SEIU Calls for Bold Action on Job Creation

Washington, DC--Today, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) released the following statement of Secretary-Treasurer Anna Burger on President Obama's call for a jobs forum in December:

Said Burger, We are now 22 months into the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. In those 22 months we have lost 8.1 million jobs, and 17.5 percent of the workforce - 27.4 million workers - are unemployed, underemployed, or have given up looking for work. The scale of our problems is simply staggering.

"We need swift, bold action to create millions of jobs. In order to build long-term sustainable economic growth, we need a comprehensive approach that deals with our immediate jobs crisis and makes strategic investments to create the jobs that Americans will need in the future.

"In the coming weeks, SEIU will detail our plan to solve our jobs crisis and put us back on the path to broadly-shared economic growth. Our plan will focus on investments in green jobs, including retrofitting of houses and buildings, investments in human services to support American families, and real economic recovery that reaches state and local governments to save critical services we all rely on.

"We need to fundamentally change the way we value work in our country and act now on meaningful reforms to protect our families from future economic crises. The jobs forum announced by the President this morning is an important first step."

With 2.1 million members in Canada, the United States and Puerto Rico, SEIU is the fastest-growing union in the Americas. Focused on uniting workers in healthcare, public services and property services, SEIU members are winning better wages, healthcare and more secure jobs for our communities, while uniting their strength with their counterparts around the world to help ensure that workers--not just corporations and CEOs--benefit from today's global economy.

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