Statement by New Hampshire AFL-CIO President Mark MacKenzie On the State of the Economy and the Jobs Report

For Immediate Release                           Contact: Heidi Mitchell,
603-289-6333

Statement by New Hampshire AFL-CIO President Mark MacKenzie On the State of the Economy and the Jobs Report

October 3, 2008

Now that Wall Street is getting a bailout, what about the middle class? With each day it seems the news for working families gets bleaker. Today’s no exception with the announcement that another 159,000 jobs were lost nationwide in September.  Over three quarters of a million
workers are out of a job across this country, including 130 workers at the Freudenberg NOK plant who were handed pink slips this week.  This should drive our leaders to pass an economic recovery package that would provide real help for working families as those same families pay taxes
to bail out Wall Street.

It’s clear that Sen. Sununu and Sen. Gregg are not looking out for the middle class  -- they both voted against an economic recovery package for working families last week, a move that will result in 1350 workers losing their unemployment benefits on Oct. 25. That number will climb to
2000 by the time we reach the holidays.  What do we tell the millions of families across the country trying to make ends meet that would have benefited from that economic recovery package?

Time is running out for working families.  Our middle class is in trouble.  We must provide immediate relief to the families who are shouldering the burden of an economic meltdown created by risk-taking CEO’s and the policies of deregulation champion by politicians like John Sununu and John McCain.  Congress must stand up and support an economic
recovery package for America’s workers to help us through these difficult times.