Thanksgiving is a time to gather family and friends to appreciate and enjoy the bounty of the harvest. And it’s been a really great year — if you happen to work on Wall Street, where CEOs are expecting record bonuses. But the rest of us are in the trough of the worst economic crisis in a generation. Millions more Americans are suffering hunger, joblessness and the loss of our homes.
November brought bleak reports on the state or our economic health. This month unemployment officially topped 10%, and while job loss has slowed, the economy continues to lose about 200,000 jobs per month. Meanwhile, nearly 1 in 10 homeowners is delinquent on their mortgage, while home values have dropped an average of 7.1 percent.
Americans are not only struggling to stay in their houses, but they are also struggling to put food on the table. A USDA report issued this month shows that 49 million people (14.6 percent of the population), cannot consistently get enough to eat. Another recent study found that nearly half of all children and 90% of African-American children in the U.S. will receive food stamps at some point during their childhoods.
In times of crisis, the labor movement has always been an important support for working people and their families. For example, the Central Indiana Central Labor Council (CLC), part of the local JwJ steering committee, has set up three food pantries for people without jobs stocked and run by union members. The Fort Wayne CLC has set up an unemployed council. Massachusetts JwJ is helping to raise money for the laid-off workers known as the “Hyatt 100” in Boston.
