Job losses hurt workers, their families, and their communities

 Wife and I watched the Movie “Company Men” today.  The movie was about the impact that job loss had on salaried workers at a large ship building corporation.   These men were used to making big salaries.  After their firings, they were faced with finding new jobs and working with a job placement company to learn the ropes of writing good resumes and doing job interviews.  One of the men, at age 60, was faced with the impossible situation of finding a job at age 60 in the midst of the deep recession that started in 2007.  After futile job search, he took his own life.  Suicide, foreclosures and family disintegration are facts of life during harsh economic times. These problems are real issues that go unrecognized by most Americans. 

 The lead character, after doing job searches for months, found himself working for his brother-in-law in a manual labor job.  He had been used to living the good life; he had a big mortgage, an expensive car, and a membership to a country club where he loved to play golf.  He lost his golf club membership, was behind on his mortgage payment, he sold his expensive sports car and decided to have a rummage sale to raise some money.  Facing a financial crisis, he and his wife were forced to move in with his mother.  At age 37, he had tasted success but when he lost his job, he faced the same struggles that ordinary working people go through when they lose their long term, good paying jobs. 

His boss, a division manager, also lost his job in the corporate downsizing process.  The top corporate dog was paid twelve million dollars a year and had accumulated wealth.  He would certainly not have to face hard times.   When the division manager decided to buy an empty plant and to put people back to work things turned around for those who had been laid off, including the hourly rated workers who had also lost their jobs during the downsizing and out sourcing.  The all of those workers, salaried and hourly rated union members, had job skills that would be needed in the new venture. 

This movie reminded me of the Movie “Roger and Me” Michael Moore’s great movie that demonstrated the hardships that GM workers faced when their jobs were outsourced to Mexico in the 1980s.  Roger Smith could be considered to have been the equivalent of the big corporate boss who had a huge salary and benefits; he was insulated from the distress that faced the salaried and hourly workers who had lost their jobs the corporation that he headed.    

I lived through a plant closing where 4500 hourly workers had been laid off or transferred out of town. There were also salaried workers who faced job losses, transfers or early retirements.  There suicides, divorces, foreclosures and all of the other ills that befall people who lose their lifetime jobs that paid good salaries and wages that made for comfortable lives. 

Today, with the sequester looming on the horizon and thanks to Republican intransigence, there are hundreds of thousands of Americans who will be faced with permanent or temporary job losses.  By closing tax loopholes for the rich and for big corporations, this disaster can be averted, but out of touch politicians refuse to acknowledge the facts of working life.  They will get their salaries regardless of the hardship that others will face.  They will get their full paychecks for what has become a part time job.  The House of Representatives take time off the job during times when they should be working hard to solve our national problems.  John Boehner and the Tea Bag slackers should be fired. 

The Republicans do not care about creating jobs

Republicans do not care about unemployment, they should!

When we hear politicians talk about the need for jobs, I wonder if they really understand how urgent it is to act to create them. It doesn’t seem that they understand the consequences that come with losing a job and the ability to pay for the necessities of life. The Republican Party has acted to stop “the job killing stimulus” spending that helped to turn huge job losses into job gains. These people are more interested in insuring that people in the highest income tax brackets do not lose their Bush tax cuts, never mind that at the same time they cry their eyes out about deficits and call for a flat tax that would hurt the already hard pressed middle class the most.

We hear that there is a huge problem with home foreclosures, but seldom do we hear that unemployment is a major reason for them. We hear that Fanny and Freddie made it too easy for people to buy homes. Those institutions are not the major reason for the foreclosure crisis; the millions of lost jobs deserve the focus.

No one talks about the true impact of job losses in the United States. Millions of people have worked a good deal of their lives for businesses that have closed their plants and shipped their jobs to China where they can take advantage of cheap labor in that country. For those people unemployment is a serious issue. People, who lose their jobs here, are often thrown into poverty and see their way of life destroyed, and in the process often see the destruction of their families.

I worked in a plant that was closed in 1988. In all, 4500 hourly workers lost their jobs along with several hundred salaried employees. I learned that almost 60 of the hourly work force committed suicide when they lost their long term jobs and their financial security. Another shocking statistic that I heard was that about half of the hourly rated employees lost their families. Can you imagine 2300 people losing their families as well as their jobs? I have no doubt that a large number of those employees lost their homes through foreclosures and faced bankruptcies. They had been good, productive employees, but when they lost their livelihoods many found solace in alcohol and drugs.

In Michael Moore’s movie, Roger and Me, there was graphic evidence of what happened when GM jobs in Flint, Michigan were decimated. Roger Smith, the chairman of the Board of GM had closed plants in that city and sent them to Mexico where the company could find employees who would work for $5 a day. The city had to build a new jail to house former workers who turned to crime to support themselves. The city lost tax revenues and much of its infrastructure deteriorated. Foreclosures were rampant throughout the city. Yet, there were those who were not affected by the job losses, those wealthy residents who could continue their lives as though nothing of note had happened to their city. For them, life went on. They enjoyed their comfortable life styles while the unemployed suffered need and want and no doubt, many committed suicide. In Moore’s movie, when some wealthy old women were asked about the situation while they were enjoying a game of golf, their solution was to say, “Let them get jobs”. They didn’t have time to worry about the workers or their families that were left in desperate straits with the many plant closures because they were too busy with their leisure activities.

When the President presents his jobs program in September, it will be the first one offered since the Republicans took control of the United States Congress. They campaigned on job creation and then dithered through July without presenting a single job creation bill; and then the House of Representatives took most of the month of August off. During the legislative season, the House met every other week when they should have been at work solving the nation’s problems. You could call them part time workers who make $176,000 a year. The jobless would welcome any kind of a job. One congressional salary is enough to pay four workers for full time jobs that would pay $44,000 a year. The Republicans did hold the Senate open during the August recess while most of its members went home. They did that so that the President could not make recess appointments during their absence; many important appointments went unfilled. It is quite obvious that the Republicans do not care that many of their constituents are suffering from an economy that is anemic in creating new jobs. Mr. Boehner, where are the jobs?