After Rocky Period, AFL-CIO Backs Obama’s Jobs Plan [View All]

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After Rocky Period, AFL-CIO Backs Obama’s Jobs Plan
Susan Crabtree | September 9, 2011, 10:59AM



AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka hasn't been shy in recent weeks about speaking out against President Obama's willingness to compromise with Republicans on everything from the super committee to the so-called Gang of Six's approach to deficit reduction, but last night he seemed elated over Obama's jobs plan and his pledge to "go to the mat" for workers.

"The President took an important and necessary step tonight: he started a serious national conversation about how to solve our jobs crisis," Trumka said in a lengthy statement. "He showed working people that he is willing to go to the mat to create new jobs on a substantial scale. Tonight's speech should energize the nation to come together, work hard and get serious about jobs."

Trumka also praised Obama's for rejecting the "pernicious myth" that the only way to address Wall Street's economic crisis is to punish workers who perform "critical public services" and curtail their benefits and collective bargaining rights. The president of the nation's largest union said he expects to see more proposals from the President in the coming weeks to put America back to work and pressed Republicans in Congress to stop blocking spending bills and pushing a deregulation-and-tax-cuts-only agenda.

"Republicans are going to have to stop blocking bills that sustain or create millions of jobs and start offering credible solutions," he said. "We don't have time to waste on the same old failed policies of deregulation and lower taxes that drove our economy off the cliff in the first place. All our elected leaders will be judged by whether they act with integrity and energy to create good jobs now."

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