jobs

St. Paul – Citing the huge economic impact and job creation potential, leaders of the Minnesota AFL-CIO sent an open letter to Wisconsin Governor-elect Scott Walker urging him to reconsider his plans to refuse federal dollars for high speed rail.

The section between Madison and Milwaukee would be part of a larger regional high speed rail system linking Minneapolis/St. Paul and Chicago.

In the letter, Minnesota AFL-CIO President Shar Knutson and Secretary-Treasurer Steve Hunter reminded Walker that refusing these funds won’t just hurt Wisconsin, but the entire Midwest.

Congress is back in Washington for the so-called “lame duck” session and there is still important work to be done. And incredibly, it looks like lawmakers are about to leave for Thanksgiving without extending emergency unemployment insurance—which will expire Nov. 30.

While Republicans are enthusiastically supporting an extension of Bush-era tax cuts for millionaires, they’ve told the millions of jobless Americans they “can’t afford” to extend unemployment insurance.

In Minnesota, and across the nation, jobs just aren’t there. There are 207,500 people who are unemployed in Minnesota,(1) and 14.8 million people who are unemployed nationally.(2) Many of them are in the job search of their lives.

But get this: Some lawmakers—many of the same ones who want to pass tax cuts for people who make more than $250,000 per year—want to cut off emergency unemployment benefits.

Minnesota families need family-sustaining jobs. They don’t need them in a year or a decade; they need jobs now. According to a new report by think tank Minnesota 2020, an investment in infrastructure can play a big role in creating more jobs.

The report, Stimulated and Growing: Multiplying the Recovery Act’s Minnesota Impact, shows the republican spin about the recovery act was just that.

St. Paul – Upon learning of Republican Gubernatorial Candidate Tom Emmer’s “budget plan” today, Minnesota AFL-CIO President Shar Knutson issued the following statement:

“Tom Emmer’s so-called plan is simply more of the same Tim Pawlenty policies of the last eight years that have failed to create family-sustaining jobs for middle class Minnesotans

As a legislator, Tom Emmer voted against job creation at nearly every turn; so it’s hard to take him seriously.