Assault on labor in Michigan

By Duane Campbell

While labor won big in the 2012 elections, we did not win everywhere.  Labor did not win in Michigan.  Republican legislators in Michigan on Thursday passed so called Right-To-Work  legislation  for private sector work by six votes in the Senate and the House.  The governor has indicated he will sign the bill.  A following bill restricting public sector workers is following close behind in the lame duck session.

From: Kitchen table economics:  in  DSA’s Democratic Left.  Winter 2012.What is Right To Work?  What motivates and who funds  these state campaigns against organized labor?  Answer: In states that have adopted so called Right To Work, annual wages and benefits are about $1,500 lower than for comparable workers in non-RTW states—for both union and nonunion workers.  And the odds of getting health insurance or a pension through one’s job are also lower. (1)

Right to work (RTW)  is a misleading slogan.  It does not guarantee anyone a job, that is a right to work.   Rather, it makes it illegal for unions to require that each worker who benefits from a union contract pays his or her  fair share of the costs of administering that contract.

“Right to Work” is a propaganda title that unfortunately the corporate owned  has successfully branded and the media repeats day by day.  We should avoid repeating the phrase.  Instead we should call it what it is, an assault on unions.

China’s Unfair Trade Puts U.S. Jobs at Risk

by Mike Hall, Jan 31, 2012. AFL-CIO

More than 1.6 million American jobs in the nation’s auto supply chain are at risk unless China’s illegal trade practices are curtailed, according to three new reports released today. In a conference call with reporters this afternoon, United Steelworkers (USW) President Leo Gerard said:

China is cheating unmercifully in this sector and we are saying to China—and asking our government to stand up to China and say—“enough is enough.” It is time to enforce our trade policies.

Two reports from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) and one from Stewart and Stewart, a law firm that has won cases challenging China’s unfair trade practices, detail China’s persistent and growing violations of World Trade Organization (WTO) rules and outline plans by China’s government to use these same tactics to boost their auto parts exports even further.

Trumka on Obama’s State of the Union

President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address tonight made clear that he hears the people who aren’t being heard by the 1 percent, says AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka. Obama’s speech showed he “listened to the single mom working two jobs to get by, to the out-of-work construction worker, to the retired factory worker, to the student serving coffee to help pay for college.”

By laying out a vision of an America that can create jobs and prosperity for all instead of wealth for the few, Trumka said the president “voiced the aspirations and concerns of those who are too often ignored.”

Obama also made clear that the era of the 1 percent getting rich by looting the economy, rather than creating jobs, is over.

“Now it’s time for Congress to stop standing in the way of rebuilding our country and act,”  Trumka said.

The Jobs Crisis and a NEW New Deal for America

By Martin Bennett and Richard Walker

The nation is experiencing the most severe economic crisis since the Great Depression. Princeton economist and former vice-chair of the Federal Reserve, Alan Blinder, calls the current crisis a “national jobs emergency.”

The official unemployment rate in September was 9.1 percent – nearly twice the rate a decade ago – leaving 14 million people out of work. In California, the rate is much worse, 12.1 percent, with over two million workers out of luck.

EPI president critical of proposed debt ceiling deal

by Lawrence Mishell

The Context

This proposed debt ceiling deal tentatively concludes a needlessly manufactured crisis and will do great harm to our nation. The debt we are undertaking now and scheduled to undertake over the next ten years is solely the product of past decisions (primarily unfunded wars, an unfunded prescription drug benefit and two rounds of tax cuts under President George W. Bush) and the recession-related revenue losses caused by the financial crisis generated by financial deregulation and weak oversight. We should end the need to legislatively raise the debt ceiling, since debt decisions are already made when budget bills are passed, and we should hold our elected officials accountable for the budget decisions they make. There is no economic necessity to undertake spending cuts or deficit reduction plans at this point in the economic recovery, when high unemployment is expected to persist for several more years. Jobs should be the priority and jobs are the path to get our nation’s fiscal situation to a responsible place. A long-term deficit reduction at this time should only be done if coupled with substantial deficit-related supports to the economy to rapidly lower unemployment this year and next.

