‘Kenosha Seven’ Occupy Rep. Ryan’s Office to Talk About Jobs
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This is a cross-post from the Wisconsin State AFL-CIO blog by Karen Hickey in AFL-CIO Field Communications.
Jobless constituents of U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan are sitting-in at his Kenosha office demanding to speak with him about the jobs crisis and his job creation plans for Wisconsin—yet Rep. Ryan is nowhere to be seen.
Seven unemployed workers from the Kenosha area have pledged to hold an around-the-clock presence at Paul Ryan’s office until he agrees to meet with them.
Some of the participants are lifelong residents of the area, like Scott Page, who was laid off right after training the foreign worker who would replace him when his job was shipped overseas. Others have been unemployed or underemployed for years. Shanon Molina, a single mother who lost her job as an administrative after 10 years with a company, can’t find work at even half of her previous salary.
Economy and Jobs at Heart of Working-Class Anger
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Working America’s canvassers knock on some 25,000 doors a week in neighborhoods across the country to talk with working people about the economy, jobs, health care, Wall Street reform and more. And, says Working America Executive Director Karen Nussbaum:
Glenn Beck is often on the other side of that screen door.
The flame-fanning influence of extremist media monsters like Beck and Rush Limbaugh, and Fox News’s hard right news coverage are often cited as the engine driving what is undeniably a growing working-class anger.
But, as panelists at a special AFL-CIO and Working America forum explored today, it isn’t Beck’s bellowing or Rush’s ranting that’s really behind that anger—they’re just exploiting it.
Working people are mad about an economy that’s punished them with vanishing jobs and lost homes and rewarded Wall Street with bailouts and bonuses while they see a government that doesn’t seem capable of fixing what’s gone wrong or holding anyone accountable. Says Nussbaum:
They’re worried about jobs, they’re angry at Wall Street and they don’t trust the government.
But will the far-right be able to continue to exploit people’s legitimate economic anger into ballot-box victory in the fall elections and move the nation down an extremist path marked with divisive social issues and pro-corporate, free-for-all economy?
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka told the nearly 200 people attending the Working Class at the Tipping Point forum at the AFL-CIO here in Washington, D.C.:
It’s up to us to continue to educate, it’s up to us to continue to give people hope…to channel that anger to a positive direction….We’ve e been successful in the past when we give people economic facts, union members stuck together while the other side tried to use divisive social issues to tear us apart.
Trumka: Obama Absolutely Right to Make Jobs Top Priority
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Obama’s call tonight to make jobs his No. 1 priority in his State of the Union message is the right message, says AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka. As Obama said tonight:
Jobs must be our number one focus in 2010, and that is why I am calling for a new jobs bill tonight.
Obama called for small business tax breaks to encourage hiring and infrastructure spending. He urged passage of tax incentives for larger business to keep and create jobs in the United States, and an end to tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas. He also proposed taking $30 billion of the money Wall Street banks have repaid and use it to help community banks give small businesses the credit they need to stay afloat—a proposal similar to one in our AFL-CIO jobs initiative.
As Trumka said:
We must act on a scale that will be meaningful: We need more than 10 million jobs just to get out of the hole we’re in. We want health care fixed. We want our leaders to break the stranglehold of Wall Street and the big banks and make them pay to repair the economic damage they created.
Calling on All Working Americans to Stand Up and Fight
The news is out: The Wall Street bankers we bailed out are giving themselves 2009 cash bonuses of a half million dollars on average—not including stocks. Compare that with the $32,390 annual median wage for regular workers, and you find a formula for outrage.
The people who tanked our economy, took $700 billion in taxpayer money and refused to make job-creating loans are getting rewards that range into the millions.
Not bad for a year in which Main Street lost 4 million jobs.
No wonder people are mad.
When Wall Street needs help, elected leaders respond with bold and swift action. When Main Street cries for help, we get gridlock. No health care reform, no financial reform, no labor law reform, and a slow, timid effort on job creation.
