Senate Votes Today on China Currency
The U.S. Senate today will vote on a bill (S. 1619) to hold China accountable for its job-killing practice of currency manipulation. According to new data, 2.8 million American jobs were lost or displaced over the past decade due to the growing U.S. trade deficit with China—fueled by Chinese currency manipulation. (Call your senators today and urge them to vote for S. 1619 or click HERE to e-mail your senators.)
A filibuster against the China currency bill was broken Oct. 6 (63-28). But the vote on final passage was delayed last week when Republicans tried to attach a series of weakening amendments.
Better Access to WARN Act Information Needed for Workers, Communities
Last year, more than 2.8 million workers were victims of mass layoffs or plant closings that should have fallen under the 1988 WARN Act, which requires employers to give workers and communities advance notice before shutting down. But, as a new AFL-CIO report reveals, the plant closing law “has proven severely flawed.”
Numerous reports have concluded that most layoffs are not subject to WARN Act requirements; few employers act in compliance with the law; and penalties for noncompliance are so lax that they do not act as deterrents.
The AFL-CIO report, “The Public Availability of WARN Notices: Lack of Accessibility and Disclosure Calls for Reform,” examines the difficulty in obtaining WARN notice information that can be vital in planning for the economic and jobs impact of a mass layoff or plant closure.
600,000 Jobs Lost: How Bad Does It Have to Get for Republicans to Act?
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With today’s unemployment report showing nearly 600,000 jobs lost in January—worsening the U.S. unemployment rate from 7.2 percent to 7.6 percent—will obstructionist Republicans in Congress finally move the economic recovery bill?
From Bloomberg:
“Last month’s losses mark the first time since records began in 1939 that job cuts exceeded half a million in three consecutive months.”
While the official unemployment rate of 7.6 percent is really bad, the unofficial rate—which includes underemployed workers and those who have become too discouraged to look for work—is 13.8 percent. Some 21.5 million workers are either unemployed, working part time for economic reasons or dropping out of the labor force because they can’t find work.
Disaster: Unemployment at 7.2 Percent. Real Rate 13.5 Percent
The jobless numbers out today are worse than even the most pessimistic analysts imagined: 524,000 jobs lost in December, pushing the nation’s unemployment rate to 7.2 percent. Under the Bush administration, 2008 has become the worst year for job loss since 1945, with nearly 2.6 million jobs lost last year alone. The federal Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that 11.1 million of America’s workers are unemployed.
December was the 12th straight month of job loss and included a loss of 21,400 jobs in auto and parts industries. From Bloomberg:
Manufacturing, which makes up 12 percent of the economy, shrank in December at the fastest pace in 28 years, Institute for Supply Management figures showed. Payrolls at builders dropped by 101,000 after decreasing 85,000. Financial firms reduced payrolls by 14,000, after a 28,000 loss the prior month. Service industries, which include banks, insurance companies, restaurants and retailers, subtracted 273,000 workers after a decline of 402,000.
2008 in Review: Workers Sign Up with AFL-CIO Unions
Here’s the third part in our series taking a look back at 2008. Check out Part 1 here and Part 2 here.
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May-June
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Union members knocked on the first of what would be 10 million of union voters’ doors around the country to talk with them about the key working family issues in the 2008 elections. In the late spring and early summer, we focused on John McCain’s record on health care and the economy.
Along with door-to-door walks, union members mobilized through phone banks, labor council meetings, political training, worksite leafleting and public events.
As union volunteers talked with union members about McCain plans to tax their health care benefits, other union activists were shadowing McCain’s every stop, demanding real health care solutions answers and not just Band-Aid solutions.
