ECONOMY
Labor's Pains
In 1898, Samuel Gompers, one of the original founders of the American Federation of Labor, called Labor Day "the day for which the toilers in past centuries looked forward,
when their rights and their wrongs would be discussed." This Labor Day, U.S. workers have many grievances that deserve attention. The New York Times
reported recently that the median real hourly wage for American workers has declined two percent since 2003, despite the fact that productivity has been steadily rising. Worker
productivity rose 16.6 percent from 2000 to 2005, while total compensation for the median worker rose 7.2 percent. Among the reasons economists offer to explain this phenomenon are that workers' bargaining power is being slowly eroded and "
trade unions are much weaker than they once were." The trends have left U.S. workers feeling bleak about the future. A poll of laborers conducted recently found that
63 percent of the workforce believes the country and the economy are on the wrong track; a majority now believe their children are
going to be worse off economically than they are. The Progress Report details some of the problems facing today's workforce:
WORKING HARDER, EARNING LESS:"Wages and salaries now make up
the lowest share of the nation' s gross domestic product since the government began recording the data in 1947." A majority of today's workers say the number one issue they face is that
the wages they are paid are not keeping up with the cost of living. Aug. 20th marked
10 years since the last time the
federal minimum wage has been raised. Frozen at an unlivable $5.15/hour, the minimum wage is at the
lowest buying power it has been in 51 years. Workers earning above the minimum wage are struggling as well. According to AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, "Real median earnings for men working full-time and year-round were lower in 2005 than in 1973. In inflation-adjusted 2005 dollars, a typical man working full-time in 1973 earned $42,573. Thirty-six years later,
this figure has fallen to $41,386." Yet, productivity — as President Bush likes to frequently
point out —
remains high. "What jumps out at you is the gaping hole between productivity growth and earnings," said Jared Bernstein, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute (EPI). People are "
working harder and smarter but not really seeing remuneration that they ought to be seeing." The
wage crunch isn't affecting the entire labor force, however. The top one percent of earners — including many corporate CEOs — received
11.2 percent of all wage income in 2004, up from 8.7 percent a decade earlier and less than six percent three decades ago.
Snip...
NO FRIEND IN THE WHITE HOUSE: The Bush administration has consistently sent signals to the labor movement and the general workforce that they do not have an ally in the White House. In the wake of the Sago mine disaster that called attention to the
administration's lack of safety enforcement, President Bush nominated Richard Stickler, a coal industry executive who
managed coal mines with injuries that were double the national average, to head the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA). When the Senate blocked the nomination, Stickler was hired by MSHA as a "consultant" to advise the agency on mine safety issues. Just yesterday, Bush announced he would recess-appoint Paul DeCamp, a former lawyer for Wal-Mart "with a long paper trail outlining his opposition to the Fair Labor Standards Act’s (FLSA’s) overtime pay and other provisions, to
run the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD)." Also, labor leaders are concerned that the National Labor Relations Board -- composed of five Bush appointees -- is weighing a series of cases that "could make it easier for companies to declare certain workers supervisors and thus
ineligible for union membership." Union activists fear that employees who could possibly be reclassified as "supervisors" -- such as nurses and teachers -- would be forced to do so by employers trying to prevent the formation of unions. Business groups are pushing for such authority, arguing as Elizabeth Gaudio with the National Federation of Independent Business Legal Foundation did, that the "
bottom line" is to be profitable.
more...
www.americanprogressaction.org/site/apps/nl/newsletter2.asp?c=klLWJcP7H&b=917053#3
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