Labor & Employment Law

Glenn Beck?s Halloween Demons: Unemployed Workers

By Tula Connell

Glenn Beck wants you to be afraid. Very afraid?of unemployed workers.

Rather than championing an unemployment insurance extension for these workers, rather than being outraged that Republicans in Congress have blocked, time and again, extension of unemployment insurance for what has become the largest number of workers who have been jobless for the longest period since the Depression, he raises the specter of an Unemployed Army. (H/t to Media Matters.)

And even worse?an Unemployed Army that wants to join unions. 

OMG. How bad could it get?

For Beck, individuals organizing to gain strength in numbers and create the change they need to be able to feed their families and pay their bills is very, very frightening. He envisons hordes of workers without jobs, roaming the streets and causing chaos. He takes particular aim at the “99-ers,” those 4 million to 5 million laid-off workers who no longer qualify for unemployment insurance. Some of them have organized themselves into the American 99ers’ Union. Beck’s solution?

Faith, hope and charity.

“Charity” as in the private sector. Because a private-sector solution to the nation’s jobs crisis has really worked well so far, hasn’t it, Glenn boy? Yeah, those corporations sure are pouring those billions of dollars they’re hoarding into new jobs. 

Not. 

Drop Beck a line and give him a few clues. Glenn Beck: me@glennbeck.com.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on October 28, 2010 (boomark / email).