Category Archives: unemployment
Manufacturing Jobs: New Trade Deal Will Hit Us Hard
The 4th Congressional District of Pennsylvania Will Lose 7,623 Jobs If New Trade Deals Pass
4th CD Breakdown:
299 in Motor Vehicles & Parts
158 in Other Transport
812 in Electronics
4092 in Metal Product
2025 in Iron Metals
130 in textiles
116 in Apparel
Join the AFL-CIO National Call in to Congressman Altmire on Oct. 4th to stop the Korea Free Trade agreement.
The history of NAFTA shows that Pennsylvania and the 4th CD suffer from free trade deals. We need fair trade.
Pennsylvania lost 313,839 manufacturing jobs (or 35.8 percent) during the NAFTA-WTO period (1994-2010), according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.* This figure is for total manufacturing employment, so it takes into account both jobs created by exports and jobs displaced by imports, among other causes of net job change.
The percentage of all private sector jobs that are manufacturing jobs in Pennsylvania declined from 20.1 percent to 11.7 percent during the NAFTA-WTO period.
These are aggregate numbers, but the Department of Labor tracks instances of specific workers at specific workplaces who applied for special benefits for trade-displaced workers. In Pennsylvania, there are 149,519 such workers certified as having lost their job due to imports or offshoring under the Trade Adjustment Assistance program. (Note: This program is difficult to qualify for, and this figure only includes those workers who were certified.)
The Economic Policy Institute found that 26,300 jobs have been lost or displaced in Pennsylvania – and over 680,000 in the United States – due to the rise in the trade deficit with Mexico alone since NAFTA was enacted in 1994.
The Economic Policy Institute also found that 95,700 jobs have been lost or displaced in Pennsylvania – and over two million in the United States – due to the rise in the trade deficit with China since it joined the World Trade Organization in 2001.
‘Jobs, not Cuts!’ – PDA Message to Rep. Altmire
Sept 21, 2011 – 4th CD Progressive Democrats of America at its every 3rd Wednesday ‘Brown Bag Lunch’ vigil at Altmire’s Aliquippa office pressing our Blue Dog Congressman to vote with labor and Obama on the Jobs for America Act
Thousands at Labor Day Parade Focuses on Plight of Unemployed
Photo: Aliquippa’s SOAR Contingent in Parade
By Kaitlynn Riely
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Labor Day was a day off work for many, but for Shawn Wygant, it was one more day he didn’t have a job.
In May, Mr. Wygant, 37, of Forest Hills, was laid off from his job as a washing machine operator for Sodexo. Since then, he has been searching for work, without success.
He uses unemployment benefits to pay his bills and makes large pots of spaghetti to feed his wife, her sister, her brother and a niece and nephew.
Frustration sets in when he sees news reports that say the job situation may not improve for years.
"I can’t wait that long," he said. "We need people to start standing up for us."
On Monday morning, he stood in the rain on Freedom Corner in the Hill District as he prepared to march in the Pittsburgh Labor Day Parade. He was one of about 70,000 who participated in the Downtown procession.
On the annual observance of the contributions of workers, Mr. Wygant’s story was similar to those of millions across the country who have found themselves unemployed or underemployed in the economic downturn.
Nationally, the unemployment rate is 9.1 percent, and in Pennsylvania, it is 7.4 percent.
Jack Shea, president of the Allegheny County Labor Council, and Frank Snyder, the secretary-treasurer of the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO, called attention to the plight of the jobless at a news conference before the parade Monday.
For the unemployed and the underemployed, the dreary holiday weather was another chapter in a bleak period of their life.
"For the past two years, it’s not been that happy of a Labor Day as they’ve not been able to find work," Mr. Snyder said.
At this year’s Labor Day Parade, one of the largest in the country, Mr. Snyder said he and other leaders of Pittsburgh’s labor community wanted to focus on putting people back to work.
That focus includes both union and non-union workers, he said.
"Unemployment does not discriminate," he said. "Union members as well as non-union members, Democrats, Republicans, no affiliation, find themselves unemployed on this Labor Day."
Dave Ninehouser, the Pittsburgh coordinator for PA Wants to Work, said his group was using Labor Day to ramp up its efforts to help the jobless gain access to resources and to spur the creation of jobs.
"This parade is a perfect example of what we need to do," he said. "Come together, stick together, stand together and fight back."
The parade began at 10 a.m. and lasted almost three hours. Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl and Bishop David Zubik joined union members ranging from postal employees to Teamsters as they marched from the Civic Arena to the Boulevard of the Allies.
A steady rain fell throughout the morning, but there was a fair turnout, particularly among parade participants.
