(New Orleans) City may lay off up to three thousand workers

[UpInArms]

http://www.klfy.com/Global/story.asp?S=3925916

NEW ORLEANS The financial crisis brought on by Hurricane Katrina may prompt New Orleans to lay off as many as three thousand city workers.

The only agencies likely to be largely spared by the proposed layoffs of non-essential workers are those with a direct impact on public safety, including the police and fire departments, ambulance services and the Sewerage and Water Board. Electrical and health inspectors also will be needed to get commerce up and running.The job termination order was signed Thursday by Chief Administrative Officer Brenda Hatfield and sent to the city's Civil Service Commission, the agency that oversees the hiring and firing of city workers.The Times-Picayune reports today that without a significant infusion of cash, the number of layoffs could approach three thousand and would take effect on October 14th, or as soon as practical after that date.

...short blurb...

[DemsUnited]

1. EXCUSE ME, what the hell is 100s of billions of our taxpaying dollars

for if not to prevent this kind of stuff from happening???

ARRGGHH!

[RC]

2. The 100s of billions is for administrative fees.

What falls out of their pockets will be used to get things up and running again.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

3. Thank god we don't have selfish interests running our publicly

funded gubmint. How terrible would that be? Looks like we will be having a changing of the guard in NO. Anybody think there is something wrong with not hiring the people who actually lived, worked and played there before?? 15 dollars an hour is probably a lot more than many people were used to making in NO. Down the rabbit hole we go once again... pity.


http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-op-latino25sep25,1,6749414.story?track=mostemailedlink
Mexican and Central American laborers are already arriving in southeastern Louisiana. One construction firm based in Metairie, La., sent a foreman to Houston to round up 150 workers willing to do cleanup work for $15 an hour, more than twice their wages in Texas. The men — most of whom are undocumented, according to news accounts — live outside New Orleans in mobile homes without running water and electricity. The foreman expects them to stay "until there's no more work" but "there's going to be a lot of construction jobs for a really long time."

Because they are young and lack roots in the United States, many recent migrants are ideal for the explosion of construction jobs to come. Those living in the U.S. will relocate to the Gulf Coast, while others will come from south of the border. Most will not intend to stay where their new jobs are, but the longer the jobs last, the more likely they will settle permanently. One recent poll of New Orleans evacuees living in Houston emergency shelters found that fewer than half intend to return home. In part, their places will be taken by the migrant workers. Former President Clinton recently hinted as much on NBC's "Meet the Press" when he said New Orleans will be resettled with a different population

[ninkasi]

4. This is sickening...

The people who had to leave New Orleans because of the hurricane have lost their homes, and now are facing losing their jobs. So why can't they be given the very first chance to do these jobs? I realize some are not physically able, or are elderly, or might not want to go back. However, to give jobs to others, when the ones who were forced out want to go back is criminal.

For awhile, I thought the Bush administration was merely inept; I see now that many decisions are made which are mean-spirited and sadistic. I know that sounds a little paranoid, but so much they have done seems calculated to cause, rather than alleviate, misery. Are they doing it to keep people off balance, so worried about their own lives that they don't have the time or energy to see the rapid decent into fascism?

It's hard to believe that any administration could screw up as badly as this bunch by mistake. It looks like they are deliberately trying to punish the people for being black, or being poor, or for simply existing. Evil is too mild a word to describe Bush and his thugs.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

6. I met a young African American woman at Best Buy today.... she

has lost her home.... and is now going to live in Atlanta with some friends.... she evacuated a few days before the storm.. didn't lose too many people... but a friend of hers did stay on the I-10 Bridge at night... and she said that in the morning.. people next to her might either be alive or dead... this is maddening to the nth degree.

America, home of the taxed or tax cuts... land of the spending spree... land of the hummer an environmental bummer... land of the patriot act... a devil's pact... don't get me wrong... this ain't a sad sad song.... we shall overcome... once we get rid of this bum.

[ninkasi]

7. You are so right...

At my age, I do not place people into a category based on race, or religion, so much as I do on whether they consider that we are all in this life together, and need each other to survive. I have more in common with an African American woman, since I am a woman, than with any of the white, corrupt, far right-wing males now trying to dominate America's future.

I am white, but I am a woman, and feel love and compassion for my brothers and sisters of whichever race, who choose to make this world a better place, a place where we take care of each other, and do not cut each other's throats in order to get ahead. The corrupt bunch in control of our government now need to be voted out of office, and slink back into whatever hellhole spawned them.

[Barkley]

8. Fight Poverty, Hire Blacks

Ninkasi, your ideas make perfect sense; get these black and poor people jobs.

But this preference for lowest costs labor shows that Bush really doesn't care about Black people.

[KoKo]

5. I wonder if these were city workers in government who had pensions

and what will happen to them? Non-essential workers could be human services and clerical, bookeepers, accountants and others who kept the city government running.

It's devastating that New Orleans which is a vital part of national history will no longer exist in any way that we would remember it with it being repopulated "in a different way."

The whole gulf will change, I expect. The fishing is probably ruined for decades if not forever and who knows what will happen with the Casinos. Maybe the Gulf will become America's Gaming Capitol. Las Vegas, South. The rich heritage of those in the Bayou's the Cajuns and the rest will probably be a memory.

We don't even have an idea of what the outcome of this all will be. Who can even imagine...it might turn out differently than it seems. We have to hope for the best in that the people with long roots there, will find a way to preserve whatever they can.

[cap]

9. what is so hard to shove a pile of money at the city

government to cover salaries?

[Divine Discontent]

10. new thread has the discussion on this

it has the official news of the layoffs occuring

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1826452

sorry didn't see.