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Macomb, IL – Starting this week, the AFL-CIO and progressive allies are engaging in weeks of mobilization to focus on the nation's real crisis: jobs. Americans know this (more than Congress, apparently). But there's sometimes confusion or hesitation about What To Do.
The economic crisis itself can be summed up in six bullet points:
1) Jobs, even manufacturing jobs, exist - up 500,000 in a decade. But, as former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm says, "Just not in America." Those half-million jobs were created by multinationals cutting 2.4 million jobs in the US while adding 2.9 million offshore.
2) Offshoring. Echoing Granholm, a recent World Bank study, Estimating the Impact of Trade and Offshoring on American Workers Using the Current Population Surveys, says that 6 million manufacturing jobs were lost between 1982 and 2002, mostly due to offshoring. "There were estimated wage losses of 2% to 4% among workers leaving manufacturing," it reports.
3) Unemployment and low wages. Almost 10% of the nation's labor force is jobless - even more are "underemployed," working part-time or fewer hours than they want. And 90% of US workers are underpaid, according to JPMorgan Chase, of all sources. They recently told clients that pay is at a 50-year low compared to company sales and Gross Domestic Product. Average profit margins of major companies have increased to almost 13%, the highest since the '60s, JPMorgan noted, adding, "Profits are up because wages are down."
Why? Workers lost their leverage, especially with decades of union-busting.
4) Inequality in pay is linked to 30 years of union-busting, according to a new study by Harvard and the University of Washington. Union membership dropped from 34% in 1973 to 8% for male workers, says Unions, Norms, and the Rise in American Wage Inequality, in the American Sociological Review. It says, "Unions offered an alternative to an unbridled market logic."
5) Poverty. Almost 15% of the US population is now using Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (food stamps). That's 46 million people, the highest total ever. And even the "low" inflation rate shows prices 3.9% higher in the Midwest than a year ago, the Bureau of Labor Statistics says - and prices are going up faster than pay. The latest Consumer Price Index shows that transportation is the sector driving higher prices, as gasoline prices alone are 40% higher than June 2010.
6) Big Oil gouging us. Meanwhile, the five largest oil companies announced a total of $36 billion in profits in the second quarter this year. In three months, ExxonMobil posted $10.7 billion in profits; Shell $8.7 billion; Chevron $7.7 billion; BP $5.3 billion; and ConocoPhillips $3.4 billion. Again, in three months. With taxpayer subsidies!
So, here's a six-point plan to stand up and fight back.
1) "Charge!" Forget counter-punching. Mohammad Ali said, "Float like a butterfly; sting like a bee," not "Crawl like a roach and get squished like a bug."
2) Be present, be public, like successful organizing showed in the 1930s and '40s, not like the acquiescing collaboration and compromise that's weakened labor since.
3) Bumper-sticker PR. Unionist and writer Shamus Cooke says, "National Nurses United has already come up with the [slogan:] 'Make Wall Street pay! Tax the rich and corporations!'"
4) Mobilize allies. Labor has many potential partners with common causes, if progressives stop insisting on 100% unanimity on every issue.
5) Reunite. Speaking of partners, it's past time for the National Education Association, the United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers, the Carpenters, the Change To Win coalition and other unaffiliated labor groups to join the AFL-CIO to strengthen collective power.
6) End any dependence on Democrats - whose best argument ("We're not Republicans!") is no longer sufficient. Cooke writes, "Union leaders should realize that the Democrats don't want to be friends anymore. How many betrayals must it take?"
Starting this week, the national mobilization builds to a National Week of Action in early October focusing on people's demand for good jobs.
Bill Knight is a freelance writer who teaches at Western Illinois University. The opinions expressed are not necessarily those of WIU or Tri States Public Radio