WHEREAS not a day goes by without the news of one or more companies laying off large numbers of workers; and

WHEREAS the Big Three alone are laying off tens of thousands of workers, with the crisis in the auto industry having a ripple effect throughout the whole economy; and

WHEREAS industrial cities are likewise suffering from the crisis in the steel industry, with eleven companies filing for bankruptcy and many plants closing; and

WHEREAS with these mass layoffs, tens of thousands of LGBT workers stand to lose the domestic partner benefits they worked so hard to attain; and

WHEREAS the economic boom of the last decade saw the greatest concentration of wealth in the fewest hands, with the major corporations making record profits, paying exorbitant executive salaries, buying up competitors and completing the biggest mega-mergers in economic history; and

WHEREAS the price of this prosperity for the rich was the widening gap between the superrich and the world’s poor; and

WHEREAS the poverty that has grown alongside this prosperity for a few can only worsen in a period of recession;

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that Pride At Work condemns this latest wave of closings, raises the demand for universal full employment and calls on its chapters to support community/labor campaigns to stop closings in their area.

Submitted by:
Northeast Ohio Pride At Work
Susan Schnur, Co-chair
Lloyd Clarke, Co-chair
Sharon Dannan, Secretary
Martha Grevatt, Treasurer