposeful work and a reasonable wage for their efforts. I look forward to passing the torch … called the American Dream … from one generation to the next.
It is not going to bet any better. They country as we know it is changing. Just like the tech bubble in the market, the housing bubble will NEVER go back to once were it was. People who are underwater in there mortgage will stay that way for a long time. In SW flordia it will NEVER go back to the levels a few years ago. Simple, fact Thanks to the Republicans and Democrats, lobbyist, and cooperate America most jobs that were good middle class jobs are in Manila, Mumbai, Bangladesh, china all over the jobs for banking call centers, accounting, banking, accounting, DSL/internet or Dish call centers, engineering, medical records, taxes, for Americans goes over seas. Millions of illegal immigrants are taking the lower to lower middle class jobs in our country. Unemployment is at 11% here and is not going to get better. At the same times the people who work for the government that over see this happening still have their early retirement, raises, pensions and healthcare. What are we going to have stop like cams and seat belt checks at evert corner to pay for goverment spending? Why should village employees be exempt from what the rest of the public is going through?
It is not going to bet any better. They country as we know it is changing. Just like the tech bubble in the market, the housing bubble will NEVER go back to once were it was. People who are underwater in there mortgage will stay that way for a long time. In SW flordia it will NEVER go back to the levels a few years ago. Simple, fact Thanks to the Republicans and Democrats, lobbyist, and cooperate America most jobs that were good middle class jobs are in Manila, Mumbai, Bangladesh, china all over the jobs for banking call centers, accounting, banking, accounting, DSL/internet or Dish call centers, engineering, medical records, taxes, for Americans goes over seas. Millions of illegal immigrants are taking the lower to lower middle class jobs in our country. Unemployment is at 11% here and is not going to get better. At the same times the people who work for the government that over see this happening still have their early retirement, raises, pensions and healthcare. What are we going to have stop like cams and seat belt checks at evert corner to pay for goverment spending?
. In another 20 years there will be no more middle class we will be like any other 3rd world country with rich & poor, no middle class. Were are the jobs going? Blame corporate lobbyist, Political policy (example millions of foreigners on H1B, N1B and Student Visas were given out over the last 10 years) to appease lobbyist and special interest. I hope Obama will be smart enough to see this and change policy. Its the top dozen management in companys & like 3% of people that have there millions already that make millions a year at the expence of the little guy and the middle class. Also millions used for contributions to lobbyist groups and politicians and in there pockets. Lobbyist hope to pull political favors to get what they want at middle class expence.
In Closing Buy American to save America buy Ford, Chevy, Dodge , do NOT do bussiness with corporations that farm your local utility services, DSL Internet,Phone, Cell, Digital TV taxes, medical records to other countries. Do you think they give people in bangladesh, manila, singapore, china background checks. They can steal your identity, social security number and financial information. If you call your credit card and its goes overseas cancel it or dont do bussiness with them. Support the little guy, instead of supporting a top chinese importer like waldos who is cut throat to smaller bussiness, shop the smaller bussiness.
My 2 cents,
God Bless America
Also The problem is millions of foreigners on H1B, N1B and Student Visas were given out over the last 10 years in this country are taking a lot of the good jobs. Most if not all of the money goes back to Pakistan, India, Syria, Iraq, Iran and Jordan. I bet some of them are muslim extremist who use work here as a conduit to funnel money back in what ever group they think is for their cause. A lot of them do 3rd party goverment contractor work. It’s a security risk also having so many work here, I know for a fact a lot of them dont even get back ground checks because they work for an agency. The back ground checks they do get are just in this country, they dont look into their background in the country they came from or check with Interpool.
Hey baymike51 its a lot bigger picture then Illegal aliens, Everything all services are going over sea’s because it cheaper to send the work there do to the Tax Loop Holes then it is to keep or make a job in this country.
To haymike 51
A couple of year ago I was seated at a table with seven other union people. I posed this question to them:
“Suppose I am an employer. I will pay you $15 per hour and pay for your medical insurance. All you have to do is pick up your family every three months or so and move to another area of the country in order to work for me. How many takers are there??
The answers ranged from “hell no, I ain’t movin’ my family every 90 days for no one”, to “ya gotta be kiddin’. That would be inhumane”.
What I described was the job of migrant farm workers, but with one big difference. They don’t make anywhere near $15 per hour, and they have no health insurance.
So tell me…what American jobs are being filled by “8 million” “illegal aliens”?
Stop repeating the Lou Dobbs crap. The problem isn’t fellow workers. The problem is greedy corporations and our corporatist one party system with two wings, each of which have several sub-caucuses. One wing is called Republican and the other is called Democrat. One is neoconservative and the other is neoliberal. Trying to distinguish one from the other is like trying to decide what smells worse, horse shit or horse manure.