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Gov. Perdue Attends Jobs Summit in Raleigh

Jeremy Sprinkle
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Organizers urge adoption of multiple ideas to help struggling families

On Wednesday, Historic Thousands on Jones St (HKonJ) partners, the NC Justice Center, NC NAACP, and the NC State AFL-CIO, among others, held a jobs summit at the Martin St. Baptist Church in Raleigh, where Governor Perdue was urged to consider multiple proposals to get unemployed North Carolinians back to work, including:

  1. Effectively implement remaining provisions of the Recovery Act, including using funds for summer youth employment and weatherizing homes.
  2. Support important federal policy choices by calling on Congress to extend key parts of the Recovery Act like unemployment aid and COBRA subsidies and pass The Local Jobs for America Act.
  3. Responsibly fix state budget by maximizing federal support and raising the revenue to maintain core services and employment.
  4. Maximize effectiveness of development by shifting aid to poorer counties and targeting the long-term unemployed for new hires.
  5. Enact bold new strategies to bolster private sector employment.
  6. Adopt economic reforms that promote shared opportunity and prosperity for workers.

John Stewart, UAW, shares his story at the jobs summit

John Stewart is a UAW member and former employee at Freightliner. John lost his job as a mechanic in February 2009 when the company shipped his job to Mexico. Since losing his source of income, John has struggled to take care of his family, including his wife who is battling a terminal illness. "Having a wife with a terminal disease, it's hard to come up with $1,200, $1,300 a month just to purchase a couple prescriptions to ease her pain," John told those in attendance.

Here John Stewart shares his story with NC Policy Watch:

You can read more about the Jobs Summit in the media coverage it received: