It's Time to Get to Work on Jobs

Our jobs crisis didn’t happen overnight. And it didn’t happen by accident.

We’re paying the price for a system that for too long valued wealth over work, ignored the warning signs of crisis, and failed to meet the new challenges of the 21st century.

80 years ago, we found ourselves facing similar challenges. A reckless financial system crashed our economy—leaving millions without jobs, without homes, and without hope.

But we know what happened next.

President Roosevelt created the New Deal and he did it by empowering Frances Perkins to shake things up across government and business.  She worked around the clock to not only put people back to work—but to build an entirely new economy.

She focused on innovative public works programs to put millions of people back to work quickly and efficiently.

And she ensured workers could share in the productivity of a growing new economy by protecting their freedom to join unions—laying the foundation for the greatest middle class the world has ever seen.

If we are going to come out of our current crisis stronger and better prepared for the challenges of a 21st century economy, we need someone to take charge, to focus—24/7—on job creation until we see results.

It’s time for President Obama to empower the 21st century Francis Perkins, someone to speak for him and someone who has the authority across government to shake things up. It’s time to create a country that works for all of us. And that starts with jobs.  

Creating jobs isn’t rocket science. We just need the political will, courage and determination to make it happen.

Now it’s time to get to work.

1. We need to extend the safety net, including increasing unemployment insurance and expanding work sharing programs to provide unemployment benefits for reduced hours of work. and
   
   
2. We need to use TARP funds to increase credit for small businesses.
   
   
3. Federal fiscal relief to states and local governments needs to be expanded to save an anticipated 900,000 jobs and the vital services in our communities.  
   
   
4. We need to target the fastest-growing sectors of human services such as child care, in-home services for the elderly and disabled, and other services our communities need through a public jobs program. This will create jobs in the public and private sectors and ensure our communities are healthy, educated, and well cared for.
   
   
5. We need to leverage private investment with public dollars through a Green Bank that will promote energy-efficiency and renewables as a major source of job creation, in both the short and the long term.  The jobs we create today will lay the groundwork for the industries of tomorrow.  
   
   Expanding the home retrofitting programs begun under the Recovery Act will create good jobs in construction and related industries. Including commercial and public buildings would increase the scope of the program, create high skilled jobs, and protect the planet by reducing demand for energy. By acting now, America can lead the way on green technology.
   
   
6. We must invest in our aging and failing infrastructure by rebuilding our schools, roads and bridges—putting millions to work. An Infrastructure Bank can foster public/private partnerships in developing regional and large scale projects critical for a 21st century economy.
   
   
7. The passage of health care reform will add tens of millions of Americans to the healthcare rolls and create more than a million new and different jobs in healthcare and related industries. We need to ensure our present healthcare workforce is prepared and we need innovative recruitment and training programs to meet this new workforce demand.
   
   
8. We must pass the Employee Free Choice Act to once again protect workers’ freedom to form unions and allow them to share in the prosperity of a new 21st century economy.
   
   
9. We need expanded worker training programs on a national scale so that young people are prepared for new industries and workers can the learn skills necessary to compete for new jobs.  It’s time to coordinate across agency lines and provide flexible lifelong training for the new economy.

We can do this without breaking the bank or increasing the deficit over a ten year period.

It’s time for Wall Street and the financial industry to pay back their debt to our society. Wall Street must do its part by paying a speculators tax on their obscene profits and transactions. This tax can fund the entire program over ten years.

This isn’t a hard ask. After the trillions in taxpayer investments to bail them out, the excessive profits of firms like Goldman Sachs, and the $150 billion in compensation and bonuses the top six banks plan to dole out this year, this is a small price for Wall Street to pay.

The American people demand action.

People like Ferol Wagner, an 81 year old widow who lost her life savings when the market crashed. Like Keith Scribner, who lost his job when a bank liquidated the 60 year old business he worked for.  And Maria Guerra, whose brother lost his job, fell behind on his mortgage payments, and had to sign the home Maria helped him purchase over to the bank.

We were together in Chicago recently with thousands of other Americans to demand an end to an economy that puts Wall Street and corporate CEOs ahead of the rest of us. We were there to demand that the leaders we elected work 24/7 to create the relief our families need.

We can solve this crisis. We can right the wrongs of our economy.

But only with real focus and leadership that ensures everyone does their part.

And only if we get to work today.

 

Follow Anna Burger on Twitter: www.twitter.com/SEIU_AnnaBurger

Comments

[Nonamnesiac]

01:48 PM on 12/29/2009

Time for Labor to begin to publicly explore moving a candidate to challenge Obama for the Democratic nomination in 2012. The candidate should be rumored to be willing to run as an independent. Nader is too old -- maybe Michael Moore or someone who will be willing to run on a clear, anti-voodoo economics, pro-peace platform -- loudly championing union causes. Principles of diversity must be incorporated into the candidate exploration process.

If the tax-workers'-benefits Bill passes, Obama must be told in no uncertain terms that he must veto or the Labor leadeship will be looking elsewhere. Labor must be serious and willing to go indeendent if it makes the threat, as Obama thinks of the Labor leadership as fawning little Pavlov's dogs with him as Pavlov, ringing his bell and Labor getting into line and salivating up money and votes. If he thinks you'll really bolt, he'll do like he does with his actual ideological allies from the right -- he'll cave in.

[rf dude]

10:49 AM on 12/02/2009

Great piece. A major difference was that in 1932, Roosevelt faced only a wrecked worldwide economy.

The shooting wars (Europe and Pacific) started 7 years later - and were the basis for the greatest government expenditure the world has ever seen. This massive influx of government money was what actually pulled the U.S. out of the Depression, employed vast amounts of workers, etc etc.

The WPA and CCC, although they were great ideas at the time, were making only slow progress in getting the economy back on track - it's not certain that these programs alone would have "fixed" the economy.

This time around, we have a depression happening concurrently with 2 shooting wars which, although they are relatively small compared to WWII still consume (some would argue waste) vast amounts of money and time.

Again, it is very unclear whether some kind of WPA/CCC approach will be sufficient -

I think not.