|
printable version
- js reader version
- view hidden posts
- tags and related articles
by John Leslie
Wednesday, Jun. 27, 2012 at 2:27 PM
info@workerscompass.org
Recently, Mitt Romney made a stop on his “Jobs Tour” in upper Bucks County, Pennsylvania just outside of Philadelphia. His appearance was supposed to be, interestingly, at a local WAWA store (for those out-of-state, WAWA is a convenience store chain) Why is this interesting? Because WAWA, like so many employers these days, is a low wage, no benefit “job creator.”
Faced with a couple of hundred demonstrators, Romney cancelled his event and instead ate a “sub” (uh, hoagie) at another WAWA. Demonstrators outside of the event were from Occupy Philly, Fight for Philly and the Democratic Party. Ed Rendell, machine Democrat and ex-governor, spoke at the Democrats’ rally. (Technically, counter protesters were part of two separate protests). We caution everyone not to believe for a minute that either “Fast Eddy” Rendell or his Democratic Party are friends of working people.
Working class demonstrators told their stories of struggle in the current economy, while ultra-right thugs (Tea Partiers) heckled them.
The first speaker…gave a short statement about his former job as a steel worker at Fairless Works, a steel mill that was located in Levittown, Pennsylvania. He was a third generation worker at the plant and claimed that he along with 50,000 other people, were victims of Bain Capital, who bought the business, laid off the workers and sold it for a profit. His statement began with populist egalitarian views such as taxing the rich and feeding the poor, but as he began to talk about the investment firm, the Romney supporters began to yell about how it was the unions who destroyed this country. They were attacking one of the only institutions that fight for decent working class wages and safe workplace conditions. The ignorance of the Romney supporters was in overdrive, especially when a drunken older man received applause for shouting borderline racist slurs about the president. His slurs included “The Muslim Brotherhood is in the White House” and “Lock up your daughters because Sharia Law is coming to America. – Mitt Romney: “Coward in Chief” cancels campaign event at last minute.
When the “Jobs tour” landed in Wisconsin, Romney appeared with union-busting Governor of Wisconsin, and enemy of workers, Scott Walker promising jobs and prosperity. That is, low wage jobs for the 99% and prosperity for the 1%.
Anyone who reads the statistics, or has applied for a job in the past few years, can tell you there’s not much out there in the way of jobs; and what few that are created are low wage and offer few, if any, benefits.
According to the Teamster Nation:
…the US leads developed countries in the share of workers earning low wages. The research also shows that increased wage polarization over the last several decades is one of the reasons for the large share of low wage-work in the US….
…the share of employees earning low wages has increased from 22 percent in 1979 to 28 percent in 2009. Thus, we have more people at the extremes of the distribution, and fewer in the middle.
The report, written by John Schmitt, also concludes that low-wage work doesn’t lead to high-wage work: “Not only are low-wage workers likely to stay in low-wage jobs from one year to the next, they are also more likely than workers in higher-wage jobs to fall into unemployment or to leave the labor force altogether. From 1995 through 2001, for example, about half or more of low-wage workers in Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States remained in low-wage work from one year to the next, and between 8 and 23 percent of low-wage workers left the workforce year-to-year.”
Racism is another factor working people have to look at. For instance, unfortunately, the unemployment rate for African Americans rose in May to 13.6 percent from 13.0 percent in April, the Labor Department said on Friday. The numbers mirrored the national unemployment rate, which also increased to 8.2 percent from 8.1 percent, the first rise in 11 months. Further, employers created only 69,000 jobs in May, the smallest amount in a year. The startling numbers mean that federal, state, and local governments will have to invest in job-training programs for African-American workers who are increasingly losing jobs like those in the public sector, Rep. Danny K. Davis (Ill-D) told NewsOne. – “Black unemployment just keeps getting worse.”
In a study conducted at Princeton University it was found that “black applicants were half as likely as equally qualified whites to receive a callback or job offer. In fact, black and Latino applicants with clean backgrounds fared no better than white applicants just released from prison.”
Romney’s “plan” to address persistent high unemployment is further reliance on tax cuts for the 1%, austerity, deregulation, and union busting. Obama on the campaign trail is still promoting his jobs plan that died in Congress last fall.
The Huffington Post described the Obama plan this way:
Obama’s bill was a mix of tax cuts and new spending aimed at spurring job creation in the short term. It included 0 billion in payroll tax cuts and other tax relief, along with 5 billion in new spending on roads, school repairs and other infrastructure projects, as well as an extension of unemployment benefits and aid to local governments to prevent impending teacher and police layoffs.
Neither of these plans is adequate to address continued long term unemployment. Both Obama and Romney (Obamney) are tone-deaf and disinterested in real job creation. Both candidates serve the interests of Wall Street because that is where they get the most money for their re-election campaigns. Liberal programs for job training and other such band-aids are not a solution either.
