Address of US Congressman Les AuCoin delivered before the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) convention in Oregon in 1982. In his address, Congressman AuCoin discussed President Reagan vetoing an anti-recession housing bill, unemployment, and the 1982 midterm elections, stating "This, my friends, is a fight, a fight over who is going to run America. Is it going to be rich men who have never stood in unemployment lines and have no understanding of what it means to be a construction boiler maker, the ranks of whom today are 90 per cent unemployed? Is this country going to be run by rich men and ultraconservatives who have no conception of what Reaganomics are doing to devastate the communities and families across this state and across this country? Or instead, is this great country going to be run by you, and your neighbors, and by workers everywhere...?"
Testimony of US Congressman Les AuCoin before the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Public Assistance and Unemployment Compensation advocating for HR7327 - A bill to increase the number of weeks for which Federal supplemental unemployment compensation is payable. In his testimony delivered on December 8, 1982, Congressman AuCoin described how 11 million Americans were out of work, with the unemployment being higher in Oregon than the national average (11.5% versus 10.8%, respectively). He described how 12,500 Oregonians were expected to lose their unemployment benefits unless further legislation, specifically HR7327, was passed.
