Macomb, IL – Next week marks an odd double-anniversary for organized labor. On October 24, 1929, the stock market crashed, leading to the Great Depression that overwhelmed much of the world through the next decade. On October 24, 1940, the 40-hour workweek went into effect.
Now - decades later - the labor movement is grappling with challenges as varied as national debates about health-care reform and the Employee Free Choice Act and struggles within the struggle to gain a voice in the workplace. More mundane phenomena seem almost as significant, as the unemployment rate remains bothersome and consumer prices continue to hammer away at working Americans' failure to achieve wages that match inflation.
Regarding membership: The AFL-CIO reports that its member unions now have 8.3 million members, which don't count the breakaway unions in the Change To Win coalition nor unaffiliated groups such as the National Education Association. That number also doesn't include the 3 million more Americans who pay nominal dues to the AFL-CIO's Working America organization for people who can't yet join labor unions.
Thirty-five years ago, the AFL-CIO had 12.6 million members, which grew to 12.9 million members before Change To Win was formed four years ago. The Bureau of Labor Statistics says their most recent data show that 12.4% of the U.S. labor force belongs to labor unions - about one-third of labor's high point in the 1950s.
Illinois workers fare better, with 16.6% of workers belonging to unions, BLS says. Ten states have higher percentages.
Regarding trade: Since George W. Bush was named U.S. President, the nation has accumulated $3.8 trillion in trade deficits in manufacturing - about twice as much as trade deficits for oil and gas, according to The American Conservative magazine. Its founder, Pat Buchanan, criticizes giant corporations such as Wal-Mart (which he dubs "the Chinese outlet store") as complicit in the problem.
Buchanan writes, "Our trade deficit with China in manufactured goods [is] $1.58 trillion over those eight years - roughly equal [to] the entire U.S. trade deficit for oil and gas."
On joblessness: Reflecting Big Business' disloyal attitude to the country, factories in September shed 51,000 more jobs, adding to a decade-long downturn in manufacturing, "much of it due to subsidized foreign imports, such as Chinese tires," reports Press Associates, Inc. "Factories are now down 11.7 million workers. Unemployment among factory workers is 11.9%."
Overall, the U.S. jobless rate in September was up to 9.8%, with 214,000 more unemployed Americans, now totaling more than 15 million people.
Add to this crisis the substantial number of Americans who no longer "count" in unemployment data - people who work part-time but would prefer full-time jobs, and those considered "discouraged" and no longer looking for work, and about 17% of all U.S. workers are jobless, PAI reports.
About consumer prices: The federal Consumer Price Index for urban areas went up 0.4% in the BLS' most recent report, "driven by a 9.1% rise in the gasoline index" in a month, according to Steve Reed of the BLS. Elsewhere, prices for medical care commodities were up 3.7% from a year ago; medical care in general was up 3.3% in the last 12 months.
Today, U.S. workers may be at a crossroads, where we can look back at genuine achievements such as wage and hour laws that set the workweek and provided for overtime pay for hours worked over 40, or we can see the disastrous consequences of Wall Street trickery that led the economy astray before.
From here, workers must organize to collectively press for reform, whether at the polling place or workplace. That will show greater numbers in membership rolls and, much more importantly, progress at home and in society.