Labor & Employment Law

Trumka: Obama?s Focus Must Be on Health of Middle Class, American Economy

By admin

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka issued the following statement on President Obama’s State of the Union message tonight.

Tonight President Obama called on the nation to look forward and spoke to our nation?s prospects and vulnerabilities: we are faced with opportunities for progress, but paralyzed by weak job growth and an economy that is increasingly out of balance for middle class families.

We strongly support the President?s vision on infrastructure to create good jobs and succeed in a global economy, and working people are ready to work with him and hold him to his promises.  We look forward to comprehensive and substantial proposals to rebuild our nation?s schools, bridges, and highways and invest in high speed rail, a smart electrical grid, universal broadband and the green jobs of the future.  We will  join the President as partners to help build bipartisan support for a sustained and strategic investment in America?s future. Labor and business, Democrats and Republicans should all be working together to ensure that we make the investments we need now to secure our future.

President Obama certainly understands our need to be competitive in manufacturing, new technology and skills.  But he must also understand that last-century trade deals that reward and encourage corporations that outsource American jobs will do little to generate net new jobs in the United States or raise living standards here or abroad.  Working people will continue to urge the President and his administration to stick to his campaign promises of reforming trade deals, so they do more than boost profits for multi-national corporations.

We firmly believe that we should not be cutting government spending when the economy is so weak.  This economy is failing to create jobs at an adequate pace to dig us out of the hole we?re in, and a spending freeze at this time will slow down job creation and growth ? further worsening the deficit.  This is simply the wrong medicine at the wrong time. And it is essential that the President acts on the commitment he outlined tonight to strengthen and preserve our essential retirement security programs ? Social Security and Medicare. All working people will continue to fight any proposals that aim to cut Social Security and Medicare benefits.

We must move boldly now to put 15 million Americans back to work and rebuild bargaining power and good jobs for our middle class. We believe the President is heading in the right direction? but as he outlined tonight, the yardstick must be the health of the middle class and the American economy.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on January 25, 2011 (boomark / email).