USW Convention | April 7-10, 2025 Get registration information here
Today’s job report shows that if Congress doesn’t act urgently to enact an aggressive economic recovery program, we’ll be facing a category 5 economic crisis. The recession is deepening rapidly. The American economy shed 524,000 jobs in December, bringing the total job loss for the year to over 2.5 million.
We are encouraged by the leadership of President-elect Obama and quick action by Congress to prepare legislation for early passage in the new year. The economic recovery package should be large enough to restore sustainable growth. It should meet the immediate needs of struggling American families by extending and modernizing unemployment insurance and providing food stamps. The recovery plan should also provide immediate aid to state and local governments. And the plan should invest in information, communication, transportation and energy infrastructure we will need to succeed in the global economy of the 21st Century.
But short-term problems didn’t create the crisis and short-term solutions won’t end it. The way our country currently does business is backward – – putting the interests of corporations over working people.
Broad-based economic changes must be made to ensure sustained economic growth and broadly shared prosperity. We must restore American competitiveness to deal with our country’s unsustainable trade deficit. We must guarantee affordable, quality health care coverage for everyone. We must thoroughly reform our financial regulatory system to provide more transparency and effective government oversight and regulation. And to ensure that the middle class is rebuilt, we must pass the Employee Free Choice Act so workers can bargain collectively with their employers for better lives.
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