Cohen Statement on President Obama's Job Creation Bill

Obama's Support for Collective Bargaining 'Very Important' to Jobs Plan

Addressing Congress last Thursday, President Obama laid out a comprehensive bill for job creation and stressed his support for collective bargaining. "I reject the idea that we have to strip away collective bargaining rights to compete in a global economy," Obama said. CWA President Larry Cohen released the following statement about the speech and also discussed it with Ed Schultz on MSNBC. Click here to watch the segment.

President Obama is right. It's time to get serious about good jobs. There's an employment crisis facing some 25 million Americans and we need serious action from our elected leaders now.

It's very important that the president tonight acknowledged the need for real collective bargaining rights for workers. We'll never move forward to economic recovery if we don't increase demand, and that only happens when workers have bargaining rights to improve their wages and working conditions. If we're looking for a real, long-term fix for our economy, this is it.

We need good jobs and we need real investment in our country to create these jobs. We need high speed broadband to bring the benefits of our 21st century economy to all Americans, especially small businesses and families in the heartland, in rural areas who right now don't have access to all the tools of the Internet Age. President Obama recognized this tonight as well. Extending high speed broadband to the 24 million Americans who now have no access and to millions more in underserved communities is critical if the U.S. is going to catch up to the rest of the world.

Most important, it is time for members of Congress to step up and put our country ahead of ideology and politics. That's what the American people want.