Recently, Democrats and Republicans in the Senate joined together to slash .8 billion in food stamp funding. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), chided her colleagues in the billionaire boys’ club:
We all here in this chamber take the ability to feed our children for granted. That is not the case for too many families in America…Put yourselves for just a moment in their shoes. Imagine being a parent who cannot feed your children the food they need to grow. It’s beneath this body to cut food assistance for those who are struggling the most among us. – Food Stamp Vote In Senate Blocks Bid To Restore .5 Billion In Aid.
Let’s look at the unemployment numbers
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) report released on June 1, the economy added only 69,000 jobs in May. The economy has to create approximately 150,000 jobs per months just to keep up with the new workers entering the workforce; otherwise the unemployment rate would rise even more. At that time there were 12.7 million counted as unemployed. An additional 8.1 million work part-time jobs because they can’t find full-time jobs. Another 2.4 million workers are referred to as “marginally attached to the labor force.” These include more than 800,000 “discouraged” workers who have stopped looking for work. The numbers are also skewed downward by people dropping out/giving up, “aging out” (going from unemployment to collecting Social Security) or by the fact that the undocumented CAN’T get unemployment compensation and therefore aren’t counted.
The “marginally attached” are not counted as unemployed. If you add all of these numbers together, this means that more than 23 million people are locked out of the US economy. What this means is that to reverse the unemployment situation over a period of 5 years, the economy would have to add more than 500,000 jobs per month to put everyone back to work, taking into account labor force growth as well.
Putting millions of workers back to work will require an immediate and emergency initiative to create a public works jobs program like the Works Progress Administration (WPA) of the 1930s.
One-Sided Class War
In the midst of this economic crisis, the one-sided class war, waged against U.S. workers for decades, has accelerated. The bosses want to balance their “recovery” on the backs of working people, and this includes a bipartisan attack on the right to organize and strike. This is what’s behind the concerted attack on public sector unions, especially teachers. More than half of all local and state public employees are working with pay freezes. Public employees have also seen pensions and benefits slashed. Over the last 3-year period local governments eliminated more than 480,000 jobs. States chopped an additional 150,000 jobs in this same time frame. Approximately 200,000 of the public sector jobs lost were teachers. The attack on public employees has coincided with the media demonization of “greedy” and “lazy” public workers.
“Those job losses have led to slower emergency response times, backlogged courts, and larger classroom sizes, and the public sector losses aren’t likely to cease in 2012. The public sector lost 1,000 jobs in March, and according to Moody’s, states are expected to lose another 15,000 jobs while local governments will shed between 150,000 and 175,000 this year.” Last Three Years Were Worst On Record For Public Sector Job Losses.
Public employees are the appetizer; private sector unions are the main course. Politicians are already working to repeal prevailing wage laws in different states. In Pennsylvania, the right wing is working to repeal the state prevailing wage law, which sets the wage for publicly funded construction projects at the union rate. Similar efforts are underway in other states.
Don’t expect the Democrats to save you
“Here is the short list of states that have Democratic governors where labor unions are undergoing severe attacks: Massachusetts, Connecticut, Oregon, California, New York, Illinois, Washington, Hawaii, Minnesota, Maryland and New Hampshire. Other states with Democratic governors are attacking unions to a lesser degree.
“The Democrats in these states have sought to distance themselves from the Republican governors of Wisconsin and Ohio, who have specifically attacked the collective bargaining rights of unions.
“The above Democrats all hide their anti-union attacks behind a “deep respect for collective bargaining [akin to a thief who will steal your car but, out of respect, will not target your deceased Grandma’s diamond earrings].
“For example, the anti-union Democratic governor of Connecticut is demanding .6 billion in cuts from state workers! The contract has not been ratified yet, but Governor Malloy referred to the agreement as: ‘historic because of the way we achieved it – we respected the collective bargaining process and we respected each other, negotiating in good faith, without fireworks and without anger.’” – The Democrats Attack Unions Nationwide.
Divisions in the labor movement and support for the Democratic Party help fuel the bosses’ offensive. For example,building trades unions have contributed money to New York State Governor Coumo’s anti-union effort to break public employees unions.
Giving money to our class enemies is like fighting an attacker with one hand while digging your own grave with the other.
What is needed is unity in struggle and a united front fightback where working class organizations join together to oppose austerity and cutbacks, combined with a fight for jobs at union wages and single-payer health care. We also need a unified defense of the right to organize and strike. Building unity also requires defense of affirmative action and an uncompromising fight against racism.
Building a united front necessarily means including the broadest possible participation by the mass organizations of the working class and oppressed; even those that are tied to the Democrats. This is a difficult terrain of struggle and there are no guarantees, but revolutionaries can present programmatic ideas within this larger context. Asking agreement in advance with a revolutionary or radical program will automatically result in a situation where the left captures itself. Revolutionaries have to be the best, most consistent, fighters in this struggle.
The central lessons of the defeat in Wisconsin are that mass action and class independence are critical elements of a successful fightback. Taking the movement off of the streets and channeling it into electoralism took the wind out of the sails of the movement there.