It was, for many parade participants, a bittersweet Labor Day.
About 5,000 members of the Pennsylvania State Education Association have been laid off from their jobs due to education cuts in the state budget, said Michael J. Crossey, president of the association. As the school year starts, they are out of work instead of in the classrooms, he said.
"We need to start doing the positive things that will move the economy forward," Mr. Crossey said. "This cuts budget doesn’t work."
More than 50 people came out in support of the National Association of Letter Carriers, said Mike Plaskon, the executive vice president for Branch 84.
Part of their aim in marching in the parade, Mr. Plaskon said, was to urge Congress to find legislative solutions for the U.S. Postal Service’s funding crisis.
"Our job is, we are going to get the facts out there, let the public know that they don’t need to close post offices," he said. "They don’t need to eliminate Saturday delivery. They just need to fix the funding."
Therese Kisic of Morningside has never been in a union but has family members who have, and she watches the parade every year.
This year, she said, she wished the labor movement would take its jobs message to Congress.
"I want to move this parade to D.C.," she said.
Although the parade had a definite message — of supporting organized labor, providing access to health care and promoting job creation — it was still a parade, with bands and banners and a few people throwing candy and other prizes to the umbrella-wielding bystanders.
Sandy and Andrew Pszenny of Franklin Park sat in lawn chairs on the sidewalk outside the DoubleTree Hotel, Downtown, and watched for their daughter Amanda, a piccolo player in the North Allegheny marching band.
They sought cover under their umbrellas as rain fell. It was their daughter’s first time marching in a downpour, they said.
"But she’s a tough kid. She likes the weather," Mr. Pszenny said.
Kaitlynn Riely: kriely@post-gazette.com o
Pittsburgh Labor Day: ‘We Need Jobs!’
Solidarity and Determination in the Parade
‘City of Steel’ by Jasiri X, Our Own Rapper
By Jasiri X and Paradise Gray
According to the New Pittsburgh Courier, “The average homicide victim in 2010 was a 33–year-old Black male with four prior arrests, most likely shot on the North Side, in the Hill District or the East End with a 9mm semi-automatic pistol in the early morning hours of a Saturday in July. The average shooter was a 29-year-old Black male with four prior arrests. The motive was likely retaliation. And according to the clearance-rate data, there is a 46 percent chance that he is still at large.”
This is why we decided to dedicate our latest video to the problem of violence in our community.
“City of Steel” was filmed on Pittsburgh’s Northside at, Northview Heights housing project, Allegheny County General Hospital, Zone No.1 Police Station, Union Dale Cemetery, and the newly reopened state prison, SCI Pittsburgh.
“City of Steel” was produced by Rel!g!on and directed by Paradise Gray.
This is the third video, in the four video series entitled “The Pittsburgh Press”, which was made possible by a generous Seed Award from the Sprout Fund.
LYRICS
Continue reading ‘City of Steel’ by Jasiri X, Our Own Rapper
Jobs and GOP ‘Dialectics’: Turning Things Into Their Opposites
By Carl Davidson
People sometimes either groan or laugh when they hear the term ‘dialectics,’ a word which some people use to bamboozle others into thinking they know something when they don’t.
But here’s a great ‘laughing out loud’ example inspired by a few lines for Mike Hall’s current post on the AFL-CIO blog today, Aug. 2:
“The 4,000 furloughed Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) workers and 90,000 workers on airport construction projects stalled by the Republican shutdown of the FAA are worrying about how they will pay their bills in the coming weeks.
“But the only worry House Republicans have is how they are going to spend their six-week summer vacation. House Republicans leaders adjourned the House last night until Sept. 7 without taking action on reauthorizing an FAA bill so the agency—shutdown since July 22—could reopen and construction funds move down the pipeline again.”
So here’s a great example of Republican ‘dialectics’, their ‘Jobs Plan’ of turning real jobs into their opposites, non-jobs. It’s easy to laugh at, if it didn’t mean so much suffering for so many working-class families. I suppose we could say there’s a ‘unity of opposite’ there, too.
One thing that burns me up more than GOP nonsense, though, are many of the mainstream media pundits who don’t have any idea on how to ask a decent follow-up question. When our right wing lawmakers (and their White House allies) go on at length about cutting this and slashing that, taking money from low-income and middle-income workers and giving it to the super-rich, there always comes a point where they assert, ‘and this will create jobs!.’
Back in my youth I taught logic for a year at the University of Nebraska. Full disclosure here: I actually appreciate real dialectics, and other rules of argument. But one point I often made to my students: An assertion is not an argument.
