Labor & Employment Law

Jobs, Jobs, Jobs Made in America

By Tula Connell

* For months, we in the union movment have been calling for Congress to do more?much more?to create jobs. Now, the long-term jobless rate for workers is the worst since the 1930s Depression?some 45 percent of unemployed workers have been without jobs for more than six months?and calls for federal action on jobs are coming from across the nation. Check out New York Times columnist Bob Herbert here and here who blasts congressional inaction, as does his employer, here. Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich puts it bluntly: We have a jobs emergency.

As Herbert says in his devasting portrait of a Congress out of touch with the suffering of America’s workers:

We?re not heading toward the danger zone. We?re there. The U.S. will not remain a stable society if this great employment crisis is not addressed head-on?and soon. You cannot allow joblessness on this scale to fester. It?s wrong, and the blowback will be as destructive and intolerable as it is inevitable.

* Massive state cutbacks on jobs and services may not mean much to the wealthy but they sure do for the rest of us. As Washington Monthly points out:

When bus systems are shut down, wealthier folks with cars are fine, but low-income workers who need a way to get to work are out of luck. When street lights are turned off and police officers furloughed, families in gated communities and private security are probably feeling a lot better off than everyone else.

* President Obama reiterated his call to “Make it in America” yesterday. In a speech at the University of Texas at Austin, Obama said:

We need an economy that puts Americans back to work, an economy that?s built around three simple words?Made in America. Because we are not playing for second place. We are the United States of America, and like the Texas Longhorns, you play for first?we play for first. (h/t to the Alliance for American Manufacturers.)

Too bad most Republicans in Congress don’t want to keep jobs in the United States. They opposed closing tax loopholes that encourage corporations to outsource U.S. jobs. Three cheers to the Dems in the House and Senate who got the measure passed anyway.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on August 11, 2010 (boomark / email).