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CWAers Join 'Show Us the Jobs' Bus Tour
Three WashTech-CWA members and a West Virginia member who lost her AT&T job are among 51 unemployed workers who are telling their stories this week on the AFL-CIO's "Show Us the Jobs" bus tour throughout the Midwest.
The tour has been getting good media coverage and strong community support as it heads through eight states with stops in 18 cities. It began in St. Louis on March 24 and winds up in Washington, D.C. on March 31.
The WashTech members are Myra Bronstein of Washington, Charlie Seaman of Georgia and Natasha Humphries of California. CWA member Sharon Godwin is joining the tour in her home state of West Virginia. Their stories, and those of the other 48 workers on the bus - one from each state and the District of Columbia - are posted at www.showusthejobs.com. They are among 85,444 people each day who are losing their jobs in the United States.
Bronstein, 40, had worked an IT job at WatchMark Corp. for two years. One day, her entire department was told they'd be laid off in a month and would train their Indian replacements in the meantime. If they failed to do so, they would lose their severance package. She has been actively searching for a new job for 10 months, and her unemployment benefits just ran out. She wants to go back to school, but can't afford it.
"My life has changed drastically over my 10 months of unemployment," she said. "I've cashed in my 401(k), can no longer afford health insurance and can just barely pay the rest of the bills. I no longer plan for the future. I just try to make it through the present. I've even resorted to selling a number of my things on eBay to get money for essentials."
Humphries, 31, who worked for handheld computer maker Palm, also lost her job to India. She was flown there to train people, with the company's repeated assurances that her own job was safe. It wasn't. A single mom of a 6-year-old son with sickle-cell anemia, she has been unemployed for six months.
"Seeing the stress unemployment has put on me only makes things harder for him," she said. "When I asked him what his New Year's resolution was he said, 'To get Mommy a job so she'll be happy again.'"
Seaman, 55, was laid off from Georgia Pacific due to downsizing. For the first time in his life, he found himself becoming an activist. He began a website, www.OnShoreAlternatives.com to educate consumers about which companies outsource and which do not.
"Until I was laid off a year ago, I had no idea how prevalent outsourcing had become," Seamon said. He went from a $90,000 a year job to earning just $112 so far this year with the website. But he's hopeful it will lead to steady income. "The hardest part of all this is not being able to be a safety net for my family," he said. "This is the first time in my life that I don't think good is prevailing in this country."
Godwin will tell audiences how losing her 27-year job as an AT&T telephone operator affected her family, and will talk about the support groups she has organized and led to help co-workers deal with their own job losses.
"In my community, there are hundreds of applicants for just a couple of job openings and the pay is not enough to cover my monthly bills," Godwin said. "It's distressing that under President Bush's watch, the new jobs being created are low-wage with no benefits."
The jobs tour website, which can also be found through www.aflcio.org, is filled with facts about job losses, including state-by-state statistics. You can also send an e-mail from the site to President Bush urging him to take the jobs crisis seriously.
The tour has been getting good media coverage and strong community support as it heads through eight states with stops in 18 cities. It began in St. Louis on March 24 and winds up in Washington, D.C. on March 31.
The WashTech members are Myra Bronstein of Washington, Charlie Seaman of Georgia and Natasha Humphries of California. CWA member Sharon Godwin is joining the tour in her home state of West Virginia. Their stories, and those of the other 48 workers on the bus - one from each state and the District of Columbia - are posted at www.showusthejobs.com. They are among 85,444 people each day who are losing their jobs in the United States.
Bronstein, 40, had worked an IT job at WatchMark Corp. for two years. One day, her entire department was told they'd be laid off in a month and would train their Indian replacements in the meantime. If they failed to do so, they would lose their severance package. She has been actively searching for a new job for 10 months, and her unemployment benefits just ran out. She wants to go back to school, but can't afford it.
"My life has changed drastically over my 10 months of unemployment," she said. "I've cashed in my 401(k), can no longer afford health insurance and can just barely pay the rest of the bills. I no longer plan for the future. I just try to make it through the present. I've even resorted to selling a number of my things on eBay to get money for essentials."
Humphries, 31, who worked for handheld computer maker Palm, also lost her job to India. She was flown there to train people, with the company's repeated assurances that her own job was safe. It wasn't. A single mom of a 6-year-old son with sickle-cell anemia, she has been unemployed for six months.
"Seeing the stress unemployment has put on me only makes things harder for him," she said. "When I asked him what his New Year's resolution was he said, 'To get Mommy a job so she'll be happy again.'"
Seaman, 55, was laid off from Georgia Pacific due to downsizing. For the first time in his life, he found himself becoming an activist. He began a website, www.OnShoreAlternatives.com to educate consumers about which companies outsource and which do not.
"Until I was laid off a year ago, I had no idea how prevalent outsourcing had become," Seamon said. He went from a $90,000 a year job to earning just $112 so far this year with the website. But he's hopeful it will lead to steady income. "The hardest part of all this is not being able to be a safety net for my family," he said. "This is the first time in my life that I don't think good is prevailing in this country."
Godwin will tell audiences how losing her 27-year job as an AT&T telephone operator affected her family, and will talk about the support groups she has organized and led to help co-workers deal with their own job losses.
"In my community, there are hundreds of applicants for just a couple of job openings and the pay is not enough to cover my monthly bills," Godwin said. "It's distressing that under President Bush's watch, the new jobs being created are low-wage with no benefits."
The jobs tour website, which can also be found through www.aflcio.org, is filled with facts about job losses, including state-by-state statistics. You can also send an e-mail from the site to President Bush urging him to take the jobs crisis seriously.