July 15, 2011 _NWLP 7/12/11 10:12 Am Page 6
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Who’s On Our Side?
By Tom Chamberlain
J
obs grew in June by 18,000 posi-
tions. 18,000! But with so few
people retiring, our nation needs
to create 150,000 jobs each month
just to employee new workers com-
ing into the workforce. Translation:
America lost 132,000 jobs last month.
While millions of American work-
ers are struggling to find work, the de-
bate in Washington isn’t about job cre-
ation. It’s about federal deficit
reduction. It’s about cutting those very
programs that could put Americans
back to work.
Congressman John Mica (R-
Florida), chair of the U.S. House
Transportation and Infrastructure
Committee, is proposing a six-year
transportation reauthorization bill that
cuts spending by 20 percent from the
level President Bush signed into law.
Rep. Mica’s $230 billion, six-year
budget is less than half of the $566 bil-
lion President Obama requested.
Meanwhile, the Federal Highway
Trust Fund, financed by the federal
gas tax, is stagnant. Federal gas taxes
have not increased since 1993 and do
not meet the demands of a crumbling
infrastructure that needs an infusion of
$2.2 trillion just for maintenance and
upgrades. Over the last few years the
U.S. has spent $35 billion from the
general fund to make up for dwindling
transportation funds.
According to AFL-CIO President
Rich Trumka, Mica’s proposal could
result in the loss of over 500,000 jobs
next year.
Four Congressmen — Earl Blume-
nauer (D-Oregon), Steven LaTourette
(R-Ohio), Jerrold Nadler (D-New
York), and Mike Simpson (R-Utah)
are speaking out. According to Blu-
menauer, “funding at these levels will
result in hundreds of thousands of lost
jobs, and roads, railways and bridges
with structural deficiencies that
threaten our communities.”
It is unimaginable, in an economic
atmosphere where the unemployment
rate has inched up to 9.2 percent, that
anyone would put a transportation
proposal on the table that eliminates
500,000 jobs next year alone, and that
Washington continues to focus on cut-
ting programs.
What a track record: Elected lead-
ers are not focused on job creation;
they turn a blind eye to skyrocketing
corporate profits and obscene Wall
Street bonuses; and Republicans re-
fuse to require millionaires and bil-
lionaires to pay their fair share to fund
vital services, even though poll after
poll shows that the American public
thinks they should.
Their focus, instead? Cut more. Fix
the deficit. Those cuts, however, usu-
ally come in the form of jobs, as we’re
seeing with transportation funding.
Every federal, state or local job we
cut means one more person on the un-
employment rolls; one more person
not contributing taxes to the shrinking
pot of money; not helping to pay for
vital public services like education,
health care, public safety, and provide
for those less able to provide for them-
selves. In short: one more person
adding to the deficit. It’s a vicious cy-
cle.
Creating jobs, even if it comes at
the expense of shorter-term higher
deficits, will keep Americans working,
keep money flowing in local eco-
nomies (especially money spent on
transportation, which will go to proj-
ects across the country), and in turn,
help lower our deficit in the long run
while continuing to rebuild our econ-
omy.
There are 132,000 Americans out
of work simply because we didn’t cre-
ate enough jobs last month. Congress
is proposing cutting 500,000 more.
The drum beat for deficit reduction is
growing.
It’s up to us to turn the tide, dispel
the misinformation and stand with
Reps. Blumenauer, LaTourette,
Nadler and Simpson. They’re on the
side of long-term growth and recov-
ery. We must be too.
Tom Chamberlain is president of
the Oregon AFL-CIO.
Apollo Alliance merges into BlueGreen
Two labor-environmental coalitions
have merged as of July 1. The Apollo
Alliance, launched in 2003 as a coali-
tion of environmental, labor, business
and community leaders, is now a proj-
ect of the BlueGreen Alliance. Blue-
Green Alliance was founded in 2006 by
the United Steelworkers (USW) and
the Sierra Club, and today is made up
of nine unions and four environmental
organizations. Both groups are focused
on efforts to create jobs in the United
States by developing a “clean energy”
economy.
“We can’t afford to sit on the side-
lines while the U.S. misses the boat on
the industries of the 21st century,” said
USW president Leo W. Gerard in a
press statement.
Earlier this year, the BlueGreen Al-
liance launched Jobs21! — a campaign
calling for investments in renewable en-
ergy, energy efficiency, transportation
infrastructure, fuel-efficient vehicles, a
smarter electrical grid, broadband Inter-
net, recycling and green chemistry.
Such investments would create new
jobs and markets in manufacturing, con-
struction, education and other sectors.
The Apollo Alliance takes its name
from President Kennedy’s 1961 call to
restore America’s technological leader-
ship by landing the first man on the
PAGE 6
moon within the decade. The group ar-
gues that the United States should make
a similar commitment today to green
technological development.
BlueGreen Alliance has chapters in
10 states, while the Apollo Alliance has
chapters in 13 states; combined, they
have state and local affiliates in 18 states,
now called BlueGreen Apollo Alliances.
Labor unions in the group are USW,
Communications Workers of America,
Service Employees, the Laborers, Utility
Workers Union, American Federation of
Teachers, Amalgamated Transit Union,
Sheet Metal Workers, and United Food
and Commercial Workers. They’re
joined by the Sierra Club, National Re-
sources Defense Council, National
Wildlife Federation, and Union of Con-
cerned Scientists.
HBO tells workers’ story in Stella D’oro strike
The documentary “No Contract, No
Cookies,” which began airing this
month on HBO2, puts a very human
face on what is becoming an all-too fa-
miliar and tragic story. Byrnwood, a pri-
vate equity firm, bought the family-
owned Stella D’oro bakery, which had
been a part of the Bronx community
since the Depression. Many of its 136
employees, members of the Bakery,
Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and
Grain Millers (BCTGM) Local 50, had
worked there for decades.
The new owners forced workers to
strike by demanding pay cuts of as
much as $5 an hour and stripped-down
benefits. For 11 months, the employees,
who hailed from 22 different countries,
marched together in unity and solidarity.
Finally, an administrative law judge
ruled in the workers’ favor and ordered
all the employees reinstated. But the
joyous victory was short-lived and bit-
tersweet. Just one day after the workers
came back to the job, the new owners
announced they were closing the fac-
tory and moving the work to Ohio.
Now, two years later, the factory stands
shuttered like so many other manufac-
turing plants in this country.
The documentary puts faces with the
numbers. “No Contract, No Cookies” is
all about the workers and what their ex-
perience has meant for them. In about a
half hour, filmmakers Jon Alpert and
Matthew O’Neill show what happens to
communities and lives when greed
trumps everything else.
It airs on HBO2 Sunday, July 31, at
6:15 a.m., and is available On Demand.
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
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JULY 15, 2011
