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Hill: Jobs Bill a Good First Step

March 22, 2010

President Obama signed an $18 billion jobs bill March 18 that will help put more than 10 million Americans without a job back to work.

While companies may be laying off fewer workers than they were one year ago, the slow rate of recovery has made jobs creation the top priority for the labor movement.

At the bill’s signing was IBEW International President Edwin D. Hill, who supports the bill as an important first step in taking on the nation’s record unemployment problem.

Hill said:

Digging ourselves out of the worst recession in decades and cleaning up the failed economic policies of the last administration will require more bold action by both federal and state leaders. We need more investment in high tech, green jobs, more infrastructure improvement projects that will modernize our highways, bridges and electrical grid system and more help for small businesses so they can bring jobs back to Main Street.

But he added that more extensive legislation will be required if Congress and the president want to put our economy fully back on the road to recovery.

The bill, which was passed by the Senate on March 17 by a 70-28 margin, would:

• Give companies that hire workers who have been unemployed for at least 60 days a break from paying Social Security taxes
• Give employers an extra $1,000 tax credit for each new worker who stays on payroll for at least one year
• Grant a one-year extension for the federal highway program, which helps states invest in infrastructure projects

More extensive jobs-creation legislation has been proposed in Congress, including Minnesota Sen. Al Franken’s “Cash for Jobs” bill, which would use remaining Wall Street bailout funds to help small businesses, and California Rep. George Miller’s “Local Jobs for America Act,” which would provide millions in needed grants to local communities, creating or saving up to 1 million jobs.

To see the AFL-CIO’s five-point jobs plan, click here.