America’s jobs crisis is reflected not only in the substantial numbers of jobs we have lost. It is measured also in the relentless exodus of good, family-supporting jobs and their replacement with jobs that pay less and provide fewer benefits. It is marked by the persistent struggle of so many working families, particularly young working families, just to get by. It is reflected in the conviction of countless Americans that job security is a thing of the past, as corporations readily abandon workers, communities, even their nation, in an unfettered race to the bottom.
The jobs crisis is calibrated in worries—worry that the middle class is disappearing and we are becoming a nation divided into two economic camps; worry among many workers that they will never be able to retire; and pervasive worry that for our children, the future holds fewer opportunities, harder work, and even greater uncertainty.
President Bush will use the jobs crisis to urge Congress to make permanent the multi-trillion dollar tax cuts it has passed over the last three years. The labor movement calls on Congress to resist this ill-advised and ultimately destructive approach.
Mr. Bush’s tax and trade policies have been tried, and they have failed. When it comes to jobs, all we have to show for three years of multi-trillion-dollar tax cuts for the rich, free-wheeling trade policy and race-to-the-bottom corporate globe-trotting is the loss of 2.9 million private sector jobs, including a staggering 2.6 million manufacturing jobs. More of the same will make matters worse for the nation and for working families.
Solving America’s jobs crisis requires a change in direction; it requires new policies deliberately designed to create and preserve good, family-supporting jobs. The first step the President and Congress must take is to roll back tax cuts for the very rich. Next, they should invest the resources we save to build schools, hire teachers, and improve education and job training; make high quality health care accessible and affordable for all Americans; strengthen critical infrastructure, such as highways, roads and bridges; help the states meet their crushing financial burdens; extend the emergency unemployment insurance program, raise the minimum wage, and protect workers’ overtime rights and the right to organize and bargain collectively.
The president has no more important domestic responsibility this year than to solve America’s jobs crisis. He can do so only with a program consciously designed to create and sustain good middle class jobs. More tax cuts for the very rich and more trade deals that help corporations at the expense of workers will only translate into more of the same despair for America’s working families.
Contact Suzanne Ffolkes 202-637-5018
