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The Gangbox - Assorted News and Notes

Date Posted: August 20 2004

The Northern Michigan Building Trades Council’s 5th annual sporting clay shoot will be held with an 11 a.m. shotgun start on Saturday, Sept. 11 at Eagle Ridge Sporting Clays, Lewiston Sportsmen’s League, 7689 Sheridan Valley Rd., Lewiston. The registration/money deadline is Saturday, Sept. 4.

A traveling trophy will be awarded to the trade with the highest four individual average score in their respective trade. An individual trophy will be awarded to the highest shooter overall.

The cost is $60 and includes 100 birds, lunch and door prizes. For more information, contact Terry Anderson, (989) 732-1402; Joe Henkle, (989) 785-2415 or Jack LaSalle, (906) 226-8311.

The Bush Administration - which had been watching key U.S. unemployment numbers improve during the first five months of the year, watched the bubble burst over the last two months.

The Labor Department reported on Aug. 6 that the nation’s payroll job numbers slowed dramatically in July with only 32,000 net jobs added that month. That came after a revised figure of 78,000 jobs added in June

The New York Times said analysts were expecting the economy to add anywhere from 215,000 to 247,000 jobs in July.

“Employers got cold feet,” economist Ken Mayland, president of ClearView Economics said. “Employers just don’t have the confidence in the economy that we need to sustain the kind of economic growth that we’ve seen.”

Earlier this year the Bush Administration had predicted the nation would produce 2.6 million jobs in 2004. In fact, the economy has added jobs for 11 months in a row. But Bush’s prediction hasn’t come close to reality – the nation has lost a net 1.1 million jobs since Bush took office in 2001, which continues to put him on track to be the only president since Herbert Hoover to oversee a net loss of jobs on his watch.

The nation’s unemployment rate did drop from 5.6 percent in June to 5.5 percent in July – but the Times said that aberration in not uncommon because the payrolls figure and jobless numbers are derived from two separate statistical surveys.

“The president keeps saying we’ve turned the corner,” said Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry. “But unfortunately, today’s job numbers further demonstrate that our economy may be taking a U-turn instead. Saying we’ve turned the corner doesn’t make it so. America will not turn the corner to better days until we have a new president who can see our problems and take action to fix them.”

Employment information for the rest of the U.S. isn’t all that great – but we can all breath a sigh of relief that American CEO’s enjoyed an average pay hike of 15 percent in 2003. A recent survey by a research firm, Corporate Library, showed increases in almost every category of executive compensation, including base salary, bonuses and incentive payouts.

American executives received an average increase of 9.5 percent in 2002.

“With statistics such as these, it would appear that any chance of reining in executive compensation has disappeared,” the report said. Compensation for more than U.S. 1,400 chief executives was examined.

In contrast, American workers incomes fell between 2000 and 2002 for the first time in modern history, according to an analysis of Internal Revenue Service statistics by the New York Times.

Adjusting for population growth and inflation, average individual income fell 9.2 percent between 2000 and 2002. The decline in jobs and wages in industries that pay well and the stock market drop are blamed.

The AFL-CIO has launched the “My Vote, My Right” campaign in 32 communities in 12 election battleground states, including Michigan. Working with affiliated unions and constituency groups, the federation is approaching and mobilizing union members on how to protect their votes.

With the 2000 voting fiasco in Florida not forgotten, the Voters’ Rights Protection Advocacy Teams will work with community allies to make sure voting rights are maintained.