IAM Launches “UCubed” to Help Unemployed
January 19, 2010
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On Friday, January 15, 2010, the IAM launched Ur Union of Unemployed– known as UCubed – an online community that aims to unify the unemployed in a unique and useful way.
UCubed’s purpose is to assist the over 31 million Americans who have lost their jobs in this Grave Recession by helping them to organize, work together and get back to work. Many Americans are facing the toughest times in more than a generation. Their job prospects will depend, in large measure, on what happens in Washington.
“More than 35,000 members of our union have been laid off,” says IAM International President Tom Buffenbarger in his welcome letter on the UCubed website. “Others are working fewer hours each week because their employers simply do not have orders to fill. And the real recovery, not the false one on Wall Street, still seems years away.”
UCubed will organize the unemployed into community activist groups known as cubes. Together, they will turn up the heat on politicians from the State House to the White House to act swiftly to address the current jobs crisis. Each cube will be organized by zip code.
To date, the following have chosen to partner with the IAM in this community service project: The AFL-CIO, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), the Communications Workers of America (CWA), IAM District Lodge 34, the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades (IUPAT), the National Education Association (NEA), NoLimits.org, Totten Communications and Working America, AFL-CIO.
Cubes have already developed across the country, and the numbers continue to grow. Visit UCubed at www.unionofunemployed.com and watch as the nation’s unemployed take back control.