What to do next
Currently, there is not a unified national fight against the bipartisan austerity drive. There are, however, signs of hope. The fightback in Wisconsin, before it was diverted, points to what such a mass movement might look like. The solidarity and mass action in support of Longshore workers in Longview, Washington, including the shutdown of the port of Oakland in a one-day strike, is another example of the road forward. There are hundreds of local struggles: to save public schools, to stop foreclosures, to stop social service cuts and more. The outlines of this future movement can be seen in the occupy movement, in the unions and in formations like the Emergency Labor Network.
Such a mass movement can’t be wished into existence, it has to be organized and fought for.
http://workerscompass.org/?p=5749
www.workerscompass.org
Report this post as:
|
Local News
GUIDE TO REBEL CITY LOS ANGELES AVAILABLE
A12 5:39PM
lausd whistle blower
A10 11:58PM
Website Upgrade
A10 3:02AM
Help KCET and UCLA identify 60s-70s Chicano images
A04 1:02PM
UCLA Luskin: Casting Youth Justice in a Different Light
A02 11:58AM
Change Links April 2018
A01 11:27AM
Nuclear Shutdown News March 2018
M31 6:57PM
Join The Protest Rally in Glendale on April 10, 2018!
M29 7:00PM
Join The Protest Rally in Glendale on April 10, 2018!
M29 6:38PM
Spring 2018 National Immigrant Solidarity Network News Alert!
M19 2:02PM
Anti-Eviction Mapping Project Shows Shocking Eviction Trends in L.A.
M16 5:40PM
Steve Mnuchin video at UCLA released
M15 12:34AM
Actress and Philanthropist Tanna Frederick Hosts Project Save Our Surf Beach Clean Ups
M06 12:10PM
After Being Told He's 'Full of Sh*t' at School Event, Mnuchin Demands UCLA Suppress Video
M02 11:44AM
Resolution of the Rent Strike in Boyle Heights
M01 6:28PM
What Big Brother Knows About You and What You Can Do About It
M01 3:30PM
Step Up As LAPD Chief Charlie Beck Steps Down
F14 2:44PM
Our House Grief Support Center Hosts 9th Annual Run For Hope, April 29
F13 12:51PM
Don’t let this LA County Probation Department overhaul proposal sit on the shelf
F13 11:04AM
Echo Park Residents Sue LA Over Controversial Development
F12 8:51AM
Former Signal Hill police officer pleads guilty in road-rage incident in Irvine
F09 10:25PM
Calif. Police Accused of 'Collusion' With Neo-Nazis After Release of Court Documents
F09 7:14PM
Center for the Study of Political Graphics exhibit on Police Abuse posters
F07 9:50AM
City Agrees to Settle Lawsuit Claiming Pasadena Police Officer Had His Sister Falsely Arre
F04 3:17PM
Professor's Study Highlights Health Risks of Urban Oil Drilling
F04 12:42PM
Claims paid involving Pasadena Police Department 2014 to present
F04 10:52AM
Pasadenans - get your license plate reader records from police
F03 11:11PM
LA Times Homicide Report
F03 1:57PM
More Local News...
Other/Breaking News
Tech workers organize
A24 6:24PM
Architect Stephen Francis Jones
A24 3:01PM
UN Forum Wrestles with Economic Policies 10 Years After Financial Crisis Islands Call for
A24 12:34PM
Xyloglossie attitudinale
A23 8:07AM
Shadowgun Legends Hack and Cheats
A23 7:24AM
What does the Quran Say About Islamic Dress??
A21 4:15PM
Biodiversité ou la nature privatisée
A20 11:22AM
The Market is a Universal Totalitarian Religion
A20 7:14AM
Book Available about Hispanics and US Civil War by National Park Service
A19 5:52PM
The Shortwave Report 04/20/18 Listen Globally!
A19 4:01PM
The Republican 'Prolife' Party Is the Party of War, Execution, and Bear Cub Murder
A19 11:48AM
Neurogenèse involutive
A18 9:21AM
Paraphysique de la dictature étatique
A16 10:13AM
Book Review: "The New Bonapartists"
A16 3:45AM
The West Must Take the First Steps to Russia
A14 12:25PM
Théorie générale de la révolution ou hommage à feu Mikhaïl Bakounine
A14 3:30AM
The Shortwave Report 04/13/18 Listen Globally!
A12 3:50PM
“Lost in a Dream” Singing Competition Winner to Be Chosen on April 15 for ,000 Prize!
A12 3:48PM
The World Dependent on Central Banks
A12 4:43AM
Ohio Governor Race: Dennis Kucinich & Richard Cordray Run Against Mike DeWine
A11 9:40PM
March 2018 Honduras Coup Again Update
A10 10:52PM
Apologie du zadisme insurrectionnel
A10 3:33PM
ICE contract with license plate reader company
A10 1:14PM
Palimpseste sisyphéen
A09 11:23PM
Black Portraiture(S) IV: The Color of Silence...Cuba No...Cambridge Yes
A09 5:32AM
Prohibiting Micro-Second Betting on the Exchanges
A09 4:18AM
Prosecutors treat Muslims harsher than non-Muslims for the same crimes
A08 10:33PM
Amy Goodman interview on cell phone safety
A08 10:29PM
More Breaking News...
|