Terry Melvin, executive assistant to the president of CSEA/
AFSCME Local 1000 in Albany, N.Y., sees firsthand what’s happening to the nation’s working families and says it’s clear the Bush administration is not concerned about the fate of communities in this country. “Where have all the jobs gone?” Melvin asks. “Since George W. Bush took office, more people are out of work and unions and workers have been under constant attack.”

AFT Executive Vice President Nat LaCour is keenly aware of the national economic crisis reverberating throughout the states—and that the most vulnerable people are the first to be targeted in budget cuts. Some 20 states have cut public school funding for all grades, including kindergarten, he says. Many states have been forced to cut quality preschool programs, classes and staff because of a lack of funds, and 41 states face a cumulative deficit of $85 billion in the upcoming fiscal year, which begins July 1, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL).

LaCour and Melvin were among participants in a town hall meeting on the Urban Policy Crisis in America sponsored by the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists (CBTU) during its May 21–26 convention in San Francisco. CBTU, one of six AFL-CIO constituency groups, seeks to build the union movement, improve economic development and employment opportunities for African American workers and improve living conditions in the black community.

Among those most negatively and disproportionately affected by Bush’s economic policies are African Americans. The 2001 Bush tax cuts, which provided relief for wealthy individuals and corporations, exacerbated the effects of the recession on middle- and lower-income African American families by forcing cuts in social programs such as job training, according to the National Urban League’s Institute for Opportunity and Equality.

While the national unemployment rate reached a dismal 6 percent in April, the rate for African Americans jumped to 10.9 percent, up from 10.2 percent in March, the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics reported.

In his keynote address, CBTU President William Lucy also ripped the Bush economic record. “We have witnessed a wholesale retreat from the economic policies that benefited the many, including millions of people of color, to the narrow policies that benefit the rich and wealthy,” Lucy said, citing the $330 billion tax cut recently passed by Congress.

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Learn about the AFL-CIO’s constituency groups.