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Remarks by Richard L. Trumka, President of the AFL-CIO, Economic Policy Institute, Spotlight on the Jobs Crisis, Washington DC November 17, 2009

AFL-CIO

Let me start by telling you about a young woman who came to an event we held in northeastern Ohio two months ago. Her name is Lacey and she’s not quite 20 years old. She wanted to become a teacher. But when her father was laid off from a plant that was shutting down, her parents had to struggle just to hold onto their home.

So instead of going to college she had to find a job - and she said she felt lucky to get one working in a school cafeteria. But six months later, the school budget was a wreck and she was laid off too. She and her father took turns checking the Internet for job postings every morning. After 3 months she was able to find a part-time job working afternoons at a fast food restaurant - and again she said she felt lucky, even though she brings home about half what she did from the school cafeteria. Her father still doesn’t have a job - he’s one of a third of all the jobless who’ve been unemployed long-term. Lacey lives at home with her parents and told me she just prays they’re able to keep their house. She has more friends who are unemployed than friends with jobs.

And here’s what she said: “I wanted to be a teacher to help children get the education they need to get ahead. But now I feel like I’m just going backward myself. I’m really scared for the kids my age. We want to work. We need jobs.” Lacey’s right: It’s scary. It’s scary to see so many families in trouble to see a generation of bright young people who may never reach their potential and whose lifetime earnings will be stunted because of this economy.

Let me be clear. The recovery package passed earlier this year has created or saved more than a million jobs, and it pulled our economy back from the brink of what I am convinced would have been a depression. It was a critical and important step.

But over a period when we needed to create 2 million jobs just to keep up with population growth, we have lost more than 8 million jobs. That’s more than 10 million jobs in the hole since the recession began in 2007. And we have not yet hit bottom.

That’s why the AFL-CIO is putting forward a 5-point plan to create and save at least 2 million jobs over the next year.

Of course, while we work on creating two million jobs right now, we can’t lose sight of the big picture. We know that we also need to keep working on deeper reform measures to ensure that we are rebuilding our economy on a solid foundation - we need the Employee Free Choice Act to guarantee workers the freedom to choose a union; we need financial reform to rein in the excesses of Wall Street; and we need to fix our flawed trade policies to make America competitive again and reduce our enormous trade deficits.

Here’s the 5-point jobs plan we believe has the biggest promise:

First, we have to extend unemployment benefits, food assistance and health care for the unemployed. Without congressional action, the federal supplemental program will expire at the end of this year. And without these benefits, the downward spiral will accelerate as families fall into bankruptcy, lose their homes and lose their health care. These benefits are critical not only to the unemployed, but to maintain personal spending that will save and create jobs throughout the economy.

Second, we need to put America to work on our broken infrastructure. We have a backlog of at least $3 trillion of pressing needs in transportation, crumbling schools and other infrastructure. Ten billion dollars in funding for overdue repairs to schools was cut at the last minute from this year’s recovery package -- that’s just a crime and it needs to be restored. Every dollar spent on infrastructure employs workers all down the supply chain in construction, manufacturing, design and engineering - and we need to be sure these dollars create U.S. jobs and develop badly needed U.S. industrial capacity. And we need to invest in good green jobs - green technology, energy-efficient retrofits of public buildings and the smart power grid.

Third, we have to boost aid to state and local governments to maintain vital services and prevent more layoffs. State and local governments and school districts are experiencing the worst fiscal crisis in decades - we have state budget shortfalls this year alone of $178 billion. Next year will be worse and the four-year estimate is nearly $600 billion. This is happening right as we need these vital services more than ever. Without additional funding, our public safety, our health needs and our children’s educations will suffer. The right thing and the smart thing is to take action to save services, save jobs and stop the hemorrhaging from choking off economic recovery.

Fourth, we should directly create jobs that put people to work in our communities meeting pressing needs. These are not replacements for existing public jobs. They must pay competitive wages and should target distressed communities.

Fifth, we need the Administration to put TARP funds to work for Main Street. This is something they can do right now, and it would make a critical difference. The bank bailout was necessary, but it helped Wall Street restore profits when it should have been helping Main Street create jobs. Banks aren’t lending to small business. We should establish a fund to lend TARP money directly to small- and medium-sized businesses at commercial rates, managed by the community banks left out of the Wall Street bailout, with the banks taking first dollar risk. If small businesses can get credit, they will create jobs. And we need jobs now.

Millions of families like Lacey’s aren’t seeing any relief yet. The hurt is deep, and it runs the risk of lasting a generation. It’s scarred children. It’s hitting people of all ages and races and occupations living in all kinds of communities -- rural, urban, suburban. The damage to African American and Hispanic workers has been especially devastating.

Doing nothing is not an option. If we don’t act, everything will be worse -- including our federal budget deficit.

That’s why those of us here today have joined together to say this is not tolerable. We can put America back to work.

The AFL-CIO will be taking the 5-point jobs program I have just outlined to the White House and to Congress. And we will be out there every day, working with the other groups here today, with business leaders and elected officials at every level, mobilizing and helping the White House and Congress get this done.

Where there’s obstruction, we’ll expose it and push through it. And where there’s leadership, we’ll do everything we can to help it succeed.

We need jobs -- now.