work2right

NO OFFENSE

I’m a day late responding to the piece in the March 14 Washington Post but, good gosh!  When are we going to go on the offensive on this?  The political class has no idea what they are getting ready to wreck!  Obama intentionally starved Social Security with his “payroll tax holiday”.  Very, very few realized what he was doing.  He didn’t cut income tax withholding, which funds would have gone to the U S Treasury, he cut into the income necessary for a secure retirement.  Now that the diminished contributions have further imperiled future benefits, POTUS is telling the Congressional right-wing that he’s in favor of reducing cost-of-living adjustments.  Of course it won’t affect him or them, financially well-off as they are.

I am absolutely agog over the lack of anger, urgency, and action that is accompanying this blatant austerity move!  Folks are more riled over Kobe Bryant’s ankle than they are over this threat to their future!

The politicians are convincing people that our security is a bargaining chip in the “grand bargain”, that Social Security is a luxury our national budget can’t afford.  We can’t afford it, so we gotta cut it.  Try that trick the next time you go to the store.  If you can’t afford the item, tell the merchant to cut the price until you can afford it.  See where that gets you!

A polite merchant might tell you to acquire the income so that you can buy what you want.  It’d be the advice that our legislators should follow.  There is an income threshold above which no Social Security contributions are made.  It used to be so low that even construction workers like me would exceed it!  No longer, of course, but it’s still artificially low. For 2013 it was raised $3600 to $113,700 per year.  That increase will probably not even recover the “tax holiday” reduction.

Why does such a restriction on contributions even exist?  Right now, I don’t know.  My guess is that it was a compromise designed to protect higher income earners and, of course, their employers.  Regardless of its origins it’s got to go, or at least be significantly modified.  I’m sure it wouldn’t take government actuaries more than a month to figure out a level that would be financially realistic and politically feasible.

Ah, but the impetus for that actuarial review is lacking!  I once asked a Congressman about it and he responded as though I’d asked to see his tax returns.  We, the American People whom they claim to represent, need to provide the impetus to save Social Security from the hatchet.  It took the suffering of the Great Depression, and the Labor unrest it engendered, to get Congress to enact Social Security in the first place.  It’s going to take substantial action, not after-the-fact protest, to force Congress to “preserve, protect, and defend” Social Security and the other “entitlements”.

To that end I propose a “Million Wheelchair March” as soon as it can be arranged.  In Washington and other major American cities, on a clear day, the streets need to be filled with the wheelchairs and walkers of those who need them.  And those others who support the elderly or disabled need also to realize that it is their future security that is at risk while they march.  I can think of no more impressive way to force our political “leaders” to understand that the social safety net needs to be strengthened and expanded - not cut!

Is anybody with me on this?  Your comments and suggestions are welcome.

ERIC CANTOR WILL HE?

My dear cousin, Pat, sent me a story about Eric Cantor’s plan to alter the Fair Labor Standards Act, eliminating overtime pay and substituting “comp time” - at the employers’ discretion:  

 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/02/25/1189635/-Eric-Cantor-will-propose-Federal-Law-that-Ends-Overtime-Pay-for-hourly-workers

I started to reply  and it turned into the following:

You know, this is not surprising to me.

Labor has fallen off the radar just slightly

below whale shit, which is on the ocean

floor.  While at the KXL protest I was in the

company of some young folks from Democracy

For America.  Noting my shirt, one guy asked

if I was a Steelworker.  I corrected him to say

I was an Ironworker.  As we walked, he allowed

as how, following the election, many of his peers

expressed misgivings about organized Labor.  It

was a sort of deja vu for me.  One of my earliest

experiences as an organizer was a guy telling me

he didn’t like unions because they were full of “old

guys”!  I asked him if he wasn’t planning on getting

old, but he wasn’t getting the joke which was beside

the point, anyway. 

Our generation was the first raised by union members

who kinda-sorta liked the union benefits and wages,

but hadn’t engaged in the union representation struggle.

Perhaps if they had they might have raised fewer racists

and xenophobes.  But I digress.  Their union leadership

didn’t encourage activism, much less education, leaving

most members ignorant of the union’s origins.  Members

went on strike when they were told to do so, not necessarily

because they felt in their hearts that it was in their best interest

to do.

We might have heard a little about labor history in high school.

