Demonstrators challenged President Bush?s claim that his policies will create jobs, as three top administration officials toured sites in Rochester, St. Paul and Richfield Wednesday.
As part of a ?Jobs and Growth? tour, Labor Secretary Elaine Chao, Treasury Secretary John Snow and Commerce Secretary Don Evans visited the Mayo Clinic, the offices of the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce and the headquarters of Best Buy Corp. At each stop, union members and community groups called on the Bush administration to take action to end the hemorrhaging of American jobs.
C. Scott Cooper, executive director of the Minnesota Alliance for Progressive Action, said the U.S. economy has lost more than 3.1 million private-sector jobs since Bush took office, including tens of thousands of jobs lost in Minnesota.
?They have the nerve to tout their economic policies,? Cooper said, ?when all we?ve seen are tax policies that benefit the wealthy, trade policies that ship jobs out of the country, and budget priorities that are dismantling our safety net.?
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| Demonstrators, including Minnesota AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Steve Hunter and Minneapolis Central Labor Union Council President Bill McCarthy, outside Best Buy headquarters. Photo by Barb Kucera |
Julie Anderson, union representative for Machinists District Lodge 77, pointed out some of the latest casualties ? the 170 workers at Eagan-based Home Products International, who learned Tuesday (July 29) that the company will eliminate their jobs by the end of the year and ship most of the work to Mexico.
Anderson said the workers ? most of whom are represented by the Machinists ? ?are losing their jobs, losing their benefits and, basically, losing their future.?
Larry Weiss, coordinator of the Minnesota Fair Trade Coalition, accused the Bush administration of ?creating a jobless economy.? The Home Products jobs, he said, are among the 50,000 manufacturing jobs Minnesota has lost in the last three years ? more than one-fourth of them because of trade policies that favor transnational corporations over workers.
Demonstrators wore buttons that said ?Read Bush?s Lips ? No New Jobs? and waved signs stating ?Jobs Worth Fighting For.? Some wore black armbands resurrected from the Minnesota is Watching campaign: ?Real Cuts, Real Pain, Real People.?
Eliot Seide, of AFSCME?s Take Back Minnesota campaign, called the entourage the ?Empty Promises Tour.?
?Wherever they go spreading their lies, we?ll tell the truth,? he said. They?re not producing jobs. All they?re producing is tax cuts for the wealthy.?
Things are so bad, he said, that even the Mayo Clinic ? ?the premier health center in the world? ? is cutting health benefits for its own employees.
Reported by Michael Kuchta, Union Advocate.
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| Protesters greeted the Bush administration contingent at every stop, including the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce office in St. Paul. Photo by Michael Kuchta, Union Advocate |
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Demonstrators challenged President Bush?s claim that his policies will create jobs, as three top administration officials toured sites in Rochester, St. Paul and Richfield Wednesday.
As part of a ?Jobs and Growth? tour, Labor Secretary Elaine Chao, Treasury Secretary John Snow and Commerce Secretary Don Evans visited the Mayo Clinic, the offices of the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce and the headquarters of Best Buy Corp. At each stop, union members and community groups called on the Bush administration to take action to end the hemorrhaging of American jobs.
C. Scott Cooper, executive director of the Minnesota Alliance for Progressive Action, said the U.S. economy has lost more than 3.1 million private-sector jobs since Bush took office, including tens of thousands of jobs lost in Minnesota.
?They have the nerve to tout their economic policies,? Cooper said, ?when all we?ve seen are tax policies that benefit the wealthy, trade policies that ship jobs out of the country, and budget priorities that are dismantling our safety net.?
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Demonstrators, including Minnesota AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Steve Hunter and Minneapolis Central Labor Union Council President Bill McCarthy, outside Best Buy headquarters. Photo by Barb Kucera |
Julie Anderson, union representative for Machinists District Lodge 77, pointed out some of the latest casualties ? the 170 workers at Eagan-based Home Products International, who learned Tuesday (July 29) that the company will eliminate their jobs by the end of the year and ship most of the work to Mexico.
Anderson said the workers ? most of whom are represented by the Machinists ? ?are losing their jobs, losing their benefits and, basically, losing their future.?
Larry Weiss, coordinator of the Minnesota Fair Trade Coalition, accused the Bush administration of ?creating a jobless economy.? The Home Products jobs, he said, are among the 50,000 manufacturing jobs Minnesota has lost in the last three years ? more than one-fourth of them because of trade policies that favor transnational corporations over workers.
Demonstrators wore buttons that said ?Read Bush?s Lips ? No New Jobs? and waved signs stating ?Jobs Worth Fighting For.? Some wore black armbands resurrected from the Minnesota is Watching campaign: ?Real Cuts, Real Pain, Real People.?
Eliot Seide, of AFSCME?s Take Back Minnesota campaign, called the entourage the ?Empty Promises Tour.?
?Wherever they go spreading their lies, we?ll tell the truth,? he said. They?re not producing jobs. All they?re producing is tax cuts for the wealthy.?
Things are so bad, he said, that even the Mayo Clinic ? ?the premier health center in the world? ? is cutting health benefits for its own employees.
Reported by Michael Kuchta, Union Advocate.
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Protesters greeted the Bush administration contingent at every stop, including the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce office in St. Paul. Photo by Michael Kuchta, Union Advocate |