Political Cartoon: Labor Day pink slips for Philly workers

This has been a rough summer for Philadelphia workers. Over 3,000 have been laid off since June between the closing of Hahnemann Hospital and the Philadelphia Energy Solutions refinery in South Philadelphia. While many of the Hahnemann workers and residents may find work elsewhere in the area, the refinery workers don’t have easy nearby options for anything near their current salaries. At one of the community meetings which I attended last week, many speakers described the environmental problems at the site and suggested things like wind turbine or solar panel manufacturing to replace those jobs. Union members speaking at a previous meeting were having none of that happy talk. In both these cases, the workers are the last to know and first to be kicked to curb. This is what the wonders of our particular strain of capitalism looks like.

Editorial cartoons from this week include: