WHEREAS:

There isa jobs crisis in which mass unemployment continues to take its toll. At any given time during the Great Recession and its aftermath in the United States about 23 million people are officially unemployed, forced to work part-time or want a job but are not looking, often because they can’t find one.  16 -18 million full-time workers earn less than the poverty level. That means about 41 million people and their families are casualties of the jobs crisis; and

WHEREAS:

Even before the Great Recession, millions were unemployed, underemployed and underpaid; and

WHEREAS:

America’s roads need repair, our bridges are eroding, our children need more teachers, parents lack affordable child care, seniors lack elder care, millions lack adequate health care, affordable housing is under siege, and we must make our economy green; and

WHEREAS:

All of these needs can and should be met by the federal government; and

WHEREAS:

This was done during the Great Depression of the 1930s, when Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal put millions of the unemployed to work doing useful jobs that have made a lasting contribution to our nation–roads, bridges, schools, libraries, housing, parks, arts, culture and much more; and

WHEREAS:

The labor movement and all its affiliates and supporters need to support the passage of legislation that guarantees a living-wage job to all who want one. Steps in that direction are:

1. H.R. 4277 (Rep. John Conyers, D-MI), the Humphrey-Hawkins 21st Century Full Employment and Training Act, would create a national jobs program, including 2.6 to 3.9 million jobs over the first two years, in affordable housing, neighborhood rehabilitation, energy conservation and weatherization, infrastructure repair, education, and human services;
2. The Emergency Jobs to Restore the American Dream Act, H.R. 2914 (Rep, Jan Schakowsky, D-IL), would create 2.2 million public service jobs in school construction and maintenance, park improvement and restoration, education, child care, law enforcement, health care, energy conservation, and affordable housing; and
3. S. 2252, the Rebuild America Act, introduced by Sen. Tom Harkin in March, is a comprehensive bill to invest in roads, bridges and schools, raise the minimum wage, and reform trade policies and the tax code; and

WHEREAS:

Privatization, deregulation and outsourcing are tools for union busting and a major source of job loss; and

WHEREAS:

Legislation is needed to create jobs and we need to organize and demand it now.

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED:

The AFSCME 40th International Convention will endorse, lobby and mobilize for the passage of the Humphrey-Hawkins 21st Century Full Employment and Training Act, the Emergency Jobs to Restore the American Dream Act and the Rebuild America Act; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED:

AFSCME urges all its affiliates and friends of labor to endorse, lobby and mobilize for the passage of the these acts; and

BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED:

            That AFSCME and its affiliates mobilize against all schemes that embrace the privatization, deregulation and outsourcing of jobs and in support of legislation that would employ millions of jobless workers here in the United States at decent pay and for the improvement of the quality of life through repair and expansion of our physical and social infrastructure.