Unions for the Jobless: Unemployed People Find Solidarity Online

[marmar]

from HuffPost:




When Charlene Troyer of Chicago, Illinois, was laid off from her job as an environmental manager for a garbage collection company in November 2009, she felt like there weren't many people she could turn to for moral support. Her parents had never been unemployed and all four of her grandparents had kept their jobs through the Great Depression.

"This was a whole new territory for them," she told HuffPost. "One set of grandparents were self-employed farmers, and the other side worked for the postal service, so they never saw any job loss. They thought people who were unemployed had issues because of something they had done. They had no concept of a bad economy."

After several months of missing mortgage payments, trying to support three children on a $450-a-week unemployment check and watching her credit become ruined beyond repair, she says she decided to look for support groups online.

"The depression just gets so bad," she told HuffPost. "You look at the stack of bills and decide what the heck you're gonna pay and how the heck you're gonna afford food. My self confidence and dignity have been compromised. I have failed my obligations to support my family and provide for them. It helps to talk to people who are going through the same thing." .......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/14/unions-for-the-jobless-un_n_716323.html

[Ruby the Liberal]

1. That was a good read. k&r

[Cid_B]

2. I gotta ask the obvious question here....

If they don't get what they want do they go on strike and get a job? *rimshot*

[Bitwit1234]

3. Now we ask them. What are they going to say to republicans

who blocked more unemployment checks, who blocked jobs bills and most of all the republican Bush administration that shipped all the jobs overseas and gave the companies tax breaks while doing so. Are they going to vote the republicans out of office I doubt. I suppose they are listening to fox and are blaming the Democrats. I blame the fact that the Democrats didn't change the filibuster and 60 vote rule. If they had things would have went smoother. And if the republicans get in, do you or any sane person believe that they will do something to alleviate this mess. Hell no. The only thing they will do is give more and more tax breaks to the rich and big business. And lift what little bit of regulation that is still left on businesses so nothing will be safe any more. Not our water, not our food and most of all not the working public at their jobs.