May, 14 2009, 12:00am EDT

For Immediate Release
Contact:
Ali Jost, 202-730-7159 (SEIU), Carlyn Foster, 202-730-7125 (SEIU)
Trevor Kincaid, 202-225-2111 (Rep. Schakowsky)
SEIU Launches New 'Keep America Working' Hotline and Website to Support Workers and Small Business Owners as Big Banks Push to Liquidate
Worker “Sit Ins” Grow As Nearly 1000 Hartmarx Workers Vote this Week to “Sit in” to Save their Jobs from Liquidation by Wells Fargo
WASHINGTON
Today, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) launched a toll-free hotline and website-Keep America Working-to support small business owners and workers facing job loss because of frozen credit and liquidation at the hands of bailed-out banks. The new hotline number is 877-286-1Job and will be open Monday-Friday from 8 am to 6 pm EDT, and the new website is www.keepworkinghotline.org.
As we've seen just this week, nearly 1000 workers at two Hart Schaffner & Marx (Hartmarx) factories voted to "sit in" to save their jobs from liquidation by bailout recipient Wells Fargo. In response to the growing "sit in" phenomenon, SEIU created this hotline and website to provide a voice for workers and small businesses similarly trapped by the reckless lending of bailout recipient banks.
"There is a lot of uncertainty at the plant," said Ruby Sims, a 32-year veteran of the Hart Schaffner & Marx factory in Des Plaines, IL. "All of us are worried about the future. We want Wells Fargo to do the right thing and keep this great company going."
Up until now, there has been no system in place to hold banks accountable for their lending practices, despite the fact that they have received more than $410 billion in taxpayer bailout funds in an effort to restore lending and get the economy moving. The Keep America Working hotline and website will help shed light on the shortsighted practices of big banks who have failed to live up to their responsibilities to taxpayers and are now pushing for company and worker liquidation. The hotline will also connect workers and small business owners with resources to take action and save their jobs.
"Representative Hare and I are working with our colleagues on a letter to Treasury Secretary Geithner to enlist his help in getting Wells Fargo do the right thing and keep Hart Marx open, save 4,000 jobs and send a clear signal to other banks to do the right thing when they face similar situations," said Representative Schakowsky (D-IL). "The whole idea of taxpayer help for the banks was to make sure we were not losing these good jobs, these good union jobs, for people like Ruby and families throughout my district."
In addition to the hotline, SEIU is dedicating a team to help workers and small business owners take action in their communities and connect them with community activists, neighbors, elected officials and others to raise awareness of the implications of taxpayer bailout banks' decisions on local employment and economic well-being.
"Wells Fargo has an obligation to do all it can to save Hartmarx and preserve jobs; that is why they received the federal bailout money. It really is pretty simple, they should be a part of the solution - not causing further problems in our economy," said Tom Balanoff, President of the SEIU Illinois State Council.
Big banks like Bank of America and Wells Fargo received hundreds of billions of dollars in taxpayer bailout funds so they could remain solvent and start lending again to get the economy moving. Instead, they're freezing loans and putting small businesses in danger of closing. As the unemployment rate soars to over 8.9 percent, workers and businesses need a voice to hold bailout recipient banks accountable for irresponsible financing practices.
"Big banks like Bank of America and Wells Fargo need to stop trampling on hardworking Americans and small business owners," said SEIU President Andy Stern. "Liquidating small businesses is a far cry from putting the economy back on track. It's time big banks make good on their promise to restore lending and become partners, not adversaries."
With 2 million members in Canada, the United States and Puerto Rico, SEIU is the fastest-growing union in the Americas. Focused on uniting workers in healthcare, public services and property services, SEIU members are winning better wages, healthcare and more secure jobs for our communities, while uniting their strength with their counterparts around the world to help ensure that workers--not just corporations and CEOs--benefit from today's global economy.
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'Authoritarian Theater' Meets 'Pure F*cking Idiocracy' as Trump Promises White House UFC Match
"Americans, you won't have healthcare, Medicaid, public schools, nursing homes, rural hospitals, or SNAP," said one critic. "But, you'll get UFC fights on the White House lawn. America F-Yeah!"
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Critics of President Donald Trump's announcement of a planned Ultimate Fighting Championship event on White House grounds to celebrate the United States Semiquincentennial next year took to social media Friday to call the proposal something "straight out of 'Idiocracy'"—the comedy cult classic about a dumbed-down 26th-century America—and condemn what one detractor called "authoritarian theater."
"Every one of our national park battlefields and historic sites are going to have special events in honor of America 250," Trump said at the Iowa State Fairgrounds Thursday. "We're going to have a UFC fight—think of this—on the grounds of the White House."
Yearning for a time when every new day isn't exponentially dumber than the day before.
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— Dave Vetter (@davidrvetter.bsky.social) July 4, 2025 at 2:57 AM
While Octagon aficionados cheered the prospect of a 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue fight card, many observers couldn't help but notice parallels with the plot of Mike Judge's 2006 film "Idiocracy," a satirical skewering of issues including the erosion of White House decorum in a future when IQs have plummeted and a sports drink corporation owns the country, whose voters elect Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Camacho, "five-time ultimate smackdown champion and porn superstar," as president.
