July 15, 2011 _NWLP 7/12/11 10:12 Am Page 2
Jobs Crisis Forum: The time for
excuses is over; create jobs now
By JAMES PARKS
National AFL-CIO
Shonda Sheen of Yellow Springs,
Ohio, was laid off in December 2009
and is about to run out of unemploy-
ment benefits. Because of state budget
cuts, she also could soon lose the health
care nurse who helps care for her
mother who has dementia. At the last
job she applied for, she was told 450
others had also applied for the same po-
sition.
Sheen and Bob Stein, a 60-year-old
former salesman who has been out of
work since May 2010, are two of the 14
million Americans who are unem-
ployed — and their story is not being
told in the midst of the debate over the
deficit. Sheen and Stein, who are both
members of Working America, spoke
to a July 11 forum on “The Jobs Crisis
— Moving to Action: A Dialogue Be-
tween Workers and Policymakers” at
the AFL-CIO in Washington, D.C.
“All I want is a decent job,” Sheen
said. “I want to work. I love to work.
I’m scared. I don’t know what’s going
to happen to my mother. I have a home
to pay off.”
The forum, moderated by Bob Her-
bert, distinguished fellow at Demos and
an award-winning journalist, drew a
sharp contrast between the policies that
got the country in this economic crisis
and are currently being advocated to
get it out, and what is needed in order to
spark a real economic recovery.
Stein says it’s frustrating to try to
find a job in an economy that generated
only 18,000 jobs last month. “I was set
to lose unemployment as of the second
or third week of December, and [politi-
cians] were fighting back and forth and
it was predicated on the Bush tax cuts.
I was caught right in the middle of
that,” he said. “The thing that was so
upsetting is when you heard about the
number of people about to lose their
unemployment check. I thought, ‘OK, I
understand that you’re adamant about
this Bush tax cut thing, but you’re hold-
ing us all hostage. You’re playing poli-
tics with people’s lives. People use their
unemployment. This will stimulate and
help the economy.’ ”
The panel also included AFL-CIO
President Richard Trumka, Sen. Al
Franken (D-Minn.), Rep. Sander Levin
(D-Mich.) and Heather Boushey, a sen-
ior economist at the Center for Ameri-
can Progress.
Panelists noted that many in Wash-
ington continue to push deregulation
and tax cuts as the way out of the eco-
nomic hole, without acknowledging the
role that those policies played in creat-
ing the current economic conditions.
The strategy to encourage corporations
to spend their billions of dollars in prof-
its is doomed when politicians don’t
first acknowledge the truth that work-
ing people drive the economy as con-
sumers. Without good jobs or shared
prosperity, corporations won’t spend
and our economy can’t prosper.
Trumka said working people are
frustrated with both political parties.
“The time for excuses is over,” he said.
“People don’t care about why it [creat-
ing jobs] isn’t getting done. They just
want to get it done. We can create jobs
if we want to. It’s a matter of political
will.”
More and more economists are
coming around to the idea that the
economy is faltering because of a lack
of demand, Boushey said. The best
ways to increase demand, she said, is
to invest in things that generate de-
mand, like infrastructure aid to the
states, education and long-term unem-
ployment benefits.
Noting that the middle class is the
engine of our economy, Franken said
retaining tax breaks and loopholes for
the rich, as Republicans have proposed,
won’t increase demand. Rich people
can only buy so much stuff, Franken
said, then they save their money.
“The idea that those at the top who
are richer than anyone has ever been in
history — why they can’t pay a higher
percentage in taxes is crazy,” Franken
said.
The forum was hosted by the AFL-
CIO, Change To Win labor federation,
Demos and the Economic Policy Insti-
tute.
Know Your Rights
If your employer forces
you to work in dangerous
work conditions you can
make a CONFIDENTIAL
report to OSHA by calling
(800) 922-2689.
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NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
JULY 15, 2011