Welcome to the Teamsters Local 284 website
President's Message
TO THE GREATEST TEAMSTERS MEMBERS IN ANY LOCAL
PRESIDENT'S SOAPBOX
Hey, to all our Brothers and Sisters of Teamsters Local 284, it
just might be soapbox time. It has been said before and it will be said
many more times: jobs are and should be the nation's number one
priority.
This nation has lost an estimated 8 million jobs over the past couple of years. Today it is reported that one in every 10 Americans is out of work longer than one year. How did we get into this mess and how will we ever be able to get out of it.
Experts say the recession officially started in December 2007, but by then the construction and manufacturing sectors had already started losing jobs for a year. Can we try to put this in perspective, it is reported that the banks, financial industry as well as major manufacturers caused the problem, and the government had to bail them out. However, today the same ones that created the problem are back to making money. Still millions of Americans are out of work.
I just love it when I hear we do not need regulation and please do touch our many, many perks and bonuses, I am a firm believer that we need to do both, and make sure that they play fair with the American worker.
During the great depression, FDR was quoted when speaking about jobs. He said, "Our greatest primary task is to put people to work." Matter of fact the problem was so urgent then he stated it should be treated as "we would treat the emergency of a war."
For the past few years, America's middle class families have been carrying the burden of the economic collapse, which has to stop now! We must find a way to put people back to work at a livable wage.
In closing, it is said that change is inevitable, while this may be true; in this case, it is my belief that it was an imperative driven by a small group who forgot what their responsibility was to the American People, and allowed their greed to destroy our basic rights.
In Solidarity
Allen E. Price
President
