NALC Volunteers Help Rebuild New Orleans
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Judy Parkins, AFL-CIO director of Community Services, sends us this report.
Members of Letter Carriers (NALC) Branch 124 in New Orleans and volunteers from the Prince of Wales Social Aid and Pleasure Club pitched in with Rebuild Together New Orleans in October.
The volunteers spent the first two weekends of the month painting a house for a senior who was returning to New Orleans some six years after Hurricane Katrina. Stanley Taylor, one of several NALC retirees who wielded brushes and rollers, said:
We are involved because of the generosity showed to us in our time of need and our desire to give back in the spirit of “charity begins at home.”
Taylor serves on the AFL-CIO Community Services United Way/Labor Committee in New Orleans.
U.S. Infrastructure Crumbling, Nation Falling Behind Developing Countries
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When it comes to maintaining and improving its roads, bridges and other transportation facilities, the United States is falling behind even developing nations and Congress is showing no will to address the crisis, according to a report released this week by the Urban Land Institute. Further:
Despite the nation’s unemployment woes, the vast job-creation potential of infrastructure projects is being sidetracked by concerns about government spending appetites and potential cost overruns.
In contrast with its global competition, the report notes, after more than 30 years of conspicuously underfunding infrastructure,
the United States is lurching along a problematic course—potentially losing additional ground.
So far, Hurricane Katrina and the New Orleans levee breach have not been a big enough wakeup call; neither was the 2007 Minneapolis bridge collapse, according to Infrastructure 2011: A Strategic Priority. Meanwhile, China is moving closer to completing the world’s largest high-speed train network, a 10,000-mile honeycomb linking major cities across an expanse similar in size to the United States. But the high-speed train is only a small part of a Read the rest of this entry »
IBEW Members in Gulf Coast Rebuilding Lives, Communities
The residents of Louisiana’s Gulf Coast are determined to rebuild their lives and their communities after suffering the triple whammy of Hurricane Katrina, the recession and the biggest oil spill in U.S. history.
Union members who live and work in the area, including members of the Electrical Workers (IBEW), are trying to make it through these tough times themselves while also helping rebuild the region (see video at left).
But it’s a job they do willingly, not just for the pay, but because they want to keep the unique lifestyle of the Louisiana Gulf Coast alive. One-third of the area residents who evacuated after Katrina have not returned, leaving it to those who remain to rejuvenate the region.
As one member of IBEW Local 130 put it:
This is my backyard. This is what I‘ve grown up doing. This is our life. If we don’t try to save this, then we won’t have a tomorrow for our kids.
Katrina Four Years Later: Iraq Being Rebuilt Faster
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Four years after Hurricane Katrina killed more than 1,800 people and left thousands homeless along the Gulf Coast, many residents, especially those displaced in New Orleans, still cannot come home, because there are no homes to come back to.
From the beginning, the union movement has sought to aid in rebuilding the communities, with the AFL-CIO’s Gulf Coast Revitalization Program early on committing to spending $1 billion to produce new housing, fund economic development projects and create thousands of new jobs. Already more than 400 workers have been trained to fill those jobs.
But outreach efforts continue to be stymied. Robert “Tiger” Hammond, president of the Greater New Orleans AFL-CIO, tells Press Associates that local and state officials keep putting up “roadblock after roadblock after roadblock” to building housing for displaced residents.
BushWatch: First MBA President Leaves Behind an Economic Wasteland
Eight years of President Bush’s economic tax cuts for the rich and job-killing actions have devastated working families. Just look at the smoking crater of the economy he’s leaving behind—7.2 percent unemployment, 2.6 million jobs lost last year alone, home foreclosures up by 81 percent in 2008, a plunging stock market, failing banks. Heck of a job, Bushie!
Our BushWatch retrospective today looks at a few of his more notable moves—mostly aimed at helping the wealthy and corporate world, with little regard for the rest us. For a complete listing, go to BushWatch and click on “Jobs and the Economy” and “Tax Cuts for the Wealthy” in the top box.
In early 2001, the man who molded Bush’s economic brain set the tone for the next eight years. Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill said U.S. corporations should pay no income tax. Further, he said the capital gains taxes for businesses should be abolished and “able-bodied” adults should take care of their own retirement needs and medical expenses.
