AFL-CIO Advances 5-Step Jobs Strategy
By Jim Cavanaugh, SCFL President
According to the economists, December marked the second anniversary of the current recession/depression. And for workers, the end of this economic upheaval is no where in sight.
The official unemployment figure is ten percent or so. However, according to the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), when considering discouraged workers who have given up the job search and workers with part time jobs who would like full time work, the un/underemployment figure is actually 17.5 percent. In October 16 million Americans, able and willing to work, were without employment, a third of them for over a half year. Another 9 million were working part time because they couldn’t find full time jobs. And a couple million more had given up looking for work.
EPI also says that if nothing is done to address this situation, two years from now there will still be an 8 percent unemployment rate. That’s twice the rate that economists consider “acceptable” as normal job churning in our economy. The Recovery Act, passed shortly after President Obama took office, has created or saved one and a half million jobs. But that’s not nearly enough to address this crisis.
The AFL-CIO, in response to this jobs crisis, has called for the immediate implementation of a five step plan that would ease the burden on the currently unemployed, create or save a couple million jobs rights away, and begin to turn the economy around for the long term. Presented just prior to and reiterated at the White House Jobs Summit in early December, it consists of the following
1. Extend the lifeline for jobless workers. Extend for another year the supplemental unemployment benefits, food assistance and COBRA health care subsidy that are set to expire at the end of 2009.
2. Rebuild America’s schools, roads and energy systems. America still has at least $2.2 trillion in unmet infrastructure needs. We should put people to work to fix our nation’s broken-down school buildings and invest in transportation, green technology, energy efficiency and more.
3. Increase aid to state and local governments to maintain vital services. State and local governments and school districts have a $178 billion budget shortfall this year alone – while the recession creates greater need for their services. States and communities must get help to maintain critical frontline services, prevent massive job cuts and avoid deep damage to education.
4. Put people to work doing work that needs to be done. If the private sector can't or won't provide the needed jobs, the government should step up to the plate, putting people who need jobs together with work that needs to be done. This jobs program should not replace existing public jobs, must pay competitive wages, and should target distressed communities.
5. Put remaining TARP funds to work for Main Street. Allow community banks to lend these unspent bank bailout funds to small- and medium-size Main Street businesses.
Shortly after his Jobs Summit, in a speech at the Brookings Institution, President Obama called upon Congress to implement many of the AFL-CIO’s proposals. His remarks were somewhat vague and wide-ranging, but by my reading he acknowledged the need for all but #4 of the AFL-CIO’s five points. Meanwhile, several progressives in Congress had already launched bills to extend unemployment benefits and COBRA assistance, to further aid to state and local governments, to fund additional infrastructure projects, and to loan TARP funds to small businesses.
While the President can call for measures to address the jobs crisis, Congress holds the purse strings. Only the Congress can pass legislation and appropriate the money necessary to implement that legislation.
Despite the efforts of a few well-intentioned members of Congress, as referenced above, many in Congress will whine that we can’t afford these efforts to put people back to work because of the burgeoning federal deficit. Many of these same whiners leapt over each other to provide the $700 billion taxpayer bailout for Wall Street’s financial institutions in October 2008. Many of these whiners are the same people who, as they address health care reform, are bending over backwards to make sure our inefficient, overly expensive, and profit-driven health care system remains in corporate hands. Many of these same whiners eagerly voted for Bush’s massive tax cuts for the wealthy. And many of these same whiners don’t blink when it comes to appropriating billions upon billions of dollars to wage and escalate the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Isn’t it time maybe that Congress gave the working class something other than guns, pre-existing conditions, trickle down economics, and foreclosures? All we’re asking for are jobs in order to pay our bills.