AFL-CIO’s 5-Point Jobs Plan Offers No Muscle
To Pressure Congress for Funds or Structure

At the President’s “Summit on Jobs” last week, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka presented a 5-point plan, which, he said, could save or create two million jobs in a year, although he did not indicate the cost or the mechanism for putting such huge masses of people to work.

At the same meeting, the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) also proposed a five-point “American Jobs Plan” that would create at least 4.6 million jobs in the first year, at a total first-year cost of roughly $400 billion.

But neither the Trumka plan nor the more elaborate EPI proposals can adequately deal with the nation’s unemployment problem. Nearly 16 million Americans are unemployed, and another 9.3 million are working part-time, even though they want and need a full-time job.

Among African-American and Latino workers, the unemployment rate has risen to 15.7 percent and 13.1 percent, respectively. The U.S. has thus far lost 8 million jobs since the start of the recession. Neither President Obama nor the AFL-CIO or Change to Win is talking about making up for the 8 million lost jobs.

The grim fact is that no proposed plan will benefit the millions of unemployed unless Congress acts to provide adequate funds and guidelines for the creation of even a fraction of the number of jobs needed to resolve the current human crisis.

Immediate action by Congress is needed—on a massive scale. More than two million workers have been unemployed for over a year. Congress, for the third time, has extended weekly benefits for the long-time unemployed and for those states that are suffering the highest rate of joblessness. But it is unlikely to invest heavily in job creation because it is currently obsessed with the ballooning budget deficit.

While Congress is prepared to spend a million dollars a year on each of the 30,000 soldiers who are being sent to Afghanistan, it is reluctant to invest heavily in job creation. With daily signs that the recession is over, our lawmakers are even less likely to worry about the lack of jobs, since they believe a recovering economy will minimize that problem.

Do We Abandon the Unemployed or Fight to Get Them Jobs?

Trumka’s 5-point plan will end up as a meaningless gesture unless he mobilizes the AFL-CIO membership to persuade Congress that it must create enough jobs to put the unemployed back to work, the way the New Deal did during the Great Depression.

Trunka should act with the militancy he displayed during the Pittston coal strike when he was president of the United Mine Workers. He should forget those 14 years when, as AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer, he was an obedient “soldier” to the cautious, conservative President John Sweeney.

In the next few weeks, we’ll find out whether “Rich” will really build a full-scale canpaign for jobs and become a hero to the unemployed. Or he’ll continue making those evangelical speeches that do so little for workers and their families.

What are the most important qualities that you expect from a first-rate national union leader? Is being a good organizer more important or less important than being a good negotiator? Is it essential that he or she be an effective public speaker? Is it necessary that leaders believe in the value of union democracy and show respect for members’ rights; and that members trust the honesty and integrity of their leaders?

Wouldn’t it be great if our leaders had all of these qualities? Years ago, I proposed a special training program for qualified members on every aspect of leadership. A provisional curriculum was prepared for a three-month full-time training program. We called it a “West Point for Labor.” There would be four “schools” established in four regions of the country.

I’d like to know what you think of the plan.—Harry Kelber

LaborTalk (20) will be posted here on Thursday, December 10, and on our web site: www.laborsvoiceforchange.org).