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Unemployed Workers Need Not Apply
Outside the navel-gazing world that has become Washington politics, where deficit-cutting is king and jobless workers ignored (with a few notable exceptions), 25 million are unemployed, underemployed or have stopped looking for work, and wages are essentially flat. Workers are struggling to get work that, in many cases, just doesn’t exist (there are 4.7 workers for every ONE job).
And when they apply for the jobs that do exist, they are facing a new type of discrimination. As the New York Times points out today, many of the nation’s employers are essentially telling applicants:
The unemployed need not apply.
The Times recently reviewed job vacancy postings on popular sites like Monster.com, CareerBuilder and Craigslist and found they:
revealed hundreds that said employers would consider (or at least “strongly prefer”) only people currently employed or just recently laid off.
Chris Owens, National Employment Law Project (NELP) executive director, testifed on this trend in February, and the organization released a report earlier this month that found:
employers and staffing firms continue to expressly deny job opportunities to those workers hardest hit by the economic downturn, despite increased scrutiny and strong public opposition to the practice.
The report coincides with the introduction in the House of the Fair Employment Opportunity Act of 2011, a measure sponsored by Reps. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) and Hank Johnson (D-Ga.) to create a level playing field for unemployed job seekers by prohibiting employers and employment agencies from screening out or excluding job applicants solely because they are unemployed.
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9 Comments
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That is totally stupid! People look for jobs because they need the work. What idiot came up with the ideal that you have to be employed to get work! Republican’s are tearing our country apart, let’s stand up and do something about it! Who do they think they are? They are for big oil and corporations, not the people of our country and what is best for them! The Republicans have no business in office over the lives of people! Everyone of them that are now in office need to be sent home and replaced by people that are willing to stand up for their country and the people that trusted them to represent them while in office. Who do they think is paying their high salary and benefits? I say it is time to stop their pay and send them home where they might unemployed!
This is the class warfare we have been hearing about, except that it is more clandestine that that!
The class of employed or just-laid-off worker that they really are looking for is the brainwashed working-class-subverting lap-dogs that will not question anything their employers are doing to enslave the employees on their payrolls.
Those who are in abject anxiety over losing their homes, losing their marriages, losing their self-respect due to being unemployed for a duration of time are the cast-aways in what one Golden West College student called in a mid-1990s letter to the college newspaper editor “… a tissue-paper throw-away society”.
Wasn’t there an Arlo Guthrie song “Brother, Can You Spare Me A Dime” about that ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Some “modest proposals” for action that can be easily be initiated by organized labor and even by the AFL-CIO, with 11 million dues paying members and with a vast people network of thousands of articulate, experienced, educated, pro-union, pro-labor, college educated etc. people to start the “ball rolling” towards a massive change! NO MORE $200 MILLION FOR OBAMA AND DEMOCRATS IN 2012! USE THIS MONEY AS ‘SEED MONEY” TO INITIALLY FUND THE FOLLOWING PROJECTS.
1. Educate working people nationally through mass-media about the CURRENT ECONOMIC CONDITIONS FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF WORKING PEOPLE! Demand one hour nightly to give the NEWS FOR WORKING PEOPLE TO UNDERSTAND WHAT IS HAPPENING, AND WHAT MUST BE DONE TO END UNEMPLOYMENT, ETC. If necessary, go go court to demand one-hour nightly on PBS, NPR and on corporate owned mass media. IF THIS IS NOT DONE NOW, THE MASS OF WORKING PEOPLE, HEARING ONLY PRO-CORPORATE PROPAGANDA, OR LISTENING TO RUSH LIMBAUGH EVERY DAY, WITHOUT ANY CRITICAL NEWS AND OPINION, WILL NEVER UNDERSTAND WHAT IS GOING ON! (I AM ASSUMING THAT THE AFL-CIO ACTUALLY DOES KNOW???)
2. Given the dire economic conditions for working people, given the anti-labor, anti-working people actions of both Democratic and Republican Parties, the call from the AFL-CIO to found a new political party must be made.
3. This new party, refusing corporate money (bribes) and corporate agendas, will represent the economic needs of all working people, trade union organized and unorganized working people. This new solidarity might suggest a name “The Solidarity Party”. The goal: to run as many candidates as possible in 2012 for federal, state, and local office in support of the PLATFORM OF THE SOLIDARITY PARTY. (a few elements here).
4. THE BASIC FOUNDING PRINCIPLE: The economy of the nation must be organized to meet the economic needs of the vast majority of people, not simply to maximize the profit of corporations, Wall Street, banks and super-rich individuals and investors.
