WHEREAS:

Current declining unemployment rates do not signify that longstanding employment problems in this country have been solved. Unemployment among youth, female heads of households and minorities is still unacceptably high. In many communities and regions, high unemployment caused by changing industry patterns and rapid technological change remains a serious problem; and

WHEREAS:

Under the Reagan Administration, there are no strategies or programs that even begin to move the economy onto a full employment path. The job creation and training programs that remain after the budget cuts of the past several years are both insufficient and misdirected; and

WHEREAS:

The only current program for job training is the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA). It is inadequate in size and of doubtful quality. Funding for JTPA is only about one-third as high as CETA funding in the late 1970s — when unemployment was far lower. The Administration claims that the $1.9 million block grant to the states under JTPA will provide job training for over one million, primarily economically disadvantaged, people; obviously, this is purely a superficial effort. With no allowances to support the disadvantaged during the training period, training will have to be limited to very short term efforts, leaving the trainees with few real skills. Private companies that provide training under JTPA will fatten their profits as they shuffle people through the sham process; the losers will be the disadvantaged, in dire need of skills training, and the taxpayers; and

WHEREAS:

The $223 million requested for dislocated worker training and relocation for FY 1985 is far short of the resources needed to retain the thousands of workers who have lost their jobs because of plant closings, mass layoffs and import competition; and

WHEREAS:

No effort is being made to revitalize the communities devastated by economic dislocations, so that public and private sector workers can be reemployed in their own communities in newly created jobs. The Administration's only proposal in this direction is its expensive but ineffective Enterprise Zone scheme — a beggar-thy-neighbor tax giveaway that will not result in new job creation; and

WHEREAS:

A high quality, nationwide labor exchange to assist the job search efforts of employers and employees can only be provided by the public sector. The Employment Service can fulfill this role, but only if it has adequate staff and appropriate tools with which to work. As things stand now, the Employment Service is struggling to provide labor market information and services with one-quarter fewer employees than it had in the late 1970s. And fewer than one-half of the states have even the beginnings of the computer technology that is required to accomplish this task.

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED:

That AFSCME supports federal full employment policies that include specific, targeted skills training and job creation programs; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED:

That AFSCME supports job training programs that identify specific skill shortages and provide skills training at a level that will allow the economically disadvantaged workers to break out of the cycle of low-skill, low-pay, dead end jobs. To insure adequate quality, training should be provided by existing public institutions wherever possible; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED:

That AFSCME believes that direct job creation programs are required to alleviate unemployment for specific localities and specific population groups whose situation will not be improved by general economic recovery. AFSCME supports job creation programs that result in a net increase in jobs that prohibit the substitution of workers hired under the program for regular workers and that pay prevailing wages and benefits; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED:

That AFSCME supports legislation like the Community Renewal Employment Act to repair and maintain the nation's rapidly deteriorating public infrastructure. Such legislation would both create new jobs and improve the attractiveness of now depressed areas to business; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED:

That AFSCME supports plant closing legislation that contains aid to localities as well as individuals, like that in the current proposed National Employment Priorities Act and supports the broadening of this proposed legislation to include state and local government facilities; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED:

That AFSCME urges Congress to increase the funding for the Employment Service for a level of staffing and data processing tools that will support strong, high quality national labor market services.

SUBMITTED BY:

International Executive Board