By Doug Cunningham

America needs a new direction. That's the theme of a new AFL-CIO initiative that spells out a plan for good jobs and a just economy
nationwide, beginning with the rebuilding of hurricane decimated parts of the Gulf Coast. AFL-CIO President John Sweeney.

[John Sweeney 1] : "What we witnessed over the past three weeks is a disgrace. Seeing the people of New Orleans and throughout the gulf coast abandoned in their time of need was like a bad dream. Realizing that most of them were either young, or old, or black or disabled - and all of them poor - was a horrifying nightmare. The inability of our federal leaders to deal with this continuing tragedy is a failure of huge proportions."

The AFL-CIO plan includes a coordinated union response to fight for support for working families, including unemployment compensation, job training and education. The labor federation wants a panel convened of former labor secretaries, union and community leaders to press for fair wages and responsible reconstruction priorities. Sweeney says extreme right-wingers are trying to use the hurricane tragedy to benefit financially and politically..

[Sweeney 2] : "Now the conservatives in control of our country are in a frenzy to use the confusion and tragedy to profiteer and promote their ideological agenda."

The AFL-CIO wants to make sure the Gulf Coast is rebuilt with good jobs and it wants to override Bush's lowering of wages for workers who will do the hard work of rebuilding. The Katrina aftermath, Sweeney says, exposed the consequences of public policies that have valued the wrong priorities. And so the country needs to invest in new priorities that will truly meet the needs of working families