Trumka will be part of a noted panel in "Spotlight on the Jobs Crisis" at the Economic Policy Institute (EPI).
With unemployment at its highest rate in more than 20 years, Trumka says America needs bold, quick action to put people back to work, in addition to longer term, structural fixes for our economy. The AFL-CIO initiative he announces will include calls to extend help for the unemployed, rebuild the nation's infrastructure, provide aid to struggling states and communities, create federally funded community-based jobs and increase lending to small and medium-sized businesses to spur job creation.
Other panelists, representing constituencies particularly hard hit by the current economic crisis, are Deepak Bhargava, executive director of the Center for Community Change; Wade Henderson, president and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights; Benjamin Todd Jealous, president and CEO of the NAACP; and Janet Murguía, president and CEO of the National Council of La Raza. Lawrence Mishel, EPI president, will moderate.
The Spotlight on the Jobs Crisis and Trumka's announcement come as President Obama is preparing for the December jobs summit on job creation. According to the latest data, the official unemployment rate of 10.2 percent rises to 17.5 percent when the underemployed are included.
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