Statement by AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka on February Jobs Report

March 5, 2010

We are seeing a few positive signs in the economy, largely due to the Presidents recovery package.  But our labor market remains weak, and Americas workers are still paying a heavy toll in ongoing job losses,  reduced hours, and mediocre job prospects.  Unemployment held steady last month at 9.7 percent with 36,000 jobs lost during February.  

Over 6 million workers have been looking for employment for 6 months or  more and Latinos, African Americans and young people continue to be hit  hardest by double-digit joblessness.

We have a long way to go -- just to get our nation back to the pre- recession unemployment rate. While Senator Bunning has thankfully ceased his one-man wrecking crew, the $15 billion jobs bill signed into law is not nearly enough to close the enormous jobs gap we face. 

We need massive investment in good jobs, and we need it soon including extending the unemployment lifeline, investing in our nations infrastructure, funding for state and local governments for  vital services, direct job creation in distressed communities and lending to small businesses through community banks.

Even now, as tens of millions of Americans are looking for jobs or are stuck in part-time work, Wall Street is back to business as usual.  The big banks are refusing to modify home mortgages  and refusing to lend  money to families and small businesses.  Meanwhile they increased their  bonus pools to record levels in 2009.

The AFL-CIO is moving an aggressive plan to push for new jobs, calling on Congress and the Obama administration to take five immediate steps to address the jobs crisis.  We're launching a week of nationwide actions March 15 to call out Wall Street, the Big Bankers and the corporations that take the publics money and use it to line their own  pockets while they downsize and outsource jobs. Our message: Hard- working Americans need jobs. Its time to pay up.

Statement by AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka on Senator Jim Bunning's Blocking of HR 4691

March 2 - Senator Jim Bunning (R-KY) is turning out to be a one-man wrecking crew.  In his determined campaign to end jobless benefits for 1.2 million unemployed workers, he has also managed to cause the furlough of 2,000 transportation workers and halt construction on 41 economic recovery projects in 17 states.  Who says a single senator can't make a difference? 

Last Friday Senator Bunning single-handily blocked a vote on a House bill (H.R. 4691) that would have provided a short-term extension of the federal highway bill.  Because authorization for the highway bill has expired, highway trust fund money cannot be collected or spent, and employees at the Transportation Department whose salaries are paid out of the trust fund have to be furloughed.  

Yesterday Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced that 2,000 employees are being furloughed, primarily at the Federal Highway Administration (FHA), the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, some portions of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), and some portions of the Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA).  

The lapse of highway bill authorization means construction workers will be sent home from job sites because federal inspectors must be furloughed.  Secretary LaHood also released a list of 41 federal lands construction projects in 17 states, Washington D.C., Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands that will be halted because federal inspectors are being pulled off the job.  Halting these projects will make it harder for local economies, businesses, and working families to recover from the worst recession since the Great Depression. 

There is simply no excuse for Senator Bunning holding these 2,000 furloughed workers hostage.  Or for his holding construction workers at 41 projects across the country hostage.  Or for his holding 1.2 million jobless workers hostage.  

Senator Bunning embodies everything that is wrong with the U.S. Senate today: the ability of individual small-minded, selfish politicians to single-handedly prevent the majority from helping people who need help and solving our country's problems.

LABOR HEROES CELEBRATION CANCELLED!

Due to the severe weather in the Hudson Valley,  we are postponing the Labor Heroes Celebration tomorrow, Friday, February 26, 2010. 

We are re-scheduling the Celebration for Friday, March 5, 2010 at 6 pm at the same location - The Meadowbrook.

With states of emergencies in many of our counties already and much more severe weather to come, we wanted all to be safe.

Thank you for your understanding and we hope to see you NEXT FRIDAY under much better weather conditions.

An important report is out by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). 

The nation’s five largest insurance companies took in combined profits of $12.2 billion last year, up 56 percent over 2008.

Profits for the nation’s 10 largest health insurance companies increased 250 percent between 2000 and 2009—10 times faster than inflation.

Read the full report here.

 Feb. 20 is being marked by the Global Union Movement as the World Day of Social Justice by calling for a new economic model that emphasizes jobs, not profits.

Our current system of globalization has created the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. 

"Millions of men and women have been denied social justice and have been hit by unemployment or marginalized into the ranks of the working poor"says Guy Ryder, General Secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC). 

Deep systemic reforms are needed, that would result in the effective regulation of the operations of banks and institutions such as hedge funds, private equity funds and highly leveraged instruments. Supervisory authorities must be transparent and accountable. Strict oversight of fiscal practices is needed in order to minimize losses to national income through tax evasion, mis-pricing, transfer pricing, and the use of tax havens. Progressive taxation reform is also key to providing public funding for socially sustainable investments. All of these reforms must be part of a new framework for distributive justice.

