Ramping Up the Pressure for Jobs and Benefits

Leroy Smith leads chants at a Chicago JwJ Unemployed Workers Council action outside the unemployment office on June 1. Jobless activists and JwJ member groups rallied and collected "applications" for the 1 million jobs that would be created by the Local Jobs for America Act.

Congress still doesn't get it.  During the Congressional recess this week, Jobs with Justice coalitions across the country are sending them a message:  There is no such thing as a "Jobless Recovery".

America is 28 months and 8 million fewer jobs into a major jobs crisis -- caused by Wall Street recklessness and corporate greed.  Unemployment levels are deeper and longer-lasting that any post-war recession, there are nearly six people looking for every job opening, yet Congress has yet to enact a serious job-creation program, like the "Local Jobs for America Act".  And pundits are telling us we should just wait a few more years til we can put America back to work.

The House of Representatives even stripped health care benefits for the jobless from its recent unemployment extension bill, passed on Friday.  Efforts to restore the jobless benefits for long-term unemployed will be launched in the Senate.