John J. Sweeney Interview on Unemployment
John J. Sweeney
AFL-CIO President
May 2003

Video

President Bush's Agenda Is the Wrong Choice for America (1:52)
Two years ago, Congress passed a massive tax cut that President Bush claimed would create jobs and turn around the economy. Since then, we have lost millions of jobs and the economic situation has deteriorated. Yet the president argues we need more of the same medicine—more unbalanced and unfair tax cuts for the very rich—to create good American jobs. President Bush is making the wrong choice for America. While he's pushing a huge tax cut for the rich, Bush is taking away our ability to invest in what working families really need now and to create a strong economy for the future. We can build a stronger, more secure future for all Americans by investing in programs that are important to workers and their families.

Video

American Jobs Are Disappearing at an Alarming Rate (1:11)
Americans are losing jobs at an alarming rate. Over the past two years, the nation has lost 2.6 million private sector jobs and the numbers keep climbing. Just in the past two months, we've seen the loss of almost 500,000 jobs. A stunning 10 million unemployed workers who want jobs, can't find them, about 1 million have exhausted their unemployment insurance benefits, and millions more are without health care. And long-term joblessness is up—a half a million more workers than last year have been unemployed for more than six months. Job hunters are worried that the continued dramatic loss of jobs could mean an even longer job search. And the growing crisis in the airline and manufacturing industries offers a sad example of how the Bush administration has neglected working families.

Video

The Manufacturing Industry Is in a Deep Crisis (2:18)
For decades, the manufacturing industry provided some of the best wages in the nation, enabling families to buy homes, afford health care and send their children to college. Over the past two years, American manufacturing has fallen into a deep crisis. More than 2.5 million manufacturing jobs have been lost due to bad trade deals, foreign subsidies and an overvalued dollar, which helped create a massive trade deficit. The massive scale of manufacturing plant closings and job layoffs is a major blow for working families and their communities. The AFL-CIO and affiliated unions are urging several strategies to revive manufacturing, including a campaign to stop the Free Trade Area of the Americas, which would ignore workers' rights, take away thousands of U.S. jobs, pollute the environment and destroy entire communities as employers move plants outside our country.

Video

Since President Bush Took Office, the Economy Has Deteriorated (1:39)
After several years of steady growth throughout the late 1992 and 2000, America has lost on average 105,000 private sector jobs every month since President George W. Bush took office—the worst under any president in 58 years. Meanwhile, states are experiencing their worst financial crises since World War II. Many of them already have imposed across-the-board budget cuts, and almost all are being forced to lay off workers, raise taxes and slash vital programs such as health care, education and public safety. Instead of recognizing and rewarding the diligence and dedication of workers and their families, the president proposes a budget that shortchanges basic programs, robs states of needed resources and bankrupts the nation. Union leaders are outraged over the Bush administration's two years of failed economic policies and demand a real economic growth plan that creates jobs and helps states that are struggling to close huge budget shortfalls.

Visit the Media Center to hear audio clips of President Sweeney's interview on unemployment.