WASHINGTON, Sept. 7 /PRNewswire/ -- Two days after Labor Day, best selling author Barbara Ehrenreich announces the launch of United Professionals ("UP"): "We waited until after Labor Day because UP represents the next step in the mobilization of wage earners. While working on Bait & Switch in 2005, I met many white collar workers who are unemployed or underemployed and anxious about outsourcing, downsizing and their increasingly futile pursuit of the American Dream. I realized these professionals needed their own network."
(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20060907/DCTH031LOGO )
Joined by UP Board Member Bill Holland, author of Are There Any Good Jobs Left?, UP Advisors Tamara Draut (Strapped: Why America's 20-and 30-Somethings Can't Get Ahead) and Jared Bernstein (All Together Now: Common Sense for a Fair Economy), the UP launch highlights the economic challenges faced by white collar workers:
* 31% of college educated workers have no employer based health coverage
* 39% have no employer-provided retirement plan
* 17% are doing jobs that under-utilize their college degree
* Real wage growth for college educated workers is stagnant -- 1.3% from
2000 to 2005 (compared with 11% for the previous five years)
Workers can join UP at http://www.unitedprofessionals.org, as well as new chapters in Chicago, Seattle, Minneapolis, Tampa Bay, New York, South Bend and other cities Ehrenreich is scheduled to visit this fall for book signing events and early UP organizing meetings.
Joining Ehrenreich, Chicago-based UP Board member Bill Holland says: "UP celebrates the professional work we do by creating a mutually protective support system -- for all of us." UP Advisor Tamara Draut adds: "Young people especially face the challenge of trying to get ahead in an increasingly unrewarding economy. They can benefit from groups like UP that work on the basics: benefits, advocacy, service, information and community support." Draut is Director of the Economic Opportunity Program at the NY-based think-tank Demos.
"We can do more than give unemployed workers a forum to gripe," says Ehrenreich. "UP can help them form regional or sector networks that meet regularly and work with community groups, labor coalitions and each other. White collar professionals must participate collectively in the political process to advance economic policies that protect their interests. We can design safety nets around insurance and similar supports that motivate others to join. This is UP."
UP is a nonprofit, nonpartisan membership organization for white collar workers, regardless of profession or employment status. We reach out to all unemployed, underemployed and anxiously employed workers. Our mission is to protect and preserve the American middle class, now under attack from so many directions, from downsizing and outsourcing to the steady erosion of health and pension benefits. We believe that education, skills and experience should be rewarded with appropriate jobs, livable incomes, benefits and social supports.
CONTACT: Michael Dolan of United Professionals, 1-202-297-8097
Web site: http://www.unitedprofessionals.org