Tax cuts enacted last December account for roughly $800 billion (one-third) of the increased borrowing authority needed to maintain obligations to citizens and creditors through 2012; a two-year extension of all the Bush tax cuts is now being fully financed with deep spending cuts.

The economic crisis and the assault on unions and working people

by Duane Campbell

Duane Campbell

The nation and the states continue to suffer from the Great Recession and working people remain in crisis.  The crisis was caused by the greed and avarice of the financial class and aided by the politicians of both major political parties.   The  major banks and corporations looted the economy creating an international meltdown.  Now, they have been rewarded with bail out money and have returned to high profits.  The crisis was not caused by students, teachers, public employees  nor recipients of social security.     The  continuing economic decline has had a devastating impact on state budgets in  at least  42 states.   Revenues have continued to plunge and  legislatures  have been forced to make a series of deep cuts to virtually all of the state’s programs, health care, police protection, education and university systems.

The national unemployment rate edged down in February to 8.9 %, but remained high in many states and regions.  In California it is over 12.5%.  According to the Labor Center at U.C. Berkeley, the Black unemployment rate is 15.3 % and the Latino unemployment rate hovers around 11.6% in February.   These sustained high levels of unemployment and long term unemployment are devastating to families.

The corporate class is using the state budget crises to assault union workers in Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana, and Pennsylvania, Colorado  among others.  They do not need this assault in Texas, Arizona, Utah,  Virginia, and much of the South where public workers are already restricted from bargaining.

Why the persistent high levels of unemployment?

Image via Wikipedia

by Duane Campbell

In a recession businesses downsize and create unemployment.  Usually in a recovery, businesses invest, hire more workers, and contribute to the recovery. This time we are stuck with high levels of unemployment.

There has been a huge increase in the number of unemployed, and they are remaining unemployed for a longer period of time.

Some 95,000 jobs were lost in September, fueled by a loss of government employment, which declined by 159,000 jobs, and minimal hiring in the private sector, which added 64,000 jobs.  September unemployment rate remained unchanged from August at 9.6 percent. Public-sector job losses include 83,000 lost at the state and local level, of which 58,000 were in education.

The 64,000 new jobs is about half of what is required to absorb new labor force entrants. To lower the unemployment rate to 6 % by 2013, the economy needs to add 350,000 jobs a month.

Jobs and the Future of the US Economy: Possibilities and Limits

One day before the October 2 March for Jobs, progressive economists are holding a conference at Howard University in Washington, D.C. to discuss solutions to the jobs crisis.  The conference call is below.

The US economy is in the midst of the greatest jobs crisis since the Great Depression. But this crisis is more than a short run phenomenon. For many decades we have experienced a long-term failure to generate jobs for all. A fundamental restructuring of the US economy is essential to overcome both the crisis and reverse the long term failure to generate jobs.

A number of proposals have been offered to make jobs a central priority of US economic policy. Our purpose in calling this conference is to bring together the proponents of these various programs, to discuss their similarities and differences, and develop a strategic perspective on how to proceed.

Current sponsors include: the Howard University Economics Department, the Chicago Political Economy Group, the National Jobs for All Coalition, the Center for Full Employment and Price Stability, the Center for Economic and Policy Research, and the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability.

Reports Document Seven Years of Bush’s Failed Economic Policies

Frank Llewellyn

DSA National Director

The Census Bureau released its annual report on poverty in America on Tuesday .  While on the surface the data indicate a slight improvement in wages and the number of Americans with health insurance coverage, the reality is very different.

Adjusted for inflation, the median income for all households rose by 1.3 percent to $50,233 last year.  However, the news was not as good for working households headed by those less than age 65, whose increase was insignificant. Compared to the year 2000 figures, this group saw a reduction of income of $2,176. In 2007 the official poverty rate increased slightly, from 12.3 percent to 12.5 percent.