Building Trades News

Unemployment is the problem!

For months now, all of you, as elected Representatives of the People, have been dealing with business bankruptcies, budget shortfalls and covering your behinds because the depression/recession that has hit the United States, your own state and businesses. We understand that you are concerned with ways to stop the economic slide that would balance your budgets and hopefully limit any employees being laid off who provide service to the public. However, you have it all wrong.

The only way that nationally and locally we are going to kick start this economic crisis is by putting the millions of people to work who have lost the jobs already. These are people who are trained, skilled, experienced and ready to immediately go to work. These are people in the construction industry – these are skilled craftsmen and women.

As with past recessions and especially during the Great Depression, governments learned very quickly that it is jobs in the construction industry that have the quickest and biggest impact on employment. Great projects were undertaken during the bleakest economic times. Bridges, road, public buildings, hospitals and parks were undertaken to puts people to work. They created jobs, in many cases, where there were none. These projects brought new economic growth to the most depressed areas of the country.

If you want to immediately turn the economy around for the better then development or public works projects need to be targeted. The stimulus funding that President Obama authorized will be a fantastic start, however, the oversight necessary to make sure that the funding is getting to local areas needs to be implemented immediately with five mandates.

1. Commit to the projects that have been identified that will benefit our communities and the country with no changes for one year; 2. See that the stimulus funding is reaching these projects; 3. Make absolutely sure that the jobs that are created are good-paying and long term; 4. Streamline the process for getting projects started; 5. Take politics out of the process with a bi-partisan, Stimulus Implementation Commission.

We hear that stimulus funding has been approved. We hear that it will be creating opportunities for business and working families, however, it isn’t working. The best of intentions won’t create one opportunity if there is no plan in place for distribution of the funding to new projects.

Many professions will be effected by a push from all levels to kick-start projects. Architects, engineers and project management along with craftsmen and women can be put to work tomorrow. All they need are the directions to the jobs.

Too many of you are concentrating on layoffs instead of employment. Too many of you are looking at cutting jobs as a means to balance budgets. And, too many of you are arguing over ideology about big government versus small government instead of doing something about putting people to work.

If you want tax revenue and balanced budgets – put America to work! If you want to stop home bankruptcies – put America to work! If you want American manufactures to begin selling products – put America to work! If you want consumers to spend money – put people to work! If you want the respect and admiration of the American people – put America to work! We know that it can be done because it’s been done before. It’s been done in weeks rather than months and months rather than years. President Franklin Roosevelt faced a greater threat to our future than we do now and turned it around with forceful action. He said on June 16, 1933 upon signing the National Industrial Recovery Act; “The law I have just signed was passed to put people back to work, to let them buy more of the products of farms and factories and start our business at a living rate again. This task is in two stages: first, to get many hundreds of thousands of the unemployed back on the payroll by snowfall and, second, to plan for a better future for the longer pull. While we shall not neglect the second, the first stage is an emergency job. It has the right of way.”

You might say that the federal government has passed the stimulus funding package and that will take care of everything. Well it is not happening fast enough for men and women who are currently unemployed and losing what they have built and saved. We are at the “First Stage” and it is an emergency! Put America back to work!