"If anyone defends Trump saying there will be a UFC fight on the White House lawn never listen to them again," former Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger of Illinois wrote on the social media site X Friday, adding that Trump's announcement was like the "plot to 'Idiocracy' with an equally stupid-ass president."
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Yet another social media critic joked that "'Idiocracy' was actually a documentary from the future, sent back in time as a warning to us all."
Some critics pointed to the decadeslong business ties between Trump and UFC President and CEO Dana White, who has donated at least $1 million to Trump's campaign coffers.
Others noted the "bread and circuses" vibes of Trump's proposed event, which some called a cynical ploy meant to distract from the devastating impact of policies like Friday's signing of a multi-trillion-dollar tax cut that will overwhelmingly benefit the rich and corporations, while ballooning the deficit and leaving millions of Americans without desperately needed health insurance coverage and food assistance.
"Americans, you won't have healthcare, Medicaid, public schools, nursing homes, rural hospitals, or SNAP. But, you'll get UFC fights on the White House lawn," New York Times opinion contributor Wajahat Ali wrote on Bluesky. "America, F-YEAH!"
Writing for The Guardian Saturday, Karim Zidan asserted: "Donald Trump's UFC stunt is more than a circus. It's authoritarian theater."
"It carries shades of fascist Italy under Benito Mussolini, particularly its obsession with masculinity, spectacle, and nationalism—but with a modern, American twist," he wrote. "Fascist Italy used rallies, parades, and sports events to project strength and unity."
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As catastrophic flooding left scores of people dead and missing in Texas Hill Country and President Donald Trump celebrated signing legislation that will eviscerate every aspect of federal efforts to address the climate emergency, officials in the Lone Star State blasted the National Weather Service—one of many agencies gutted by the Department of Government Efficiency—for issuing faulty forecasts that some observers blamed for the flood's high death toll.
The Associated Press reported Saturday that flooding caused by a powerful storm killed at least 27 people, with dozens more—including as many as 25 girls from a summer camp along the Guadalupe River in Kerr County—missing after fast-moving floodwaters rose 26 feet (8 meters) in less than an hour before dawn on Friday, sweeping away people and pets along with homes, vehicles, farm and wild animals, and property.
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"The camp was completely destroyed," Elinor Lester, 13, one of hundreds of campers at Camp Mystic, told the AP. "A helicopter landed and started taking people away. It was really scary."
Kerr County Sheriff Larry Leitha said during a press conference in Kerrville late Friday that 24 people were confirmed dead, including children. Other officials said that 240 people had been rescued.
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After media reports & experts warned for months that drastic & sudden cuts at the Nat Weather Service by Trump could impair their forecasting ability & endanger lives during the storm season, TX officials blame an inaccurate forecast by NWS for the deadly results of the flood.
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— Ron Filipkowski (@ronfilipkowski.bsky.social) July 5, 2025 at 3:19 AM
"Listen, everybody got the forecast from the National Weather Service," Kidd reiterated. "You all got it; you're all in media. You got that forecast. It did not predict the amount of rain that we saw."
Kerrville City Manager Dalton Rice also said during the press conference that the storm "dumped more rain than what was forecasted" into two forks of the Guadalupe River.
Kerr County judge Rob Kelly told CBS News: "We had no reason to believe that this was gonna be anything like what's happened here. None whatsoever."
Since January, the NWS—a branch of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)—has reduced its workforce by nearly 600 people as a direct result of staffing cuts ordered by the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, as part of Trump's mission to eviscerate numerous federal agencies.
This policy is in line with Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation-led blueprint for a far-right overhaul of the federal government that calls for "dismantling" NOAA. Trump has also called for the elimination of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, arguing that states should shoulder most of the burden of extreme weather preparation and response. Shutting down FEMA would require an act of Congress.
Many of the fired NWS staffers were specialized climate scientists and weather forecasters. At the time of the firings, Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.), the ranking member of the House Natural Resources Committee, was among those who warned of the cuts' deadly consequences.
"People nationwide depend on NOAA for free, accurate forecasts, severe weather alerts, and emergency information," Huffman said. "Purging the government of scientists, experts, and career civil servants and slashing fundamental programs will cost lives."
Writing for the Texas Observer, Henry D. Jacoby—co-director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change—warned that "crucial data gathering systems are at risk."
"Federal ability to warn the public is being degraded," he added, "and it is a public service no state can replace."
On Friday, Trump put presidential pen to congressional Republicans' so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act, a $4 trillion tax and spending package that effectively erases the landmark climate and clean energy provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act signed by then-President Joe Biden in 2022.
As Inside Climate News noted of the new law:
It stomps out incentives for purchasing electric vehicles and efficient appliances. It phases out tax credits for wind and solar energy. It opens up federal land and water for oil and gas drilling and increases its profitability, while creating new federal support for coal. It ends the historic investment in poor and minority communities that bear a disproportionate pollution burden—money that the Trump administration was already refusing to spend. It wipes out any spending on greening the federal government.
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