Rep. Norma Torres goes on Inland Empire ‘jobs listening tour’
ONTARIO >> On her first major break from Congress, Rep. Norma Torres, D-Ontario, spent the day meeting with Inland Empire workers and employers, in an attempt to help plan her first year in Washington.
She started the day at UPS' hub adjacent to LA/Ontario International Airport.
"So, who delivers to my home?" Torres asked a group of drivers at their morning meeting. "Because I get a lot of packages."
Torres, formerly the mayor of Pomona, was greeted with calls of "P-town!" from the drivers.
Airplanes fly out all hours of the day and night from the facility, with the heaviest traffic between 9:30 p.m. and 2 a.m. The hub employs 4,400 people — two of them her sons.
"And by the way, that is a great looking uniform you've got on," Torres said.
Later Monday, she held a Jobs and Public Safety Roundtable as part of the Listening Tour at the Montclair Police Department, according to spokeswoman Anna Gonzalez. Torres has also reportedly held meetings with labor representatives and leaders of local chambers of commerce.
On Friday, she hosted a Logistics Roundtable with about 20 employers at the airport. Future meetings with employers in the healthcare, manufacturing and small business arenas are also planned.
The input from the meetings will be used to develop a white paper scheduled to be released on May 1, outlining Torres' legislative agenda, her spokeswoman said.
Figures released Friday by the Labor Department show that employers added 295,000 jobs nationwide in February, and the United States' unemployment rate dropped to its lowest point since the Great Recession: 5.5 percent, down from 5.7 percent in December and 6.7 percent a year prior.
In California, employers added 67,300 jobs in January and the state unemployment rate dropped to 6.9 percent, down from 7.1 percent in December and 8.1 percent a year earlier, the state Employment Development Department reported.
Source: Beau Yarbrough, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin