Bustos to launch job shadowing program
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- Published on Thursday, 18 April 2013 17:37
- Written by Paul Gordon
Congresswoman Cheri Bustos won't learn Friday what brown can do for her; rather, what she can do for brown.
Bustos announced Thursday she is launching a new program through which she can learn the concerns and needs of everyday working people in her 17th District, which covers much of west-central Illinois, by spending the day with them on their jobs.
Through the program, which she is calling "Cheri on Shift," Bustos then plans to shape and propose legislation that can offer solutions to meet those needs, the East Moline Democrat said during a news conference.
On Friday Bustos will don the brown uniform of a United Parcel Service employee and spend much of the day with a delivery driver from the UPS distribution center in Milan and with workers at a UPS store in East Moline. She will arrive at the UPS store at 10:15 a.m.
"There is no better place to meet with people and learn about their lives and the concerns that at their workplace," Bustos said during the brief telephone conference cut short when she had to return to the U.S. House chambers to cast votes.
"Cheri on Shift" will be an on-going, periodic event at which Bustos will meet with and shadow workers, going to job sites throughout the district.
"Our district covers 7,000 square miles and has 700,000 people living in it. I want to make sure I am here for the workers in our district and I want to hear from them," she said. "We are working hard for middle class families and trying to find solutions. That is my goal in Congress."
Bustos said she plans to ask a lot of questions of the workers and hopes they will feel they can open up to her. "I want to go to a lot of work places, get a good cross section of places, including manufacturers. I also want to hear from the businesses, about their concerns and needs. If they are facing hurdles to job creation, I want to learn what they are and what we in Congress can do about them. That is why I hope the businesses will come to us, invite us in and be open to us," she said.
Sharing work space with them and shadowing them while they do their work "will be a good way to get to know them. It's the working people who are the heart and soul of our district," she said.
Bustos noted she has already started a program she calls Supermarket Saturdays, when she goes to various groceries in the district and while shopping she talks with other patrons and hears their concerns about food prices.
To date the UPS visit is the only Cheri On Shift that has been scheduled, but she said other businesses are being considered and times are being considered for some of them.
A couple weeks ago Bustos toured all of the community colleges within the 17th District, including Illinois Central College in East Peoria, to learn how those schools are working with their communities to enhance opportunities for students.
Based on those tours she introduced a pair of bills in Congress that would address some of the concerns she heard, including a bill that would stop federal student loan interest rates from doubling this summer and another called the American Jobs Matter Act.
That legislation, which was blended into another jobs bill introduced by House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Maryland, would allow the federal government to consider whether companies bidding on federal contracts intend to create and maintain jobs in the United States.
The bill, she said when introducing it last week, is "a common sense bill" that aims to support job creation at American manufacturers and other businesses.
Top employers in her district include Caterpillar Inc. of Peoria and Deere & Co. in Moline.
