Washington, D.C., January 10, 2011 – Ur Union of Unemployed is ratcheting up the fight for employment security with a campaign for a joint resolution to create a constitutional amendment that would guarantee every citizen the right to earn a living.
Union of Unemployed members and their allies in every state will be urging Representatives and Senators to co-sponsor a joint resolution creating new rights for all Americans, including: a right to a job; a right to earn a living; a right to a decent home; a right to a secure retirement and a right to a good educatio
“The need for this amendment extends beyond the current Grave Recession or even the Great Depression, after which Franklin Roosevelt proposed such a compact as part of his Second Bill of Rights,” said Union of Unemployed Acting Executive Director Rick Sloan. “The need for this amendment is rooted in the guarantee that every American citizen is endowed with the right to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
In his 1944 State of the Union address, President Franklin D. Roosevelt argued the nation’s Bill of Rights were no longer adequate at “assuring us equality in the pursuit of happiness.” If anything, the situation is worse today than in 1944.
Among the rights in Roosevelt’s original proposal was “the right to a useful and remunerative job…; the right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation; the right of every family to a decent home; the right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment; and the right to a good education.”
