On December 10, 2013 Rep. John Garamendi of California asked for and was granted permission to address the United States House of Representatives for one minute regarding jobs in America.
“Mr. Speaker, we come here about every week to talk about jobs in America. This last Friday, we held a jobs fair in my district in Fairfield, California, and it was a remarkable event. I have been around a long time. I have seen many, many things. As remarkable as it was, it was also one of the saddest events I have been to. I have been to a lot of funerals and a lot of tragedies over the years, but this one ranks very high.”
“I put this picture up here because this is a picture of the second hour after that job fair had begun. The line outside the building, where we had some 40 employers that were offering to hire people, stretched over 200 yards. The temperature was about 37, 38 degrees. It was one of those cold mornings, and these people were determined to get a job. They were willing to stand in that line for up to an hour and a half, some of them perhaps even 2 hours, just to have a shot, just to be able to talk to an employer, to have the opportunity to look face-to-face at an employer and say, “I want to work.” The stories were incredible. I spent about an hour, maybe an hour and 20 minutes, talking to the men and women that were in this line”, he said.
“I remember one gentleman who had served several tours in Afghanistan and Iraq. He said he was with the Army Rangers, said he had four Purple Hearts. He left the military and is now unemployed. In fact, in this line were 141 veterans, unemployed, looking for work. They have skills, know when to get up in the morning, know what it takes to go to work, to put in a full day or more–unemployed”, he continued.
“A young woman, fresh out of school, a child at home, she wanted to go to work. She had an associate’s degree in social welfare programs, human relations, anything in that area. She said: I will take any job. I just want to go to work. I want to take care of my child. Another woman, 50, 55, divorced, had an 18-year-old child. Her alimony is over: I have got to go to work. I have got to support myself”, he explained.
“The stories of life, the stories of America, the stories of 971 people that stood in line just to have a shot at a job”, said Rep. Garamendi (source: Congressional Record http://thomas.loc.gov).
See video: I work at McDonalds and it sucks big time http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7v-Q6hEKAt4&list=PLLoHHPErwuMwPSt82BfsgP5BOcDNgG1rY and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFqhtx33RDI
See video: Working at McDonalds not ideal http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSM04hdpHAI