Workers rally for jobs on steps of City Hall
Union members rally at Los Angeles City Hall’s south lawn to demand public sector investment and job creation. (Dan Bluemel / LA Activist)
Workers from a myriad of unions gathered in front of City Hall today to demand that government fix the ailing economy through jobs creation.
Sheet metal workers, sprinkler fitters, boiler workers, film workers, electricians and iron workers, to name a few, stood on City Hall’s south lawn and chanted “We want jobs.” They were joined by a contingent of postal workers from around the country who had been attending a convention in Anaheim.
Union members demanding work at today’s AFL-CIO rally. (Dan Bluemel / LA Activist)
“We are here today to rally for jobs,” said Maria Elena Durazo to the assembled workers. Durazo is the Executive Secretary-Treasurer for the LA County Federation of Labor.
“The best remedy for recovery from this recession is a paycheck, because paychecks pay the bills,” she said.
Despite the economic crisis, Durazo insisted that labor should not settle for any poor quality job, but should insist on the best.
“We don’t want the lowest-common-denominator jobs – the low-pay, no-benefit jobs that some want to impose on American workers,” she said. “The only way to get out of this recession is to create good jobs, with good pay and good benefits.”
The rally, which began at noon, focused on what is called the “30/10 Initiative.” The plan calls for the completion of 30 years worth of public transit projects in only 10 years. It would focus on 12 Metro expansion projects.
The funding for these projects is to come from Measure R, a half-cent-on-the-dollar sales tax, which was voted in by Los Angeles County voters in 2008. Because funds are to come in over a 30-year period, the initiative includes asking for a federal loan to pay for construction. Funds from Measure R would then pay back the loan over a 30-year period.
According to its advocates, the plan would create approximately 160,000 new construction jobs, as well as reduce gasoline consumption and pollution emissions.
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka speaks to union workers from the steps of City Hall. Trumka has been president of the union since Sept. 2009. (Dan Bluemel / LA Activist)
Addressing the demonstrators on City Hall’s south lawn, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said such projects would keep the U.S. from a “Republican-driven, all-out race-to-the-bottom.”
“You start this investment in a new, environmentally friendly metro rail system, and it will create a virtuous cycle of innovation and creation,” he said. “You’ll see spin-off businesses, new investments. This is how you rebuild an economy.”
Trumka called California “ground zero” in a battle between Wall Street and Main Street. He referred to Meg Whitman, Republican gubernatorial candidate and Carly Fiorina, Republican senatorial candidate, as “two clueless CEOs,” referring to their less than stellar corporate careers.
“Wall Street destroys our economy and robs us of millions of jobs,” he said. “And the Republican response is: Great! How about more of the same?”
Also supported at the event was the continuation of a six-day postal delivery week. The Postal Service is experiencing its own financial crisis these days, with its $3.5 billion dollar shortfall in the third quarter. The Postal Service has argued that shortening the organization’s work-week would reduce its debt.
However, critics say the savings are inadequate and have enormous social costs. They fear such consequences as the loss of 80,000 jobs, of much needed delivery for mail-order prescription drugs and a hindrance to small businesses that rely on Saturday deliveries.
A member of the letter carriers union stands in opposition of a five-day work-week, a cut that may eliminate 80,000 jobs and weaken the Postal Service. (Dan Bluemel / LA Activist)
Speaking at the rally, Fredric Rolando, president of the National Association of Letter Carriers, said that cutting the post office’s work week would be “misguided.”
“No institution has ever protected its franchise by slicing the core of what it does,” he said. “If the U.S. Postal Service reduces its service, others will step into the breach. And those others won’t necessarily have the same commitment to universal service and to assuring the well-being of all who rely on the mail.”
Rolando said that cutting services was a “slippery slope,” considering there has even been talk about reducing the post office to a four-day week.
“It is obvious that cutting service is 180 degrees the wrong way to go,” he said. “Expanding service with new products and new markets is the way to go.”
Spirits were high at the rally and attendees showed boisterous support for Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.) when they approached the podium to speak.
“There was a lot of solidarity here,” said Dave Kreminitzer, a postal worker from Washington, D.C. “It’s a unique situation to help your brothers and sisters in a cause you believe in.”
Kreminitzer said that despite Democratic support, the rally is not really political. It was a feeling shared by other letter carriers.
“We pick anybody,” said Larry Stewart, postal worker from Sacramento. “If they are for our issue, we support them. That’s all it’s about – a job. Give me a job and I’ll vote for you.”
Driving the point home, Stewart said issues such as gun control don’t mean much compared to employment, because “without the jobs, you can’t buy a gun.”
But Winfred Jenkins, a postal worker from New York, said he wished the Democratic Party would back labor more.
“They could be more forceful,” he said. “There is a lot of support out here for them, [but] they are afraid to fight back. If they take a stand, people will be behind them.”
Members of the Electrical Workers Local 11 listen to speakers address the need of jobs creation in the U.S. (Dan Bluemel / LA Activist)
The rally ended at 2 p.m. with postal workers getting honks of support from drivers as they stood on the sidewalk waiting for their buses to pick them up. There were letter carriers from all 50 states present at the rally, including U.S. territories like Puerto Rico.
Overall, workers want to see investment in the public sector to create stable jobs that would boost a weak middle class and private sector.
Steven Pasillas, a member of the Electrical Workers Local 11, saw an even grander economic necessity. He said the Federal Reserve System – a private corporation, he points out, that is as “federal as FedEx” – has a lot to do with the suffering economy.
“Why can’t the government print its own money,” he said, shedding light on the fact that the Washington could produce its own currency interest free, thus alleviating the U.S. of a cycle of perpetual debt.
“We are tired of it,” he said. “We want change. The whole community is affected. There are no jobs.”
“I’m just staying above water,” he added.
