Long Island's unemployed want jobs, not war
By Heather Cottin
Freeport, N.Y.
Long Island's unemployment rate is low
compared to other states. But that's news to people trying to
find work at the New York State Department of Labor
unemployment office here.
Latisha, 28, lost an administrative assistant job two months
ago and has found no other work since. "I know too many people
who can't find work on Long Island," she told Workers World.
"People with experience. For minorities it is much more
difficult, but everybody is affected now. I can only find
part-time work. This system--it's not for everyone. They try to
portray it as if it's for all people but that's just not the
truth."
Two workers stood talking outside the unemployment office.
The men, who didn't want to be identified, spoke about
non-union hospitals all over the island that are laying off
workers. "They make people who stay work harder, longer hours,"
said one. "Companies are really just benefiting themselves.
They are cutting workers, cutting corners, making it hard for
people to receive unemployment even if they are laid off."
"Nurses are forced to work 12-hour shifts, seven days in a
row," said the other. "And there is a definite 'Black line'
that prevents people of color from advancing. I trained this
young white guy and then he became my supervisor."
André is 21 years old. He was hoping for a job
placement but left the Department of Labor office discouraged.
"I got laid off a few months ago," André said. "It feels
crazy, not working. I've been working since I was 14 years
old." He lost a job as a security guard making $12 an hour with
benefits. "They laid me off and put in two part-timers at $7 an
hour with no benefits," he said, "and that is the story for
everyone I know in Hempstead." He shook his head as a woman
with four young children walked into the unemployment office.
"It's really hard if you have a family. The people I know are
having a rough time finding work. The only jobs are at
Wal-Mart, but that's minimum wage and no benefits."
Racism plays a big part in the job search, he said, but
companies on Long Island aren't hiring anyone full time.
Age is a problem, too. Carole, 57, from Lindenhurst is a
computer specialist who was laid off to make way for a younger
person willing to take lower pay. "I have been looking for five
months. They see me and tell me the job is taken. After I
applied to a company but was turned down, my son got the job.
And I was the one who trained him for it! But these companies
know young people move on, so they are willing to hire them and
either wait for them to leave or lay them off--when they should
be raising their salaries."
Men and women, young and old, Black, Latino and white sat in
rows at the unemployment office, waiting for some good news,
hoping for a lead. Zita, a senior human resources administrator
from Bald win, took a pay cut in April and then was "downsized"
in July. "A college degree is the same as a high school
degree," she said. "It doesn't help, because all the companies
are downsizing and outsourcing. All the jobs out there are for
'temps.' I have a home and kids in college. I will do anything,
even take a pay cut, but there's no work out there."
As a Department of Labor TV infomercial intoned, "Finding a
job is a full-time job," Wendell from Valley Stream stepped up
to the window to ask about the possibility of getting
retraining. He had an impressive résumé, a
political science degree from City College, 20 years of
experience working as a researcher for well-known law
firms.
"No, we don't pay for retraining, we only give you six
months of unemployment insurance," the woman behind the coun
ter said. "There's no money for extensions or education."
Wendell walked away from the desk. "Maybe the money is in
Iraq," he wondered. "Maybe it is going to Halliburton. Maybe to
military contractors. I have a degree in political science. I
know what is going on." He's worried about paying his mortgage,
about getting another job, about his two children.
Carol C., an electrician with IBEW Local 25, has been doing
odd jobs for her friends. "The past two summers there has been
a lot of unemployment among the members of my union. Winters
are usually slow, and summers you work. It's in the summers
when schools and offices do their renovations. But now, there
isn't any money for schools or county offices because it's all
going to the war. I am unemployed, and with winter coming I am
really worried.
"This summer we have 300 electricians unemployed. We never
had that before. People who have jobs are working overtime,
because the contractors are using the least number of people.
They're working people to death. People think they better grab
the money and run, because they don't know when they will work
again. You need 1,000 hours a year to get your pension credit
and your hospital insurance, and people are afraid they aren't
going to make it."
For Long Island's day workers who wait at legal or illegal
"shapeup sites," the situation is grim. "The number of
contractors coming to the Freeport shapeup site has declined by
15 percent since last year," says Carlos Canales of the
Workplace Project in Hempstead. "The contractors aren't hiring.
People aren't having their lawns done. And this is the same all
across the U.S. Day workers do the lowest-paying jobs, and they
are decreasing. The restaurants, the landscapers, the
small-time contractors arenhiring on Long Island."
The military-industrial complex sucked Long Island dry.
Companies like Grum man, Republic and Fairchild once made big
profits here. As recently as 1986, 26,000 worked at the Grumman
plant in Bethpage. Now it's like a ghost town.
Long Island is beginning to look like much of this country's
industrial heartland. Expensive homes and exclusive villages
still exist, but for much of Nassau and Suffolk counties,
unemployment and housing costs are twin terrors.
Many Long Islanders now live in their parents' basements,
cheap motels and even campgrounds. Newsday reported last Now.
23, "For a family to afford a mid-priced home, it should have a
gross income of $164,000 in Nassau and $130,000 in Suffolk."
Yet in four years, home prices have "skyrocketed 81 percent
while household incomes have risen only 14 percent."
Neither Democrats or Republicans have a solution. Military
recruiters target unemployed youth but, as André said,
"Nobody I know wants to go to the Army. We just need jobs
here."
Reprinted from the Aug. 26, 2004, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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