UAW President Bob King
United Auto Workers President Bob King and Rev. Jesse Jackson announced an August 28th march to mark the beginning of a new campaign that will call on our leaders to Rebuild America by enacting policy that will unleash the skills and talent of the American workforce. Here is the statement at a July 12th press conference in Detroit announcing the march.
No group has suffered more from America’s economic meltdown than working men and women. The auto industry was decimated and workers paid the price. Urban America is in crisis and teachers, transportation workers, and all who do the hands-on work that make our cities run are the first to feel the effects of budget cuts. Unemployment continues at around 9.8%. Detroit is ground zero of this national crisis with an unemployment rate that is far higher. From December 2007 to June 2009, auto assembly and parts production accounted for 325,000 lost jobs. The auto industry has gone from a high of 1.5 million workers to 400,000 today.
In Appalachia and the Gulf, years of unenforced regulation, driven by corporate greed and government complicity, have led to needless deaths and destruction in the coal and oil fields. Our national infrastructure is crumbling–industry, education, transportation, environment–while millions of talented workers stand by, ready to stem the tide.
Poverty is on the rise. Home and church foreclosures continue to mount and student loan defaults are increasing. Our cities are under siege. Public transportation services are cut, workers laid off, but fares go up. Teachers are laid off and programs are cut as education budgets are slashed. Public housing faces cuts and we experience reverse redlining in our neighborhoods. We bailed out the predators–banks got money at 0%–while we made loans to the auto industry.
We need a plan for recovery. We need economic reconstruction. We need urban policy geared toward reindustrialization. We need fair trade policies that will even the playing field for American companies and workers and, as more and more people face greater economic need, it’s time to revive the War on Poverty.
On August 28th in Detroit, the Rainbow PUSH Coalition and UAW, along with our friends and allies, will march to mark the beginning of a new campaign that will call on our leaders to Rebuild America by enacting policy that will unleash the skills and talent of the American workforce. We will march for Jobs, Justice and Peace on the anniversary of that day in 1963 when Walter Reuther, president of UAW, Martin Luther King, Jr., president of SCLC, and other civil rights leaders joined with hundreds of thousands of Americans for the March on Washington.
Leading up to that day, marches were held around the country, building momentum for what was to be the largest civil rights rally in history. In Detroit, prior to the March on Washington, 125,000 marchers participated in the Freedom Walk led by Dr. King. At the march, King delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech for the first time before sharing it with the world in Washington. This year, a massive march has been called for October 2 in Washington.
We will begin to build momentum again right here in Detroit on August 28th.
It’s time to enact real change for working families and all America. It’s time to reverse the policies that have resulted in jobs and investment flowing out, creating economic hardship for millions of Americans. It’s time to Rebuild America with Jobs, Justice and Peace. We are calling on our national leaders to Rebuild America by focusing on:
Jobs–economic reconstruction driven by targeted stimulus, reindustrialization and trade policy that will create jobs, support manufacturing in America, and put workers first.
Justice–enforcement of the law regarding workers rights, civil rights, industrial regulation, and creation of strong urban policy, and fair and just education, economic, and health policy.
Peace–ending the ongoing wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, saving lives and redirecting the war budget to rebuilding America.
We invite all who share our commitment to march with us in Detroit on August 28th. Nothing is more important than strengthening our coalition of conscience and restoring the promise of democracy and economic justice for working families.
Filed under: Conferences and Events, Economy | Tagged: Bob King, Detroit August 28 march, Push Rainbow Coalition, UAW |
Talking Union 
We have the right to remain silent but we do not have the right to public education. Is there a way to start a petition to have quality education as a fundamental right of every citizen of The United States of America. This is the only way to save public education.
I agree with above.
[…] but their voice is muted and ignored in the electronic noise machine. Marches are planned by the UAW and Rev. Jesse Jackson on August 28th in Detroit and in Washington on 10.02.10. But the expected war of the words between Rev. […]
[…] but their voices are muted and ignored in the electronic noise machine. Marches are planned for August 28 in Detroit and October 2 in Washington. But the expected war of words between Rev. Al Sharpton and […]
Going Green dose not work with Globalization.
Economic Globalization requires the movement of goods and unfortunately this is being allowed in our waters by mostly foreign ships according to a report prepared for congress in DEC 2009 without Federal laws to protect our waters from the pollution of ballast dumping. There is also a huge carbon footprint these ships present. Manufacturing jobs are created where cost are lower. If international shipping was held accountable for water pollution and the carbon footprint caused, bringing foreign goods into our country, their cost would rise and could allow us to be cost effective producers again. The following is from a report prepared for congress in DEC 2009
“Although estimates of the costs of ballast treatment may be imprecise and vary from vessel to
vessel, there is some general agreement on average costs.14 For example, it may cost an estimated
$400,000 per vessel for modification of container/bulk vessels to use onshore ballast water
treatment facilities at California ports. More generally, the cost of retrofitting vessels to treat
ballast water has been estimated at between $200,000 and $310,000 per vessel for mechanical
treatment and around $300,000 for chemical treatment.15 Most of this expense will be borne by
foreign shipping companies, as the U.S. flag fleet is a small percentage of the global fleet,16 and
likely passed along to consumers of products imported on these ships.”
Until the media,unions,manufactures,health professionals, inform the general public about jobs lost, the human health effects of water borne virus, human pathogens, and invasive’s, ballast water presents, bringing foreign goods into our country while taking Americans jobs, or the terrorist threat it presents, the Senate will not act. Action creating national ballast water legislation, would curtail the “vision of economic globalization” as the answer to help the American economy. They will not admit this policy of economic globalization, has flaws despite the continued destruction of our environment by foreign economic interest. So far all we can hope for under this administration is delay by another study,and a two decade plan by the Coast Guard to address invasive’s, while delegating out the pollution, by other materials, and the terrorist threat ballast system pose, to several branches of government without any infrastructure to enforce. Unfortunately they know that not being a comprehensive plan it will not be adequate and will be able to be circumvented by industry. Preventing chemicals, like rat poison used by sea captains to kill invasive’s will not be possible, by the EPA through Clean Water Act as they do not have infrastructure for enforcement. This was recently apparent by the lack of enforcement during the Gulf disaster allowing ballast systems to move tar balls into Lake Pontchartrain, despite this administration having been repeatedly warned that release of material through ocean development would allow ballast system to spread it. They continue to force states to spend enormous amounts of money to create state laws, that pit, competition among the states negotiating with foreign shipping, without the states having an infrastructure for enforcement. Perhaps if the American worker and the American labor unions understood this problem and withheld their support for this administration, they would then understand the need to direct the Senate to address the frivolous states rights issue of one Senator Boxer over her alleged belief that national legislation would hinder her states right to tougher laws. She killed the bi-partisan legislation, passed by the house 395-7 for the change we needed in 2008. Economic Americanization will only take president over economic globalization if our elected leaders realize they will be out of office if they do not put our country first. Putting America first can not be done by this administrations plan to negotiate hidden carbon emissions and currency manipulation with a communist country while limiting US carbon emissions, and while allowing foreign shipping to destroy our economy and environment bringing cheap foreign manufactured goods into our country. How can anyone in an American labor union support these people?
[…] are planned by the UAW and Rev. Jesse Jackson on Aug. 28 in Detroit and in Washington on Oct. […]
Hey! I could have sworn I’ve been to this blog before but after checking through some of the post I realized it’s new to me. Anyways, I’m definitely glad I found it and I’ll be bookmarking and checking back frequently!