Workday Magazine (https://workdaymagazine.org/category/policy/page/17/)
Claiming to represent “the 99 percent” of Americans whom the economy is failing, protesters took over a park in New York’s Financial District two and a half weeks ago. They began staging rallies against corporate tax loopholes, income inequality and CEO compensation. And they haven’t left since.
Some of New York City’s largest unions and community groups – and labor organizations across the country – are joining the “Occupy Wall Street” protests.
In a scene being played out in communities across the country, workers at a town hall meeting with Congresswoman Betty McCollum urged Congress to take action to create jobs.
Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis welcomed delegates to the AFL-CIO’s second “Next Up!” summit for young workers in Minneapolis Thursday night, taking the opportunity to promote the jobs bill President Obama introduced to Congress earlier this month.
The AFL-CIO Building Investment Trust and Greco Development LLC recently held an appreciation luncheon to honor union workers at the Flux Apartments\’ construction site in the Uptown neighborhood of Minneapolis.
The Northeast Minnesota region has three times more job openings than two years ago, but job seekers outnumber full-time openings 7-to-1, according to the latest Job Vacancy Survey from the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development.
Some 500 Minnesotans from a variety of backgrounds gathered Saturday in Minneapolis in a grassroots movement to push for job creation – and got a pep talk from former Labor Secretary Robert Reich who said bold action is needed to solve the economic crisis.
Saying “we are in a national unemployment emergency,” Congressman Keith Ellison, D-Minn., has introduced the “Emergency Jobs Now Act” to require the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction to create at least 3 million jobs in the next two years.
Scott Walker, says AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, has become labor’s Organizer of the Year, completely inadvertently.
Leann Bosquez of Maple Grove was one of four workers from around the country who spoke at a Washington, D.C., news conference calling on elected officials to take action to create jobs.