Labor’s message to lawmakers: 'Good Jobs, Now!'

Connie Jones was laid off in October 2009 as a building plans examiner for the City of Portland’s Bureau of Development Services. Although she holds a master’s degree in architecture, the 56-year-old member of AFSCME Local 189 has been unable to find a job in her field.

Jakob Juntunen, 29, is an electrical apprentice specializing in the solar industry. He worked only six months last year, resulting in the loss of health insurance for his young family.

And single mom Rachel Santos, 45, a member of Laborers Local 296, worked so little last year that she lost her home, car, and good credit standing. She is discouraged, as hopes for work appear to be many, many months away.

These and other stories were heard over and over last month during a three-city “Good Jobs Now” forum sponsored by the Oregon AFL-CIO.

“No one needs to tell America’s families that unemployment and underemployment are at crisis levels,” said Tom Chamberlain, president of the state labor federation at a gathering in Portland, where a half-dozen unemployed union members told their stories to Oregon Labor Commissioner Brad Avakian, State Rep. Tina Kotek, and Ed Hall, labor liaison to U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley.

Similar forums were held Jan. 14 in Albany and Jan. 20 in Bend with unemployed workers and representatives from Senator Merkley’s and Congressman Peter DeFazio’s offices, and Albany Mayor Sharon Konopa.

Chamberlain said the recovery package passed in 2009 helped create or save 1 million jobs, but because there was a deficit of more than 10 million jobs since the recession began, more needs to be done.

“We need jobs — and we need them now,” Chamberlain said. “Wall Street has gotten its bailouts. Now it’s time for Main Street to get some immediate help.”

That’s why labor unions are taking the lead pushing lawmakers at the state and federal level to move quickly to enact a robust jobs program. The national AFL-CIO has launched a “Good Jobs Now!” campaign that calls on Congress and the Obama Administration to take five steps now to care for the jobless and put America back to work.

The plan includes fixing America’s crumbling schools, bridges and roads; hiring community banks to lend leftover bank bailout funds directly to small businesses that will in turn be used to create jobs; investing in new energy systems and green technology; and increasing aid to state and local governments to help people who have lost their jobs.

Chamberlain said a $500 billion transportation bill currently before Congress also would go a long way towards boosting the economy. “These are the types of measures we need to get this country back on its feet,” he said.

“There are so many productive people sitting on the sidelines right now,” said Juntunen, a member of IBEW Local 48. “A jobs bill costs money, but the cost is far greater if we do nothing. Only a deep investment toward an energy economy, toward a first-rate infrastructure, can we expect to have a real economic recovery.

“The stimulus recovery effort, it’s a good first step, but more needs to be done,” Juntunen continued. “And it shouldn’t be a system that creates 10 layers of contracting schemes that gives money to everyone except the workers who are actually out there doing the work.”

Jones was one of seven City planners in her department to lose their job. She said two have found work — one took a 30 percent pay cut at a temp job that ends in June. The other, who was desperate for health insurance because he and his wife were expecting a baby, took a 50 percent pay cut, also for a temp job ending in June.

Jones has taken several classes through WorkSource Oregon to try to obtain funding for skills upgrade courses, but has been stymied from filling out the skills upgrade form because it requires a person to include two job announcements in need of a worker with the missing skill set.

“When there are no job announcements, it becomes impossible to meet this requirement,” she said.

Santos said that since losing her home and car, she has found it difficult to find work anywhere because prospective employers look at applicants’ credit histories. Car insurance is the same, with insurers jacking up premiums if drivers have poor credit.

“I’ve never been in an accident. I’ve always paid my bills on time. I’ve had no issues at all until work went away,” she said.

After listening to their stories, Rep. Kotek said the agenda for the Oregon Legislature’s February special session “is all about jobs. We have a limited set of tools, but we’re looking at ways to get monies out into the economy. Having another jobs package from the federal government will be extremely helpful.”

Kotek said she and State Sen. Diane Rosenbaum will introduce a bill to end employers’ use of credit histories when hiring. The Job Applicant Fairness Act would restrict employers’ access to a job applicant’s credit report, with limited exceptions; give workers a fair chance to get hired based on qualifications not credit history; and preserve employers’ right to check criminal records and all other job-related reference checks.

Labor Commissioner Avakian praised labor’s five-point plan. “The AFL-CIO plan is smart to say you’ve got to extend unemployment insurance and other benefits for a longer period of time, because we’re not going to have a fast solution. It’s an impossibility.”

Avakian blamed two decades of “complete disinvestment” by federal and state governments both in job training and education.

“We’ve passed things like NAFTA that gives an incentive to ship jobs overseas so (workers) don’t have as many options here. We don’t fund our job training and our public education programs. We’ve eliminated shop classes from our schools. There’s a series of things we’ve done for almost 20 years now that put folks like you — when you lose a job — in a position that you really don’t have other places to turn because the jobs just aren’t there. And now we’re doing everything we can to play catch up.”

Avakian said stimulus-backed job training programs that have developed since the recession hit will benefit Oregon and the U.S. in the long term. “But it makes it much more difficult in the short term to find all of you jobs when we need them now,” he said.

Chamberlain said private industry won’t be able to create jobs quickly enough to put folks back to work, which is why government has to devote more resources to productivity-enhancing investments.

“We need to put people back to work doing real work — tutoring kids, working in woods — real jobs with real pay needs to be part of the recovery plan,” he said.

The AFL-CIO is encouraging all union members and their families to write or call their state and congressional representatives and ask them to support jobs programs.

In Congress, the Jobs for Main Street Act, HR 2847, has been passed by the House and is awaiting action in the Senate. The bill would do most of the things the AFL-CIO has called for, although not for the length of time union officials would like to see. For instance, HR 2847 would extend COBRA health insurance and unemployment insurance for six months. The AFL-CIO plan calls for a 12-month extension.

Chamberlain said most of the funds in the bill have already been appropriated — as they are left over bank bailout (TARP) funds and not new debt. 

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