The ILO Global Jobs Pact is also central to such a framework. It provides a comprehensive set of measures that will result in distribution of resources to stimulate demand-led growth in the real economy, by creating decent jobs and ensuring social protection through genuine consultation with the social partners at the national level. The
Pact proposes measures and policies

•  to promote investments and job creation in employment intensive sectors, including the green economy,

•  to retain women and men in employment as far as possible,

•  to support skills development,

•  to provide income support to those in need, through such measures as cash transfers and employment guarantee schemes,

•  to establish or strengthen social security and social protection schemes.

 You can read the entire statement by ITUC here.

Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO has a good post up, praising the public workers as they step in to help with any disaster or snow storm, for that matter.

Here is the link.

Send us your pictures and story and we will post them here.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka released the following statement on the January Jobs report.

January unemployment finally fell below double digits, but our country remains in a serious, deep, and long-term jobs crisis.  We need to create at least 10 million jobs now, and Wall Street and the big banks that created the crisis need to foot the bill. 

We welcome the news that unemployment dropped to 9.7%, but we shed another 20,000 jobs last month, following a revised 150,000 loss in December, and the number of long-term unemployed continues to break records.

These numbers underscore what we have been saying all along.  Working families need bigger and bolder actions –in the short, medium and long term – to create jobs in the immediate future – or we risk permanent scarring of our economy and our workforce.

You can read the rest of the statement here.

A report is out this morning which states that the unemployment rate dropped unexpectedly in January to 9.7 percent. Emloyers shed 20,000 jobs. 

Excluding the beleagured construction industry, which shed 75,000 jobs, the private sector added 63,000 positions.Unemployment among women and black workers continued to worsen.

One of  the worst aspects of the nation’s high unemployment rate is the growing numbers of long-term jobless workers. Long term US unemployment, meaning those without a job for 27 weeks or longer  worsened in January to 6.3 million workers.

When both unemployed and underemployed workers are counted, there still are 25.5 million people without jobs or full-time work or 16.5 precent. The unemploymnet insurance (UI) extension for millions of workers is due to expire on February 28, 2010.

Tell the Senate to Extend Unemployment Benefits

The U.S. Senate must vote soon to extend benefits for jobless workers. Millions of jobless workers will run out of benefits at the end of this month if the Senate doesn't act fast.

Please urge your Senators NOW to extend unemployment insurance benefits for jobless workers for the rest of the year.

While food banks are seeing unprecedented requests for help throughout the U.S., the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) Naitonal Food Drive is stepping up their efforts this year to help our neighbors in need.

The NALC food drive partners with the AFL-CIO Community Services network, United Way Worldwide, and the nation's food bank network. We are asking that you place a box or can of non-perishable food next to your mailbox before the letter carrier delivers mail on Saturday, May 8th. The carrier will take care of your donation for you by bringing it back to a postal station, where it will be sorted and delivered by union volunteers to area food banks or pantries for needy families.

Last year, the 73.4 million pounds of food they collected in one day helped to feed an estimated 30 million people, 12 million of whom are children.

Please publicize and promote the May 8th event among your membership. Union brothers and sisters can help those who need it most in a big way this year.

The National Labor Relations Board is a five-member body that considers and decides cases concerning workers' rights across the country. For over two years, only two of the five seats have been filled, which has seriously impeded the Board's ability to assess workers' cases. President Obama nominated three candidates, two of whom, including Mark Pearce, a labor attorney, and Republican committee staffer Brian Hayes, were unanimously approved by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee (HELP). The third nominee, Craig Becker, associate general counsel for SEIU and the AFL-CIO, was approved by a 15-8 vote.

In light of Becker's obvious support of working men and women, Republicans are trying to fight his nomination to the NLRB. In fact, John McCain placed a hold on his nomination while allowing the other two nominations to pass through. The Chamber of Commerce and others in the business community are staunchly opposed to Becker gaining a seat on the Board and have forced a hearing to question his credibility and values. 

Let's take a look at Becker's credibility and values:

• 1978 graduate of Yale University; 1981 graduate of Yale Law School; has taught at the following law schools: Georgetown, University of Chicago, UCLA
• Highly respected labor lawyer and published scholar with over 27 years of experience advocating for workers, especially low-wage workers
• Senator Tom Harkin, Chair of the Senate HELP Committee, has called Becker "one of the pre-eminent labor law thinkers in the United States"
• 66 labor law professors from the top law schools in the country wrote the Senate urging them to confirm Becker's nomination and expressed Becker's "integrity, fairness, and dedication to advancing Congress' purposes in adopting federal labor law and to the role of the NLRB"

Becker is a highly qualified advocate for working people and we need to make sure that his nomination passes. While the Senate HELP Committee held a hearing yesterday, February 2nd, the Committee has scheduled a vote for this Thursday, February 4th. This vote would then lead to a vote by the full Senate. Some Republicans have vowed to filibuster his nomination, meaning that we need 60 votes to invoke cloture before the nomination itself can be voted upon.

Please contact our Senators TODAY to urge them to vote to confirm Becker and to vote for cloture on his nomination. Although Schumer and Gillibrand should support his nomination, the more they hear from us, the more they will realize just how important Becker's nomination is to working people across the country.