AFL-CIO Community Services Director Will Fischer reports on the recent Oregon Wants to Work meetings for the unemployed.

Earlier this week, Oregon Wants to Work, an organization that advocates for the needs of the unemployed and underemployed, held a meeting with dozens of jobless workers in the Portland area to help them learn new skills to gain employment.

Human resources specialist Peter Casanova conducted an engaging presentation on what hiring managers look for in job candidates. Casanova even coaxed a brave participant into a mock interview to show the entire group how it’s done. He also showed participants how to handle tough questions in interviews from explaining long lapses in employment and how to use proper interview etiquette.

Participants also made a difference by taking action to support job creation policies. Staff from the Oregon AFL-CIO led a discussion in which they pointed out how failure to raise the federal debt ceiling would undermine efforts to create jobs. After the briefing, many folks wrote their opinions about the need for jobs on postage-paid cards to send to their congressional representatives. Vicki Burns, executive director of Labor’s Community Service Agency in Portland, said:

Oregon Wants to Work, through the Oregon AFL-CIO, Working America and Labor’s Community Service Agency, have come together in solidarity with out-of-work men and women throughout our community to provide a forum where those who are jobless have an opportunity to raise concerns, share experiences and ideas, receive tangible information and resources and have their voices heard.

Is your local labor body involved with organizing the unemployed? Are you doing work similar to this? We’d love to hear about it. Send an e-mail to communityservices@aflcio.org.