Central Florida

Over several months, Central Florida Jobs with Justice has been engaging bus riders in the fight to save transit services.  A key bus route from Kissimmee that stops at  2 major hospitals, a bus transfer center and shopping mall was facing a potential cut in the last run of the night. Hospital and Service industry employees that depend on the bus would have had no way to get to and from work. When Lynx asked for public comment on this potential cut, CFJWJ mobilized riders to make their voices heard against this change.  People filled out comment cards with a simple demand …Don’t Cut Route 18! After 2 weeks of collecting comments and bringing awareness to this issue, the route was taken off the list of potential cuts.

Coming up in the next few months, Public Transit Riders in Central Florida have a huge fight on their hands.  Lynx transportation is looking into cost-cutting options in order to deal with a $9 million budget shortfall for the 2011-2012 fiscal years. This is the same yearly problem due to the lack of dedicated funding sources for the bus service.  On April 7th, the Lynx Board will begin the discussion on potential cuts for operations and fare increase.   Central Florida Jobs with Justice is mobilizing transit riders to the meeting to demand solutions for our underfunded transit system. Service cuts are not an option! This is just the beginning of the People’s Transit Movement in Central Florida.

Recently, the National Bureau of Economic Research announced that the recession is over. They say it lasted 18 months from December 2007 until June 2009 -- the longest since WWII, longer than 1973-1975 or 1981-1982.  According to the experts, that means the recession was over a year ago.  It may have come as a surprise to you.  And, it may be extremely surprising news to the millions of people still unemployed.

Let us look at some facts.   Florida’s unemployment rate is 11.7% and growing despite the fact that some new jobs are created. Over a million people are out of work in Florida.  Sean Snaith, an economist at University of Central Florida, said the meager jobs being created do not offset the jobs loss or meet the demands of new people looking for work—he called it "a drop in a pretty empty bucket."

The fight for keeping and creating jobs grew stronger in Florida this past week.  Central Florida Jobs with Justice mobilized for a rally, organized by the Space Coast AFL-CIO and Florida state AFL-CIO, that brought over 2,000 people from across the state to say “Save Our Space”!  Workers and their families traveled to the space coast from Miami, Pensacola, Jacksonville and all points in between to join business and community leaders to rally in support of continued federal funding of this vital economic driver for Florida’s future.  The rally featured National AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and other leaders from the American labor movement who used this dire situation as a backdrop to launch a national jobs campaign that would create 10 million American jobs.

Recent budget proposals working their way through Congress all but eliminate funding for NASA’s human spaceflight operations in Florida. Space operations have long been one of Florida’s most important economic sectors, supporting tens of thousands of good jobs and providing the economic cornerstone for many communities across the state. The loss of funding would eliminate tens of thousands of jobs, decimate many communities, and send shock waves across the state this at a time when Florida is facing the greatest unemployment and economic crisis in recent memory.