In New Orleans, Senator Edwards will unveil his three-point plan to rebuild the city. The plan seeks to address the question of recovery with a focus on rebuilding infrastructure, creating jobs and keeping the city safe from future storms and rising crime.Rebuild: The rebuilding of infrastructure in New Orleans is stalled. The city needs new hospitals, clinics, schools and roads. John Edwards will call for building a new Veterans' hospital downtown, call on the VA to stop delaying site selection and choose downtown New Orleans, and then fast-track the design process so construction can begin. He will also propose building a 21st century infrastructure, integrating new housing, and preserving livable housing.
Create: Edwards believes we need to create good jobs in New Orleans. He will propose hiring 50,000 Gulf Coast residents to fill stepping stone jobs dedicated to rebuilding infrastructure that will help local and returning residents gain skills and experience. He will also protect workers from contractor exploitation.
Protect: Finally, Edwards believes we need to protect the city and the region from weather and crime. As president, Edwards will do whatever is necessary to ensure that Katrina never happens again, including building stronger levees and restoring coastal wetlands. Following Katrina, New Orleans has experienced an epidemic in violence. Edwards will strengthen public safety to end the epidemic of crime and violence.
Beginning the Road to One America tour in New Orleans is just another way in which Senator Edwards has continued to draw attention to the city's struggle to recover. Following Hurricane Katrina, Senator Edwards visited New Orleans where he attended a community meeting in the 9th Ward. Months later, he brought 700 college students to help work on recovery and rebuilding efforts during spring break. In December, he announced his candidacy for President from New Orleans and he recently spent time working with Habitat for Humanity in New Orleans.
Comments
I think this tour is unique.
Just as One Corps focuses on doing things NOW for the country, John Edwards is traveling around raising the issue of poverty in NON-early primary states.
Sometimes you just have to do what is right.
John Edwards is great!
- Sam Spencer, BlueNC, 7/3/07
Jesus Swept ticked me off. Too short. I loved the characters and then POOF it was over.
-me
"I am blessed...."
One of the pitfalls of childhood is that one doesn't have to understand something to feel it. - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
Jesus Swept ticked me off. Too short. I loved the characters and then POOF it was over.
-me
The other side of the coin.
Out beating the bush (ha-ha) trying to raise awareness about poverty, but at the same time...
It's sad how much the candidates have to focus on raising cash. Really sad.
John Edwards is great!
- Sam Spencer, BlueNC, 7/3/07
Jesus Swept ticked me off. Too short. I loved the characters and then POOF it was over.
-me
Did Mr. Edwards go to tysons and ask
why are you not paying your people correctly or fairly?
Did he give that lady who spoke out against her employer his personal card to call when tysons fires her when they find out what she said so he could go back and fight for her job?
I truely hope that lady does not have to call Mr. Edwards for help, that tysons does not go after her.
I hope he did, because that will tell me he is committed to what he is saying.
It is sad that money wins elections.
I wish all primaries esp for pres was done on one day. Impress me today, impress me tomorrow, impress me for 6 straight months. Now you have won my vote. If you cannot impress me for that long, then you dont have the fortitude to impress me for 4 years or to lead this country for that long.
A better question
Why wont any of us call and give her our contact info? Why do those of us who believe in these changes always find ourselves saying, "Wow, I hope someone fixes that."
Even larger than this election, things like workers rights are something that each of us can fight for where we live, so why arent we?
"Keep the Faith"
"Keep the Faith"
Take Smithfield.
What have I done to help out the Smithfield situation? Nothing. Absolutely nothing.
One of the pitfalls of childhood is that one doesn't have to understand something to feel it. - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
Jesus Swept ticked me off. Too short. I loved the characters and then POOF it was over.
-me
1 in 10
The band UB40 was named after Unemployment Benefit Form 40 in the UK. One in Ten is probably their best known song:
Stop the NC Association of Realtors
Polluting our State Legislature with money.
That Wounds
and deeply.
Smithfield - what have I done? Not much. Made more people aware of their shit.
All their other plants in this country are unionized but the one in North Carolina?
WTF is up with that?
Wrong on how many levels? Oh ... Dante ... I'm not sure .. nine?
Maybe we should add a few more ...
Tour oF Smithfield
I went for a tour of the factory at Smithfield. They have hired the pR man who defended Mt Airy Pickle factory during their union struggles.
IS that a riot or what? the same man. He told us he had worked at the pickle factory earlier.
They served me lunch on a white table cloth and urged me to come back. They are spending more on GOOD PR than on employees salaries.
TurnNCBlue
I'll ask again cause I really want to know
Who did the sales job on NC? Who convinced, connived, scared-the-bejesus out of us to hate unions and fight them at every turn?
Are the any History majors out there who can answer me that one?
While I cannot answer your question for North Carolina history
I can give you personal insite from upstate New York.
Rome NY. Revereware copper and brass. Made 5" casings/shells used in WW2, Korea, Vietnam. Pop actually put his hands on these press molds used to do this. Made some of the best stainless steal copper bottomed pots. These pots where hand-made by people who actually put their hands on the pot every step of the way. My dad was one of these people.
