Labor & Employment Law

U.S. Social Forum: Marchers Demand ?Money for Jobs, Not Banks?

By admin

Devon Whitham on the AFL-CIO staff is attending the U.S. Social Forum in Detroit. She reports on yesterday?s “Money for Jobs, Not for Banks” march.

Thousands of community, religious and labor activists from across the country marched through the streets of Detroit yesterday calling for urgent action to save and create jobs, extend jobless benefits for the long-term unemployed, stop foreclosures and preserve public services. 

Chanting ?Full and Fair Employment Now!? and ?Money for Jobs, Not for Banks!? union members and our allies in town for the U.S. Social Forum joined forces to demand Congress address the pressing jobs emergency.

Saundra Williams, president of the Metropolitan Detroit AFL-CIO, told the crowd:

We’re here today, marching in the hot sun because we have seen too many homes, jobs and hopes destroyed. We’re fighting for our rights, our dignity, our families and our futures, and we’re calling on Congress to do its job and take urgent action to end this crisis which has so devastated much of the nation.

Workers impacted by the economic crisis also called on Congress to protect Americans from privatization, layoffs, outsourcing, furloughs, foreclosures and Wall Street greed. Marchers demanded the emergency extension of jobless benefits and passage of the Local Jobs for America Act (H.R. 4812), which would create or save more than 675,000 local community jobs and more than 250,000 education jobs and extend emergency jobless benefits.

Marchers condemned congressional Republicans whose ?Party of No? obstructionism has kept Congress from effectively addressing the economic crisis. With 15 million Americans unemployed and long-term joblessness at record levels, Republicans in Congress continue to stall on the extension of jobless benefits, the creation of a serious job-creation program and finding solutions to the foreclosure crisis.

Armando Robles, president of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE) Local 1110, told the crowd how workers at the Republic Windows & Doors plant in Chicago made justice happen. After a six-day sit-in at the plant, the workers faced down the company and Bank of America, one of the largest Wall Street banks.

I?m standing here living proof that when we come together, when we organize, we succeed. We need to keep fighting and keep organizing all across the country so we can have more justice.

 The march was the major union action at the U.S. Social Forum, which ends this weekend. AFSCME District Council 25, Metro Detroit AFL-CIO and Jobs with Justice organized the march. Following the march, local union members and their allies gathered at AFSCME?s union hall for hot dogs, hamburgers and live music by the Fruit of Labor singing ensemble from Raleigh, N.C.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on June 24, 2010 (boomark / email).