Unemployed Workers and Advocates Push for Comprehensive Job Creation Bill

With nearly 10 percent of American workers officially unemployed, civil and human rights groups recently joined with unemployed workers to push Congress to enact more aggressive legislation to end the jobs crisis and create opportunities for the future.

The congressional briefing, organized by the Campaign for Community Change and The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, featured unemployed workers sharing their stories of surviving the recession and urging Congress to do more to create jobs for struggling Americans by passing the Local Jobs for America Act. 

The room was filled with local community leaders, who wore t-shirts printed with “I Need a Job.” They were joined by several members of Congress, including the leadership of the Congressional Black Caucus, Congressional Progressive Caucus, Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, and the Jobs Task force of the Democratic Caucus.

“I always assumed that working in the health care field would guarantee me job security, but no one is safe anymore,” said Mandy Alvar of Eau Claire, Wisc., a certified nursing assistant who will be laid off this summer. “When we start eliminating or cutting this segment of the workforce it never just affects the person being terminated, it has a ripple effect to so many others.  The Local Jobs for America Act could rebuild what has been broken and help to reinvest in our communities by restoring jobs back to those who provide life-sustaining services for others.”

Introduced earlier this year by Rep. George Miller, D. Calif.,  and co-sponsored by 150 other members of Congress, the Local Jobs for America Act (H.R. 4812), will create or save more than 1 million public and private sector jobs in local communities while restoring services that communities need badly.

According to Christian Dorsey, an economist from the Economic Policy Institute, who also spoke at the briefing, “America’s unemployed are not asking for a bailout. They’re asking for a chance…. a chance to make this country great.”