Pop was making a fair/good wage. I think $7 in the early-mid 70s. He also got "piece-time" for every unit over the expected quota for that line for the day. When he was working, life was good. Problems started happening with economy, pop being one of the last people hired, was one of the first ones layed-off. Went thru this for a while. come to work, get layed-off. Seems we where on unemployment about as much as actually working. At this time, the rent on the house was $90/month. Later, we bought a house, the total price for the house was $20,000. $7/hour was good money for the region.
Union went on strike for some reason. Out for a while. Union got a good agreement with Revere. Within a year of strike completion, Revere moved out of town. They took the presses and every other machine and moved south. Think they went to Tenn or Kentucky. Later, I heard they ended up in Mexico.
Union fought for my father and the town of Rome out of one of the bigger employers in the region. Other union shops in the area had a similar fall out where the businesses left the area vice pay what the unions demanded for the employers. Revere ran two and maybe three shifts before they just closed. Revere pots having a Rome stamp on the bottom are good quality pots. My pop was proud of the pots he made.
Unions fighting for higher wages for their workers finally made it where the businesses just could not make a profit and pay the saleries. So thanks to the unions, jobs where lost. If they would have just stayed in protecting the workers mode and out of the increase the workers salaries mode, revere might still be in Rome, NY running two or three shifts. As it is, that factory is still empty. Last I knew. And now we are buying our pots from korea or china.
So pop lost his job. At that time, $7 was one of the higher paying jobs in the region, but the union wanted more. Well, we got more, for about 8 months, then laid off, then job gone.
This is the perspective of a 14 - 16 year old at the time. Thanks to pop's Air Force retirement, unemployment benifits, GI bill, and mom working as a waitress, I did not truely realize what was happening to my pop. I just knew sometimes he was home and I could harrass him. Sometimes he was at work, and I would meet him at 4:10PM when he got home.
Long time ago, unions where needed and where benificial. Today, I dont believe they are. I would think twice about going to work where there was a union established.
Fortunatly for me, I would not have to take a job in a union established shop. I can pick and choose. Also, here in Perquimans County, I dont know of any jobs that are covered by a union. So kinda moot for me.
I Used to Think Like That -
I believed that until I saw all our jobs go overseas. Those companies are still making money. The CEO's are raking it in .. .. sometimes for as little as 6 months work - no one is worth Mega millions for a few months of ... what? Name brand recognition?
If it weren't for corporate personhood and their 'don't give a damn, I got mine' attitude I might still believe that. But I don't.
Not too many folks in NC that have to worry about unions at all- they're far and few between.
But unions didn't make jobs disappear - greed did. Our collective greed for cheap shit made in (where ever), our desire for McMansions, gas sucking Hummers, jeans with designer labels and yada yada ya.
That's where the money goes ... but it's hard to follow it offshore.
What is congress doing to bring these jobs back?
We cannot go after the person who owns these companies as they are already making their money out of the country.
What are we doing to make overseas production less lucrative to encourage these guys to move their factories back to the states?
I say increase the tarrifs on the imported goods till it exceeds the price if the product was built over here at a fair wage. However folks say that wont work. I dont understand why, and I guess would need lots of numbers to figure it out.
When I heard (rumor, dont have facts to prove) that the Norfolk ford plant was paying some QA folks $33/hour or higher to QA one side of a truck, and there is another guy QAing the other side of the truck, I thought to myself, no wonder they going out of business, who can afford that? How smart is it to have 2 or more QA folks on one line doing the same job? How many folks where on that line being paid those rates.
I know, doing the math. say it took 30 workers at an avg of $28/hour, and it took one hour to make a truck (numbers pulled out of my butt) thats $840 in labor costs for that truck. Still have not paid for the materials or plant operations or plant upkeep, Research and Development. They sell this truck F-150 line trucks at what price?$25,000+. One would argue that the workers are not getting a fair wage from Ford.
I dont see why any factory would move out of country to save $840 for this product, when they will probably spend that much just in shipping costs.
So just why are our jobs flying out of the country? It might be for the salery savings, but I doubt it. What is so freaking lucrative in Mexico or china that is not found in the USA?
It aint $840/truck.
Some will say this is free market baby, suck it up and live with it. If noone is making money, then there is noone to buy your product baby.
I believe that trade unions have their place
and that they can be good, and that like anything, they can be over done. Much of my work is done with an important part of the work force, who, if they organized, could bring the entire state to a standstill. If child care providers didn't come to work, a whole lot of people couldn't come to work. Imagine that.
But in NC, there is no union that represents child care providers, the average wage per hour is about $8.00 (even with an associates degree in the field), and many of the mostly women who perform this vital service have no health insurance.
Sometimes, it takes an organization like a union to make a point like that. It takes a union to help people recognize their own worth and power.
But when the union begins behaving like a PAC, and not listening to the rank and file members, then it's just another corporation.
Be the change you wish to see in the world. --Gandhi
I so wish these folks would get organized
and go after some kind of health care for the provider. What good is a child care provider if that person is sick and cant get healed quickly because they do not have the money for doc visits or perscriptions. Now we gots kids getting sick, or not being cared for cause the provider just does not have the energy to do what they normally do.
exactly.
and sick kids mean that parents have to take time off from work. If those parents don't have sick time, oh well. And - if those children don't have health insurance. . . see the cycle? It's unending.
But it can be fixed. I know it can. We just have to start behaving as if we care about everyone.
Be the change you wish to see in the world. --Gandhi
Aye-yup
and that's when they need a corporate makeover - Survivor style.