Happy Labor Day?
I like the way we honor labor—working people—with a day off work. Other than that, labor doesn't have a lot to celebrate any more. Maybe that's why the media mostly seem to ignore Labor Day.
We workers have lost a lot in the past 30 or 40 years. I can make that statement with confidence because I know someone who's had the same job since the late 1960s: Mr. Ann. He is a journeyman in a construction union, which negotiates a pay scale with employers for various types of work regardless of experience, skill, seniority or personality.
Thirty years ago, the job he does paid enough for us to afford whatever we wanted, have money left over to put into savings, and—when our kids were born—let me quit my job and stay home. Now, though, pay for the same work just doesn't go far enough. In fact, instead of putting money into savings, we keep dipping into savings for things we used to be able to pay for out of our regular income.
We know when it changed. When Ronald Reagan refused to negotiate with striking air traffic controllers in the 1980s and fired them instead, all the unions in the country lost their power. Since then, Mr. Ann's union has struggled to get cost-of-living raises and maintain its health insurance and pension plans. Strike? Forget about it.
What about my job? I enjoy the work, and I'm paid well for the time I spend doing it. However, I have agreed to work part time and on call with absolutely no commitment or benefits from my employer. It's certainly not the kind of job I expected to get with my bachelor's degree when I was earning it in the 1970s, and it's certainly not supplementing Mr. Ann's income enough to provide the standard of living we used to enjoy.
And we're much better off than younger people who are just starting to make mortgage payments and whose retirement plans consist only of 401(k)s. According to Robert Reich, Secretary of Labor during the Clinton administration, "The income of a man in his 30s is now 12 percent below that of a man his age three decades ago."
Here are some Labor Day links in case anyone wants to sit at a computer getting depressed instead of enjoying the holiday:
Barlett and Steele classic, "America: Who Stole the Dream" (if you take the time to visit just one link).
Bob Herbert on truthout.org: "Big business and the federal government have worked hand in hand to squeeze the daylights out of working people, stripping them (in an era of downsizing and globalization) of much of their bargaining power while ferociously pursuing fiscal policies that radically favored the privileged few."
The State of Working America 2008/2009: "For the first time on record, middle-class families are at the end of a recovery without ever having regained the ground they lost during the previous recession."
Robert Reich, "The Terrible Jobs Report": The economy needs to create 125,000 jobs a month to keep up with population growth but is losing 73,000 jobs a month instead.
Robert Reich, "Why Most Who Lose Their Jobs Won't Get Unemployment Benefits": "In order to be eligible, most states require you to have been working in the job you lost full time, and for a certain number of years. . . . Meanwhile, full-time jobs are vanishing."
Dean Baker in Beat the Press: "By increasing the supply of highly skilled workers, the H1-B [visa] program undoubtedly reduces the wages for the most affected occupations. According to standard trade theory, this is precisely the point of the program."
Robert Reich, "The Myth of Summer Vacation": "The Bureau of Labor Statistics tells us 1 out of 4 workers gets no paid vacation days at all. Every other advanced nation—and even lots of developing nations—mandate them."
The Distributist Review: What unemployment statistics don't tell us.
Barlett and Steele, "The Great Retirement Ripoff": "Businesses in one industry after another are revoking long-standing commitments to their workers. . . . Result: a wholesale downsizing of the American Dream."
Where are we headed? Robert Reich is one of Barack Obama's economic advisors; here is one last link that gives insight into his views.
Robert Reich, "The Heart of the Economic Mess": "The first coping mechanism was to send more women into paid work. . . . They worked more hours. The typical American now works more each year than he or she did three decades ago. . . . Americans turned to a third coping mechanism. They began to borrow. . . . Americans are reaching the end of their ability to borrow and lenders have reached the end of their capacity to lend."
We workers have lost a lot in the past 30 or 40 years. I can make that statement with confidence because I know someone who's had the same job since the late 1960s: Mr. Ann. He is a journeyman in a construction union, which negotiates a pay scale with employers for various types of work regardless of experience, skill, seniority or personality.
Thirty years ago, the job he does paid enough for us to afford whatever we wanted, have money left over to put into savings, and—when our kids were born—let me quit my job and stay home. Now, though, pay for the same work just doesn't go far enough. In fact, instead of putting money into savings, we keep dipping into savings for things we used to be able to pay for out of our regular income.
We know when it changed. When Ronald Reagan refused to negotiate with striking air traffic controllers in the 1980s and fired them instead, all the unions in the country lost their power. Since then, Mr. Ann's union has struggled to get cost-of-living raises and maintain its health insurance and pension plans. Strike? Forget about it.
What about my job? I enjoy the work, and I'm paid well for the time I spend doing it. However, I have agreed to work part time and on call with absolutely no commitment or benefits from my employer. It's certainly not the kind of job I expected to get with my bachelor's degree when I was earning it in the 1970s, and it's certainly not supplementing Mr. Ann's income enough to provide the standard of living we used to enjoy.
And we're much better off than younger people who are just starting to make mortgage payments and whose retirement plans consist only of 401(k)s. According to Robert Reich, Secretary of Labor during the Clinton administration, "The income of a man in his 30s is now 12 percent below that of a man his age three decades ago."
Here are some Labor Day links in case anyone wants to sit at a computer getting depressed instead of enjoying the holiday:
Barlett and Steele classic, "America: Who Stole the Dream" (if you take the time to visit just one link).
Bob Herbert on truthout.org: "Big business and the federal government have worked hand in hand to squeeze the daylights out of working people, stripping them (in an era of downsizing and globalization) of much of their bargaining power while ferociously pursuing fiscal policies that radically favored the privileged few."
The State of Working America 2008/2009: "For the first time on record, middle-class families are at the end of a recovery without ever having regained the ground they lost during the previous recession."
Robert Reich, "The Terrible Jobs Report": The economy needs to create 125,000 jobs a month to keep up with population growth but is losing 73,000 jobs a month instead.
Robert Reich, "Why Most Who Lose Their Jobs Won't Get Unemployment Benefits": "In order to be eligible, most states require you to have been working in the job you lost full time, and for a certain number of years. . . . Meanwhile, full-time jobs are vanishing."
Dean Baker in Beat the Press: "By increasing the supply of highly skilled workers, the H1-B [visa] program undoubtedly reduces the wages for the most affected occupations. According to standard trade theory, this is precisely the point of the program."
Robert Reich, "The Myth of Summer Vacation": "The Bureau of Labor Statistics tells us 1 out of 4 workers gets no paid vacation days at all. Every other advanced nation—and even lots of developing nations—mandate them."
The Distributist Review: What unemployment statistics don't tell us.
Barlett and Steele, "The Great Retirement Ripoff": "Businesses in one industry after another are revoking long-standing commitments to their workers. . . . Result: a wholesale downsizing of the American Dream."
Where are we headed? Robert Reich is one of Barack Obama's economic advisors; here is one last link that gives insight into his views.
Robert Reich, "The Heart of the Economic Mess": "The first coping mechanism was to send more women into paid work. . . . They worked more hours. The typical American now works more each year than he or she did three decades ago. . . . Americans turned to a third coping mechanism. They began to borrow. . . . Americans are reaching the end of their ability to borrow and lenders have reached the end of their capacity to lend."
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