Subject: [big campaign] Response to jobs report
From: "Brad Woodhouse" <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Date: Fri, 9 Jan 2009 15:31:07 +0000
List-Id: <bigcampaign.googlegroups.com>

The jobless rate jumped to 7.2 percent for December as employers slashed 524,000 jobs. We are now in a jobs crisis in this country - on top of a foreclosure and credit crisis.  The latests jobless numbers demonstrate why it is essential that Congress pass a jobs and economic recovery plan like that outlined by President Elect Obama to create or save millions of jobs and jump start the economy in the near and short term.

Today's announcement presents an opportunity for every organization and their state affiliates to call for bold, decisive and immediate action by Congress on Obama's jobs and economic recovery package.  We have prepared a template press release below which we urge your organization to adapt and to use today highlighting the crisis we are in and the need for action.  If you or any of your states put out releases or statements please send them to Jeremy Funk at [email-masked]

Non-Event Release

Campaign for Jobs and Economic Recovery Now
[Group Logos]
www.JobsandEconomicRecovery.com
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                  CONTACT:
DATE:

As a Sobering New U.S. Labor Report Finds 524,000 More Americans Lost Their Jobs in December, the Campaign for Jobs and Economic Recovery Now Calls on Rep./Senator XXXX to Support President-Elect Barack Obama’s Major Economic Recovery Plan

[City, State] – In reaction to the sobering new unemployment report today from the U.S. Labor Department finding 524,000 more Americans lost their jobs in December amid a worsening economic recession, [National/State group], a member of the Campaign for Jobs and Economic Recovery Now, called on Congress/ U.S. Rep./Sen. XXXXX to support President-Elect Barack Obama’s major plan to create or save 3 million jobs, strengthen the middle class and improve the economy in the near and long term.   

The new Labor Department figures brought the total number of lost American jobs in 2008 to 2.6 million and raised the unemployment rate to 7.2 percent - the highest since 1993.   The U.S. Labor Department figures come on the heels of the ADP National Employment Report which found that the U.S. private sector lost 693,000 jobs in December with small businesses, construction firms and manufacturers slashing payrolls.

“December marked another excruciating month for the U.S. economy with hundreds of thousands more Americans joining the already long unemployment lines across the country,” said XXXXX.  “A staggering 2.6 million jobs were lost last year, and the economy is only getting worse with each passing month.  It’s clear that bold and immediate action is needed to get America’s disappearing middle-class working again, and President-Elect Barack Obama has outlined a major jobs and economic recovery plan that will do exactly that.  Through smart, sound long-term investments in health care, energy efficiency, transportation and education, the Obama plan will create millions of jobs and bolster our economy in the short and long term.”

“[State]’s middle class families are ready to get back to work and President Elect Obama has a plan to help them do it.  As Congress prepares to take up the Obama jobs plan, all eyes are on U.S. Rep. /U.S. Senator as he/she holds key if not potentially deciding vote to move this urgently needed legislation forward to the President-Elect’s desk as quickly as possible upon taking office.  This is not the time for partisan politics.  It is our hope that Senator XXXX stands up for [state’s] struggling, out-of-work families by standing behind President Elect Obama’s jobs and economic recovery plan.”  

Addressing the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, President-Elect Obama outlined during his December 6th radio address a major economic plan that will create or save at least three million jobs in 2 years by making sound long-term investments in energy conservation, renewable energy technologies, schools, healthcare and transportation, including the single largest investment in U.S. national infrastructure since the creation of the federal highway system in the 1950s.  The plan includes careful, targeted spending with strong “use it or lose it” accountability measures.  Following 8 years of misguided economic policies that gave priority to tax breaks for multimillionaires and big corporations, the Obama plan will get America’s disappearing middle-class working again.

Launched on December 18th with nearly 50 events from coast to coast, the Campaign for Jobs and Economic Recovery is a coalition of more than 20 leading progressive groups and unions utilizing all the resources and techniques of a modern campaign to pass the Obama jobs plan.  From grassroots and grass tops contacts, to phones, emails, web videos and paid advertising – this $4-5 million campaign aims to pressure key and potentially deciding votes in Congress and build a movement for an overwhelming victory for this package so that the American people have confidence in the plan and its ability to help turn our economy around. 

            More than 20 leading progressive organizations and unions with millions of members have signed onto run a major campaign to pass a significant jobs and economic recovery package to create millions of jobs and help the economy grow in the near and long term.  To date, the following organizations have signed on the Campaign for Jobs and Economic Recovery Now: AFSCME, SEIU, AFLCIO, NEA, Americans United for Change, USAction, Campaign for America’s Future, ACORN, Health Care for America Now, Sierra Club, People for the American Way Foundation, National Women’s Law Center, TrueMajority.org, Young Democrats of America, 21st Century Democrats, Community Action Partnership, Institute for Policy Studies – Cities for Progress, Progressive Future ,  National Priorities Project , Cities for Progress, Progressive Future,Working Group on Extreme Inequality, YWCA USA , Economic Policy Institute, Women’s Voices. Women’s Vote Action Fund and the League of Conservation Voters.
 
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