CWA Calls for "Worksite Summit" Strategy

Contact: Candice Johnson, CWA Communications, cjohnson@cwa-union.org and 202-434-1168

The following details the Communications Workers of America's call for a new initiative and new perspective on jobs that will help bring about real economic recovery:

Washington, D.C. -- Right now, the nation is in a vicious cycle of corporate job cuts and contracting out that has frozen unemployment above 10 percent. Every employer that cuts jobs to preserve profits or improve its share value adds to the current recession. Our nation can only hope to recover if we break this cycle of job destruction.

To begin this needed job recovery, the Communications Workers of America is calling on all employers to act now to end job cuts.

First, mirroring President Obama's Jobs Summit, every employer should convene a job summit at its workplace to discuss how to grow revenues and increase jobs. 

Second, like President Obama's initiative that counts jobs created by stimulus spending, we believe it is important to expand this effort and evaluate the impact of all Federal policy decision-making on job creation and retention. An analysis of the impact on jobs across the wide range of Federal decision-making for spending, trade, regulatory, mergers, and other economic actions, would focus even more energy on job creation.

CWA President Larry Cohen pressed for this program at the White House Jobs Summit today, arguing that all employers – union and non-union – must take responsibility for creating, not destroying jobs.  He urged the Administration to evaluate all programs and Federal decisions on the basis of their job creation or job destruction implications. 

More details on the CWA program:

1. Employers, even the country's most profitable employers, are cutting jobs and contracting out work, mainly to boost share price and Wall Street standing. But as employers continue to cut jobs, economic recovery remains out of reach and working Americans face growing economic hardship.  This vicious cycle must be broken. CEOs and employers must acknowledge the connection between job cuts and a stagnant economy, and make job growth, not job cutting, a priority. Every employer must hold its own Jobs Summit with employees to discuss how to increase revenues and create jobs.

2. The government plays a critical role in jobs, not only through the kinds of initiatives discussed in today's White House Jobs Summit, but in policies and decisions on mergers, trade agreements and government policy. CWA believes that the government approval process for these initiatives must require a jobs impact analysis, just as many projects now require an environmental impact review. This required jobs analysis will assess the impact on jobs as a critical component in decision-making and will block job-killing initiatives from going forward. 

3. In nearly every other industrialized democracy, workers and management jointly discuss these kinds of workplace issues. CWA is calling on U.S. workers and employers to hold their own job summits and is calling for corporate leaders to change practices that cut jobs at the expense of workers and our nation's economic recovery.     

For more information, go to www.jobsnotcuts.org.