5. THE EXISTING CAPITALIST ECONOMY, 30 YEARS IN DECLINE, HAS NOW COLLAPSED. THE CAPITALIST ECONOMY, PRIVATE PROFIT FREE MARKET CAPITALISM , IS NO LONGER WILLING OR ABLE TO SUPPLY PROVIDE LIVING WAGE JOBS FOR MILLIONS OF NOW PERMANENTLY UNEMPLOYED! SOCIAL SECURITY, UNIVERSAL AFFORDABLE HEALTH CARE, UNIVERSAL FREE PUBLIC EDUCATION, CLEAN WATER AND AIR, ETC. ARE ALL BEING ATTACKED AND DESTROYED!
6. THE ECONOMY IS BEING LOOTED BY TRILLION DOLLAR BAILOUTS TO GANGSTER FINANCIAL CORPORATIONS. FALSE WARS CONTINUE TO MAXIMIZE PROFIT TO THE MILITARY-INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX. TAXES FOR CORPORATIONS AND WEALTHY DESTROY THE TAX-SUPPORTED PUBLIC SECTOR ESSENTIAL TO MAINTAIN LIFE IN A MODERN ECONOMY.
TO FINANCE NEEDS:
End the wars.Shutdown foreign bases. Cut military budget 50%.
Restore progressive taxation, end tax cuts, loopholes to wealthy.
Social Security: protect funds, raise the “cap” as needed.
Nationalize the toxic energy industry (coal, oil, gas, nuclear). Use profits to transition to non-toxic energy. This alone would end wars for oil, diminish climate change, end ecological destruction.
BAIL OUT THE STATES, SUPPORT PUBLIC SECTOR JOBS, TEACHERS, SCHOOLS, PUBLIC EDUCATION .
CREATE MILLIONS OF PUBLIC SECTOR JOBS!
THIS POLITICAL STRUGGLE WILL RESTORE TRADE UNIONS!
This is what Democracy sounds like!
EXCEPT… we would not need to “bail out the states” if our nation would CEASE it’s habitual starting of wars for commerce! The trillions of dollars of debt that the Iraq and Afghanistan wars have cost us also cost our state governments in reduced or terminated federal revenue sharing so that the states must “go it alone” without the international tax revenues that our nation receives — particularly with GLOBALIZATION!
after being turned down for training by ceta, turned down by the jtpa for 16 years i finally got into workforce ny despite havin 2.5 years toward a double ba in chemistry and physical geography, 1years training in metalworking and completed a preapprentice programme by the buildinh trades .the only places thatresponde were so low wage that i was better off on ssi and the ssa requirements were that employment MUST lead to a skilled position I gave up
And most of those “job-training” programs teach unemployed people how to dress and smile and how to make a resume, when most employers today reject resumes (except for professionals and managers) and require employment applicants to fill out their pre-printed application forms.
As I told one job training program manager, and he scoffed at me, teach trainees how to program computers or do something in demand of privileged applicants, and many of our unemployed would become employed! But oh no… can’t do something that only the privileged can be accepted for! They will teach keyboarding and spread-sheets, but not how to find the REAL jobs!
But, of course, the REAL jobs that are not reserved for the privileged are being sent off to foreign countries, where the standard of living is much less sufficient than ours!
Jerry Wells. I don’t agree that the unions should not support the Democratic Party. We simply cannot take a chance that this bunch of crazies take complete control of everything. They are right now showing us how bad things can really get. If they DO manage to get complete control then may God help us all. Like it or not at this time we do not have a choice. Right now we have two parties and I for one do not wish to live in IRAN.
We should NEVER support the Democratic Party until the Democratic Party lets the public into the Party!!!
The only time the Democratic Party embraces the public with a sinister smile is when they need money and votes, and then SLAM… their door shuts us out of the party! Ever try to get involved with the local Democratic Party precincts? You’re not welcome unless you are a member of their local board!
This is why the Democratic Party supports the anti-Demcoracy caucus system, which takes the vote entirely away from the public and places the selection and approval / disapproval process in the hands of committees! Most people are entirely ignorant of that fact! It is a Democratic Party trademark and the reason why in 1907 New Hampshire invented the PRIMARY SYSTEM… to take the political process OUT of the political machine system that the mainstream political parties both favor ! ! ! !
Mr. Libris Fidelis Yes I realize all of that but the Democratic Party at this time is better for the poor,working class and elderly than the Republican Party. They want ALL of us to just go off and die if we aren’t rich. I for one am NOT rich and I would like to live a little longer, therefore I don’t wish to starve to death. I for one do not want the bunch of crazies that got into office in November to have complete control of everything. As I have stated time and time again if you want no union, no defined pension(by the way why is a life time defined pension all right for all the Republican members in congress but it isn’t any good for us?) no social security,no medicare and if you ever need it no medicaid then go right a head and cut your own throat. I for one have not completely lost my mind yet. My eyes are wide open and I saw what the Democrats that were in control did and I can also see the enormous amount of damage the Republicans have done all over the United States in a litttle over six months.Thank you but at this time I will take the DEMOCRATS!