I'm doing a presentation in my UU church tomorrow about people who have lost their jobs ..

in the past several months or so because of the current economic shennanigans. If anyone wants to share their story about the job loss and the ensuing events, I would greatly appreciate it. I know this is a highly painful thing to talk about. If you would prefer, it might be a good idea to PM me.

I would be so appreciative of the input.

Thanks,

He was working in a freight yard where trucks unload their containers and they are held there until another truck or a train loads them. He immediately started working 50 hours a week, there was so much freight there. Then about 2 weeks ago, all overtime stopped. And yesterday he was laid off. He was a month away from being eligible for health benefits and unemployment. But now he is just out of work.

The title of my talk is, "Compassion & The Issues: Jobs." Thanks again for your input.

I was laid off in 2004 because my entire department was outsourced to India.

Took 6 months to get a new job in a call center for a Major Mortgage Lender. This company was purchased by Another Large Company last year. During the transition period, my employer tightened up on meeting stats on the phone. Where previously, if you missed a stat, you got counseled and returned to the floor, we noticed they were being stricter ...and I missed the call average handle time by a small amount 3 months in a row and I was fired.

My suspicion, since I met or exceeded all other requirements and had fantastic customer feedback surveys, is that management tightened up because they had to freeze new hires, unless they had to replace someone, and they got a big Employer Incentive package from Texas IF they upheld their promise to create a certain number of new jobs in the first 5 years ..something like 10K jobs. So if people are let go and a position eliminated in one department, then a different position in another department is filled, then it is a new job.

It was getting very stressful and increasingly difficult to do my job well in the current economic environment anyway.

I do have a new job though and it is starting out well.

I want to show a wide range of experiences. Six out of the twelve homes on my block went back to the bank.

I believe I want to talk a bit about "neoliberalism," and the economics of the Chicago Boys and Milton Friedman (just mentioning it briefly). We refer to "unfettered capitalism" and "the NeoCons." The rest of the world refers to "neoliberalism," and talks about unfettered capitalism.

I also want to recommend "The Shock Doctrine," by Naomi Klein, and the works of Dr. Ravi Batra and Paul Krugman.

I'm a monthly donor to, and member of, Americans United for Separation of Church and State. I know the rules. We discuss issues, not candidates, and, thus, we stay within the rules.