Labor & Employment Law

?What Do We Want? JOBS?

By admin

Eleanor Arlook, Labor 2010 Florida field communications director, sends us this report.

?What do we want? JOBS! When do we want them? NOW!?

On a warm afternoon this week, chants from a group of protesters echoed through the sparsely filled plaza in front of the Orange County (Orlando, Fla.) court administration building. During the lunch hour, either not many people were taking lunches?or there were just not many people working. In the midst of a Jobs Emergency, it?s sadly likely the latter. Those who were in their offices heard the frustrated cries of ?Justice? and ?We Need Jobs NOW? creeping through the windows, bouncing through the halls as a nagging reminder that if change does not come now, their job may be next.

The Wednesday protest included Jobs With Justice, the Florida AFL-CIO, AFSCME, Florida Organized Now and the Florida Consumer Action Network, bringing attention to the jobs crisis affecting a record number of Floridians. With nearly 12 percent unemployment, the crisis here is real and immediate action is necessary. Activists participated yesterday in a ?die-in? in Orlando as part of a national day of action demanding that politicians stop blocking real recovery. The die-in represented all of the dreams and jobs that have died due to this crisis that Wall Street created.

Banks and corporations are sitting on record cash reserves?$8 trillion?but not putting Americans back to work. In this Great Recession, working families are losing their jobs, health care, retirement savings and homes and we need to see real results from Washington. As stated emphatically by unemployed Jobs with Justice member, Tamecka Pierce:

The focus should be jobs, jobs, jobs?because there is no such thing as a jobless recovery.

Time and time again, minority leaders in the Senate have blocked legislation that would spur an economic recovery for working people. Working families need good jobs now! It?s time to show that blocking recovery means a dying economy!

The Florida AFL-CIO has launched a grassroots Labor2010 initiative. If you’re in Florida and want to get involved,  visit www.flaflcio.org to locate and contact your local AFL-CIO office.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on September 17, 2010 (boomark / email).