Laid-off union workers in Oregon protest 'stimulus' bill

With an almost unprecedented one-month jump in the jobless rate as the background, organized labor stepped up its pressure on Congress to pass an economic stimulus plan that puts workers first and to do it quickly.

Unemployed workers joined union members, union leaders and community activists at several press conferences throughout the country Nov. 2 to highlight the impact of a Republican-led congressional stall on worker relief in favor of huge tax breaks for corporations and the wealthy.

Press conferences were held in selected senators' home states in Oregon, Arizona, Georgia, Maine, Louisiana, Nevada, North Carolina, Colorado, Vermont and Wisconsin.

At Portland's World Trade Center, unemployed machinists, airline workers, hotel employees, farmworkers and sheet metal workers urged Oregon Senators Gordon Smith and Ron Wyden to support quick and real relief for working families, who have seen more than 700,000 jobs disappear in layoffs since Sept. 11.

Oregon was declared officially in recession in October - defined as employment figures declining three calendar quarters in a row. The number of Oregonians receiving unemployment benefits stood at 53,672 in October, a 63 percent increase over the year before. Before Sept. 11, Oregon's official unemployment rate was already the second-highest in the nation at 6.4 percent. Today it stands at 6.5 percent.

Nationally, 732,000 American workers have joined the unemployment rolls, according to a Nov. 2 report by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Nationally, about 2.2 million fewer people were working at the beginning of November 2001 than were working a year before.

"We were hit harder and earlier than other states by energy and export-related plant closures, and many workers who were laid-off in the early months of the year are now facing exhaustion of their 26 weeks of unemployment insurance (UI) benefits. Many have had to abandon their health insurance coverage, because they can't afford the premiums," said Tim Nesbitt, president of the Oregon AFL-CIO.

Charlie Kim, a member of Sheet Metal Workers Local 16 who has worked at York International since he left high school, is now a laid-off worker with three kids to support. "I've been off work three months and I know my unemployment benefits are going to run out pretty quick," Kim said. Co-worker Brian Deck said many workers had recently bought cars, homes, or other expensive items and now are at risk of losing them.

At each press conference union leaders and unemployed workers lambasted House Resolution (HR) 3090 passed by the U.S. House of Representatives on Oct. 24 that would give $99 billion in tax cuts and other benefits to the wealthy and $3 billion to workers.

Dubbed the Economic Security and Recovery Act of 2001 - the bill was approved on a party-line vote of 216-214. Oregon Republican Greg Walden voted for the bill; Democrats Earl Blumenauer, Peter DeFazio, Darlene Hooley and David Wu voted against it, as did Washington Congressman Brian Baird.

"The House of Representatives has refined voodoo economics into a sharp stick in the eyes of working people," said Bob Morus, international vice president of the Air Line Pilots Association, AFL-CIO.

"This is the most blatant war profiteering that this country has seen in decades and by any measure, it is a sin," added union ally Susan Leo, pastor of the Bridgeport United Church of Christ in Portland. "The House measure would give piles of cash to the richest people in this nation while ignoring the fact that two-thirds of unemployed workers in this country do not even get unemployment benefits."

The national AFL-CIO is proposing an alternative -an economic stimulus program that would put money in the hands of working people, who would more likely spend it immediately in the areas where they live. For an estimated $30 billion, such a package could:

* Give laid off workers an additional 26 weeks of unemployment benefits;

* Expand unemployment benefits to cover the estimated two-thirds of the unemployed who don't meet eligibility requirements set by individual states;

* Raise unemployment benefits 25 percent or $65 a week, whichever is greater.

The AFL-CIO also proposes $40 billion in financial assistance to maintain family medical insurance for unemployed workers; $10 billion to reimburse states for increased Medicare expenses due to the declining economy and rising unemployment; and $27 billion in new federal spending on infrastructure as a way to put people back to work, including $15 billion in highway projects, $2 billion in aviation projects, and $10 billion for rail, transit, port, water facilities and school construction.

A bill containing most of these proposals was in fact introduced in the House by Oregon Congressman Peter DeFazio and members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. It would have added 26 weeks of UI insurance and raised benefits $100 a week, increased investments in transportation and infrastructure, and assisted small businesses.

The $200 billion tab would have been funded by delaying previously approved tax cuts for those who earn more than $373,000 a year and retaining taxes on estates worth more than $5 million. The GOP leadership wouldn't move the bill to a vote.

The Republican-passed HR 3090, on the other hand, would:

* Cut business taxes $70 billion, $25 billion of which would be doled out in immediate refunds to corporations that paid an "alternative minimum tax" designed to put a halt to excess use of tax shelters (in effect it would refund all the taxes they paid for the last 15 years); According to figures from the Congressional Budget Office, the corporate tax provisions mean IBM has $1.4 billion from the federal government on the way and another 13 big companies (General Motors, Chevron Texaco and Enron) can bank more than $100 million each in refunds.

* Cut capital gains taxes on individuals by $10 billion (three-quarters of which would go to the top 1 percent of taxpayers, with an average refund of $27,000);

* Send a one-time rebate to low-income taxpayers who missed out on the earlier rebate, for a cost of $14 billion;

* Set aside $12 billion for unemployment insurance and health care subsidies, or so the bill's backers claim. But the money is in the form of block grants to the states - with no requirement that states actually spend the money on those programs. Nine billion dollars of that is surplus unemployment funds collected by the federal government when the economy was booming and was already earmarked for return. HR 3090 just speeds up the refund.

The Senate is now considering the issue. As of press time, it had not yet passed a counterpart to the House bill.