Posted on 09/04/2011 9:37:04 AM PDT by mdittmar
President of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters James P. Hoffa criticized the patriotism of American corporations who are sitting on assets and holding back from employing more American workers.
Hoffa called American businesses "unpatriotic" for opening factories and stores overseas instead of helping boost employment at home on CNN’s State of the Union Sunday. He singled out Apple Inc., saying “every time they do something, they do it in China, they do it somewhere else.”
Hoffa suggested that too much attention has been paid to what the president and lawmakers can do to boost the economy and called for increased pressure on business to contribute to the effort.
“What obligation does American business have?” he asked. He called on corporations to “start spending some of that money here in America.”
“We’ve lost 8 million jobs since ‘08 and we need to challenge them to get in the game,” said Hoffa.
Hoffa also said he expected the president to present a “bold plan” to boost employment when he addresses a joint session of Congress Thursday.
“We want a bold plan. Labor wants a bold program,” said Hoffa.
So far what we’ve done hasn’t worked; we’re still at 9 percent,” he said of the unemployment rate. “He needs to challenge business. Labor needs everybody to be in the game.”
Labor unions have indicated they are growing frustrated with their traditional allies in Washington over worries the president and congressional Democrats are more concerned with cutting the national deficit than with boosting the still-struggling economy.
Hoffa though suggested that the Teamsters were still behind the president in his reelection bid. “He took over the worst economy in 80 years,” said Hoffa. “He’s going to have a very difficult time turning this around.”
He dismissed the Republican 2012 presidential field and said Obama was the easy choice. “When the alternatives are Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann and Rick Perry, it makes it easy to make this decision,” he said. He said the GOP candidates were “anti-union, anti-worker.”
Amidst concern that Democratic leaders are not pushing back against Republicans, labor unions are gearing up for the 2012 election.
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said Wednesday that a super PAC is being set up by the labor federation to help unions earn their independence from political parties.
Trumka said labor unions would continue to push both parties to do more to boost employment. Voters are “going to check and see who’s pushing for jobs right now, see whose main purpose and focus is jobs,” said Trumka Wednesday.
“Made in China”.
Ah yes, the old Soviet model: Full employment - the people pretend to work and the state pretends to pay them.
Made in China, as a result of restrictive labor and environmental laws here in th US.
Crony Capitalism Chinese Products.
CCCP
Commie union thuggery.....patriots, to all you union types, are people who believe in the constitution...not scum like you who are trying to tear it apart....
Theses idiots want “jobs” in the context of a welfare program.
How Soviet of them.
Unions are unAmerican. They enslave wage earners to support them
and destroy individual freedoms. Time for a right to work law at the
federal level and removal of laws that empower unions. If they have
something to offer, they will attract membership without legal
coercion.
Not with unions and not with this President in office. Companies do not trust either of them. After the elections, and we get a new President, and all the regulations are reversed, I think you will see things turn around fairly fast.
Companies trust the Chinese Politboro?
Naive dolts.
They do it in China because it’s away from the clutches of union contracts and extreme government regulations. This apparatchik ought to ask himself WHO is really driving jobs overseas.
Hm, where have we heard the terms “unpatriotic” and “criminal” and “insane” used in a political context before?
Big power grab coming next week...
A simple answer for Apple is to do like Microsoft does everybody is a temp worker.No union no problem.
“every time they do something, they do it in China, they do it somewhere else.”
You’d think these people would catch on after a while.
These people are really stupid.
A union thug calling somebody else “unpatriotic”. What a joke!
Yeah. Scr*w working Americans!!
We sure don’t want Americans to have well-paying high tech secure jobs.
Can’t have that. Let’s all become temps. That will be good for America.
/s
We need more "Green Jobs",where companies get billions of taxpayer dollars and then go broke,you know,like Hoffa,obama and reid want.
These are people who have made a deal with the dark side and are playing it for all it's worth. Dangerous... and contemptuous.. and that's why I continue to say, make war. Have no illusions, they are doing the same.
So if they were made here by union labor, what would an IPhone or IPad cost?
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