Tag Archive for jobs
AT&T Takes Money, Fires People
[From Support the Fight for Good Jobs at AT&T]
AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson made a promise to invest in his workforce and create at least 7,000 jobs if the tax bill passed.
Well, the bill did pass, and AT&T received a $20 billion windfall. But instead of creating jobs, AT&T has laid off over a thousand workers across the country in the past few months. And the company keeps sending work to low-wage and overseas contractors, devastating families and communities across America.
AT&T workers are fighting back. CWA members at AT&T Midwest and AT&T’s national Legacy T division are fighting for fair union contracts and have voted to strike if necessary to secure a deal that guarantees good jobs, affordable healthcare, and a secure retirement.
Send AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson this message : “I support good jobs and a fair union contract for working people at AT&T.” Sign the petition HERE.
Lots of Jobs!
Great news, in case you missed it. U.S. jobs have been growing for 80 straight months! Good for our economy AND for many people struggling to find work.
Looks like the economists are right. Since 80 months = roughly 6 years under Obama and half a year under Trump, Presidents have little to do with job growth. Who cares who gets the credit? As long as more American workers are finding employment and their families are having improved quality of life!
Horray for IKEA!
[IKEA just came up a big notch in my corporate-responsibility mind. I’ll let this article speak for itself.]
Since the start of the civil war, almost five million Syrians have fled their homes. Most have ended up in neighboring countries – Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon – where they live among their host communities or in refugee camps.
According to a recent UNHCR study, Jordan hosts the second largest number of refugees relative to the size of its population with 89 refugees for every 1000 inhabitants.
There are well over half a million Syrians (655,000) registered with the United National High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) in the country. The vast majority (80%) live in the local community and the remainder in refugee camps. Over three quarters (78%) are women and children. Nearly all (93%) live below the poverty line.
Syrian refugee children walk to school at the Al Za’atari refugee camp.
IKEA has launched an initiative that it hopes will help – by providing jobs. Partnering with local non-profit organisations, the Swedish furniture giant plans to start a line of textiles and rugs made by Syrian refugees, mostly women, working alongside Jordanians.
“After shelter and basic needs are taken care of, the next thing is really how to integrate people into society,” explained Jesper Brodin, IKEA’s head of range and supply in an interview.
“The products will be a mix of local artisans’ and IKEA’s knowledge of design, as well as regional designers,” he said, adding: “It’s to create something new that our customers can be excited about and that people can be proud of.”
IKEA aims to launch the collection in 2019, with the first group starting work in September 2017. Initially, the products will be sold in the Middle East but in the future could reach the shores of the EU.
Not a Contradiction–Just an Enlightened Bottom Line
Here’s a bit of seeming contradiction that I think is a brilliant idea: the Kentucky Coal Museum is installing solar panels on its roof. It will save them money. Even better, it’s part of Kentucky’s attempt to replace coal as its primary source of energy. Read about this at the USA Today article.
In fact, the coal industry is dwindling, not just out of environmental concerns, but because of corporations’ bottom lines. Coal is too expensive to produce when alternative energy sources are available to cash in on.
Coal miners are losing jobs, and families are suffering as a result of that. They need to be retrained and hired in the energy jobs of the future, not kept in unhealthy, unsafe underground mines.
My Oreo Fix Not worth 600 Families’ Lives
A tall, cold glass of milk. A package of chocolaty Oreos…no longer in my immediate future. My conscience won’t allow me. Here’s what’s happening:
Irene Rosenfeld, the CEO of Mondelez, the parent company, makes over $21 million a year (she got a $6 million raise in 2014 and has received $170 million in compensation over the last eight years). But she insisted on a 60% cut in pay and benefits for Chicago workers to save money for the company. The executives said No, so she cut all those jobs, outsourcing the jobs of 600 workers.
That’s a lot of emotional and financial stress on 600 families, as well as their community.
If this bothers you, go to Jobs with Justice and sign their petition.
And boycott the company’s products until they make things right.
Shoppers: Make that Really a Good Deal
Attention, Walmart shoppers: Those deals you’re getting aren’t such good deals. Set aside for the moment that you can get similar items elsewhere on sale and meet or beat Walmart’s prices. Set aside the fact that you’re budget likes it when you buy items that are cheap every day, even though their manufacturer is subsidized by the Chinese government, with low standards that often produce sub-standard or dangerous products. The fact is, those “cheap” items cost America and our workers dearly.
Reuters reports that Walmart single-handedly caused 15.3% of our counry’s goods trade deficit between 2001 and 2013–that’s $48.1 BILLION that went to China rather than into our economy. 400,000 American jobs were lost to Chinese workers, who, by the way, suffer abuse in their jobs.
Walmart claims they’ll be adding jobs here. Most of their workers, however, are paid low wages and are kept part-time so the corporation doesn’t have to pay benefits. According to the Economic Policy Institute, real jobs are not materializing, and the EPI projects that Walmart will send more manufacturing jobs to China in the next decade than it creates for U.S. workers. All in all, the situation harms our economy.
Keep this in mind this holiday-shopping season. Watch the ads. Use the coupons. Shop wisely. Just not at Walmart. Make it a merrier Christmas for the American economy and our workers.
Immigrants, English, and Crime
Immigrants refuse to learn English, our national language, and cause greatly increased crime in our neighborhoods. We hear this all the time.
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine have completed a two-year study of 41 million immigrants to the U.S., and, yes, they included the 11 million who are not here legally. Their report is an eye-opener. You can read about it at the Omaha News/Nation. Here’s the upshot, though: today’s immigrants are assimilating rapidly into our country, learning English as soon as they can, getting an education, finding jobs, advancing in careers, and–here’s the kicker– they’re not as likely to commit crimes as the rest of us American citizens.
Gives us something to chew on, doesn’t it?
Your Buns won’t Fit into this Satchel
Dig the gum and gunk off those old leather airline seats and put them to good use rather than tossing them into the landfill. That’s what’s happening with that old Southwest Airline seat that you may have settled your buns into.
The 40+ acres of leather removed from 80,000 seats went to Looptworks, in Portland, OR, who hires adults with developmental disabilities to disassemble and clean the seats before the leather is made into satchels, totes, backpacks, handbags, and toiletry cases.
The jobs being created are useful, and the people are learning job skills. In addition, by using recycled rather than new leather on the bags, the earth wins: the manufacturing of each of these bags saves 72% in carbon emissions and 3,000-4,000 gallons of water.
To learn more about Project Luvseat, visit the Looptwork website, http://looptworks.com.
Work for a Quarter an Hour?
Would you work for 25 cents an hour? You might if you’re encouraged to believe that’s all you’re worth. But, wait–there are labor laws to prevent that. Not true, if you’re a person with a disability. There’s a loophole in the labor law that allows companies to enrich themselves and pay huge salaries to their CEOs by “helping” those “poor, unfortunate souls,” giving them jobs so they “can feel good about themselves, like real people“–and paying them next to nothing.
These companies know how hard it is for a disabled person to find employment, and they’re aware that fewer than 20% of people with disabilities can actually end up with jobs.
Read about this unfair situation: “Subminimum Wage” for Disabled Workers Called Exploitative.
Then do something about it by signing the petition to the Labor Department. Also, check into charities that hire the handicapped (e.g., Goodwill Industries) before donating to them. Find out how much their disabled employees are paid, and how much their CEO and other officers make.