Now why can’t our media pundits say, ‘Wait a minute here, Congressman (or other policy wonk). You’re cutting both spending and jobs, reducing overall demand. Then you assert this creates jobs? Can you tell us exactly how that works? Especially when it’s mainly demand that creates jobs? An assertion is not an argument.”
If I heard it just once on CNN, it would make my day.
My logic course back in 1965 was for incoming freshman. Wouldn’t it be great if news anchors could at least reach that level, even if it’s too much to expect of Congress and the White House? All the more reason we have to rely on our own labor-oriented blogs and news services. We know how to make use of decent dialectics, and put a spotlight on the foolish versions of our adversaries.
The Real Crisis: When Everything Decent Is ‘Off the Table’
By Carl Davidson
Beaver County Blue
Leave it to the New York Times to look for a silver lining in the dark cloud of a Wall St-right wing victory on ‘The Deal’ over the phony budget crisis.
“Democrats can look forward to the expiration of the Bush tax cuts next year,” says their Aug 1, 2011 editorial, “and will have to make the case in the 2012 elections for new lawmakers who will undo the damage.”
In other words, the bondholders will be paid on time, the markets will be stabilized for a short time, and matters will continue to get worse for the jobless and the rest of us. Tighten your belt another notch and get used to it. As for 2012, you have ‘nowhere to go’, so don’t expect much.
Continue reading The Real Crisis: When Everything Decent Is ‘Off the Table’
Green Jobs: Frustration with Neoliberals over ‘Industrial Policy’
‘Good Jobs, Green Jobs’ Conference 2011:
Green Jobs Organizers Collide with
Neoliberalism’s War & Austerity Plans
By Carl Davidson
Nearly 2000 people gathered at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel over three bitterly cold days in Washington, DC Feb 8-10 for the 4th Annual ‘Good Job, Green Jobs’ conference. The attendees were a vibrant mixture of seasoned trade union organizers, representatives of government agencies and young environmental activists waging a variety of battles around climate change and the green economy.
“We want everyone to work at a green job in a green and clean economy,” declared David Foster, executive director of the sponsor, the Blue-Green Alliance, opening the first plenary. “But what stands in our way?” The answer was a new Congress stalemated by neoliberal resurgence centered in a bloc of the GOP and the far right. “It’s not going to be easy. We’re going to have to fight for it the old-fashioned way, from the bottom up, brick by brick, and floor by floor.”
The Blue-Green Alliance today is a coalition of hundreds of environmental groups, trade unions, and green business enterprises. It was founded less than five years ago, largely by the efforts of Carl Pope of the Sierra Club, one of the largest U.S. environmental nonprofits, and Leo Gerard, international president of the United Steel Workers, one of the country’s largest industrial unions.
“We’ve come a long way,” said USW’s Leo Gerard, the next speaker up. “Today we have dozens of affiliated sponsors and members with a combined membership of 14.5 million. Those fighting harder against us are going to meet some serious resistance.” The participants at the conference represented more than 700 organizations and came from 48 of the 50 states.
Continue reading Green Jobs: Frustration with Neoliberals over ‘Industrial Policy’
Aliquippa’s Harsh Realities Featured in Story of the Hope and Vision of its Athletes
Jets cornerback Darrelle Revis visiting his hometown, Aliquippa, Pa.
The Heart Of Football Beats In Aliquippa
Over five decades of economic decline and racial conflict, a Western Pennsylvania mill town has found unity and hope on the football field
By S.L. Price
Sports llustrated’s ‘Vault’
Jan 31, 2011 Issue – The fear came for Willie Walker that November. He was not expecting it. Evening had dropped early and hard, as it does in Western Pennsylvania in the fall, but these were streets he had known forever. Hours had passed since the 2004 regional championship game had ended down in Pittsburgh; the adrenaline and bravado on the ride home had long since burned off, replaced by grief, then mere regret. They had lost. The Aliquippa High football team, for all its history of success, had been beaten. Now, in the backseat, Walker felt a numbness settling in. Losing happens. You move on. You start thinking about what’s next.
Walker was a senior. Just seven months until graduation, and he’d be able to say it: He had survived. The town hadn’t killed, hadn’t crippled, hadn’t defeated him, though God knows it had tried. His life had been a cliché of criminal pathology: father long dead, mother struggling with crack addiction, days of hunger, corners promising casual violence. Aliquippa’s streets are, as one of Walker’s coaches put it, "a spiderweb" capable of ensnaring the most innocent, and though Walker never lost sight of his prize—college somewhere, anywhere—he was hardly innocent. No, for a time he had leaped into the web, daring it to grab hold.
Beaver County Blue: Voice of the 17th CD of Progressive Democrats of America 