Shuler: We Need to Let Young People Know About Unions
Nearly 300 young activists and students came to Washington, D.C., last week for the A Better Deal 2009 conference, and AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler was on hand to let these young people know that the labor movement is here to fight for them.
Sponsored by Demos and an array of youth and progressive organizations, A Better Deal 2009 looked at jobs, debt, education, health care and other issues facing young people in a challenging economy. The Electrical Workers (IBEW) were there as well and have a great new video on the conference and young people’s concerns about building a strong economic future.
Here’s what Shuler has to say on the need to make the union movement accessible, relevant and attentive to the next generation:
I think now is the perfect time to reach out to young people, because of the economic devastation that we’ve been experiencing. I think young people have been disproportionately affected, and we need to connect the dots for them and make sure they know that the labor movement is the best answer to their economic troubles.
Shuler: Young People Must Take Lead in Building a New Economy
Today at Demos’ A Better Deal 2009 conference, AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler got a chance to lay out her vision for a new economy—and to hear from young leaders about what they need.
Shuler, the youngest person ever elected as secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO, is making outreach to young people her top priority as a leader in the labor movement.
In a wide-ranging speech that touched on making sure new jobs are good jobs, financial reform, health care and the Employee Free Choice Act, Shuler talked about the crisis the nation faces—and the opportunity we have to fundamentally rebuild our economy so it works for future generations.
I don’t need to tell you that we’re in an economic crisis. Your generation is living it.
Live Coverage of Liz Shuler at A Better Deal 2009
Seth Michaels is posting live from the 2009 A Better Deal Conference.
Today, AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler is speaking at “A Better Deal 2009.”
The conference, which runs today and Friday, is hosted by Demos, an advocacy organization focused on building a fairer economy, and a variety of sponsor organizations focused on youth and the economy.
Shuler will speak about the challenges facing young people and the policies we must fight for to build a better future.
We’re covering Shuler’s speech live on Twitter, and you can follow it right here.
Tomorrow, Join Us for ‘A Better Deal’
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Tomorrow, AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler will give the keynote address at the A Better Deal 2009 conference here in Washington, D.C.
The conference, which runs tomorrow and Friday, is hosted by Demos, an advocacy organization focused on building a fairer economy, and a variety of sponsor organizations focused on youth and the economy.
Shuler Kicking off Conference for ‘A Better Deal’
Continuing the fight to build a fairer economy now and for future generations, AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler will give the keynote address at the upcoming A Better Deal 2009 conference hosted by Demos, an advocacy organization focused on building a fairer economy.
The conference, set for Oct. 15-16 in Washington, D.C., will look at the crisis facing today’s young people in an economy that just isn’t working for them. As documented in the AFL-CIO report, “Young Workers: A Lost Decade,” young people are struggling to find good jobs that provide them with fair wages, health benefits, retirement security and decency on the job. The next generation could be on track to be the first in a century to be worse off than their parents, and that sets a dangerous standard for generations to come.
Report: Women Workers the Hidden Casualties of Manufacturing Job Loss
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The media image of the unemployed factory worker is usually male. But the reality is that working women have been hurt as much as men when it comes to manufacturing job loss. The impact is often worse for women because many are single parents.
A new report by the public policy research group Demos shows when women lose manufacturing jobs, they rarely manage to get back into jobs with similar pay or benefits. Public training programs, through the Trade Adjustment Act (TAA) or Workforce Investment Act (WIA), often are inadequate to fill the gap.
The report, “Hidden Casualties: Trade, Employment Loss & Women Workers,” highlights the need for decent training for decent jobs with good wages, career progression and such key supports as child care and paid leave.
Click here to download the report.
Banks Need Restructuring, Not Bailouts
The Treasury Department’s bank bailout plan is built on the faulty assumption that the financial crisis is the result of a temporary lack of a market for current financial products—and presumes the losses can be made up after confidence in the system is restored. The reality is that the entire financial services industry needs to be restructured and the sooner, the better, two experts said recently.
Writing at the Campaign for America’s Future website, Susan Ozawa points out that during a recent conference, Damon Silvers, vice chairman of the Congressional Oversight Panel (COP), and economist Robert Kuttner said broader and deeper changes need to be made than the Treasury plan envisions. They spoke April 8 at the “Lifting the TARP: Is a Reconstruction Finance Corporation a Better Way to Restore the Banking System?” conference sponsored by Demos in Washington, D.C.
Krugman: Think Beyond Stimulus to New Economy
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Once the nation’s economy begins to recover; we should build a durable and broadly shared prosperity. That was the message Nobel laureate Paul Krugman brought today to the first in a series of conferences on progressive ideas to turn around the economy.
Speaking to more than 800 participants at the Thinking Big/Thinking Forward conference in Washington, D.C., Krugman said that to prevent the nation’s economic pit from becoming a permanent trench, we will need a combination of fiscal and financial policies. And that will require the government to invest in the economy in a big way to spur demand.
Krugman, who won the Nobel Prize in economics in 2008, disputed Republican claims that the best way to stimulate the economy is through tax cuts.
There’s more bang for the buck from government spending than from tax cuts.
Time to Think Big, Push for Progressive Government Action
President Obama’s economic stimulus package is just the beginning of a long-overdue public investment in rebuilding our nation’s economy. And now is the time to seek broad solutions—to think big about what can be done.
Today at the Thinking Big/Thinking Forward conference, hundreds of progressives took the first steps to building a movement to coalesce public support for a more activist, progressive government to rebuild our nation’s economy.
The one-day conference in Washington, D.C., was co-sponsored by The American Prospect, Institute for America’s Future, Demos, and the Economic Policy Institute (EPI).
Thinking Big About a New Economy
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Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman, Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell (D) and Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.) will headline an array of economic experts and progressive leaders as they gather in Washington, D.C., tomorrow to discuss strategies for rebuilding a new and more sustainable economy.
More than 800 people are expected to attend the Thinking Big/Thinking Forward conference, co-sponsored by The American Prospect, Institute for America’s Future, Demos, and the Economic Policy Institute (EPI). In a joint statement, the conference organizers say the current economic crisis requires far more than a short-term stimulus.
The current recovery plan must be understood as a down-payment on a sustained expansion of public investment vital to building this new economy. It is time to discard the scorn for effective government that contributed to our current travails and commit to making the investments critical for our future as a centerpiece of a new economics of shared prosperity.