We saw the civil rights movement on black and white TV screens.

Enough of our generation were moved by what we saw to get

involved in it.  What we learned from that involvement empowered

us to bring an end to a pointless war.  Yet, too often, we found

organized labor frowning on us, and many decided that unions

weren’t cool.  Some of our generation believed that they were

“professionals” with no need for union representation, others

took jobs and joined the union because it came with the job.

Still, the notion persisted that unions were mostly irrelevant.

Extremely few had to risk anything for union representation and

thus no loyalty was built.  When PATCO came under attack in

the early 80’s, the response of organized Labor was… well, tepid

would be describing it with high praise.  This did not go unnoticed

by Those Who Run Things, Inc.

Slowly and carefully and with the compliant ignorance of their prey,

TWRT, Inc. began to take down organized Labor.  Their patience

and cunning have been rewarded to the point that, around the world,

Labor’s gains are being rolled backward.  Those who do the actual

work of producing what society needs and wants are being reduced

to “don’t really matter” status in a world thoroughly distracted by

glamour, celebrity, and gadgets.  And so the youth of the world

are increasingly seeing unions as “unhip” relics of a bygone era.

So, how do we make unionism relevant and “hip”?  How do we bring

the excitement of the earlier civil rights and antiwar movements to the

Labor movement?  CAN we do these things?  Must Labor change the

way that it is organized in order to accomplish its aims?

We have to answer these questions.  We need to discuss these things

openly and honestly.  Many of us are the offspring of “the greatest generation”.

We need to honor that legacy and bring dignity and respect back to

the workplace wherever it is and give our offspring the chance to thrive

and build a world where conflict is rare and prosperity is commonplace.

MINUSCULE WAGE

I posted the following on facebook, in response to a short discussion of Mr. President’s minimum wage proposal.  Someone who seemed sympathetic repeated the tired maxim about increasing wages leading to higher prices.  I guess it touched my so what nerve:

Aren’t the costs of CEO pay and benefits passed on as well? If wages increase prices, so does executive compensation. Why limit one and not the other? Why is executive pay sacred while that of those who actually produce considered inflationary? The wealthy control the media through advertising dollars. The media then conditions us to worship at the altar of wealth rather than the storefront church of work.

The price of goods is influenced by so many things.  I have heard it estimated that in the construction industry, labor costs account for 25 to 30% of total project budget.  I admit that I have not independently researched that, but my experience working in that industry for 40 years tells me that such an estimate is reasonable.

I think about the lowly - yet popular - “dollar store”.  People buy there because stuff is so cheap, nearly all of it imported from China.  Far from the workers’ paradise it was supposed to become, China is home to some of the worst labor abuses ever documented.  So how cheaply can those $1 items be made, shipped, distributed and profitably sold?

An elementary -and naive- analysis would identify 5 basic components of that $1 price: material, production cost [labor, physical plant, overhead], shipping, distributing and selling, and profit.  Dividing by five, each component accounts for 20 cents.  Remember, I said it was naive! So let’s take profit down to 10 cents and add 10 to production.  Even adding the whole dime to labor, only makes the item’s price maybe 25% dependent on labor.  Hold everything else and give labor a 10% raise.  The price goes from a reasonable $1 all the way to $1.025!

Even “Papa John” Schnatter had to admit that the Affordable Healthcare Act would only add about 15 cents to the prices of his pizzas.  With better wages more folks could afford that extra 15 cents or, factoring in the raise, even a quarter!

More on NYT

If you read the editorial, you noticed a brief discussion of “independent contractors”.  This misclassification of workers has been a really thorny issue in the construction industry for a long time.  Open-shop contractors call their employees “independent contractors” to help them underbid union contractors whose collective bargaining agreements don’t permit such misclassification.  If for no other reason, the underbidding is a product of lower payroll taxes and no workers compensation insurance.  Of course, to the extent that these employers even offer health insurance, independent contractors can’t participate.

Apart from that is a bigger issue regarding labor relations.  Around the world there is a growing movement to fundamentally alter the employment model.  On plantations, in factories, and even in the Philippine airline industry workers are being forced to sign temporary contracts.  In India they are categorized as “casual labor” - a non-sequitir if ever one existed.

Clearly, if a worker signs a contract for the not uncommon period of six months, that worker is unlikely to agitate for a union.  Women who become pregnant are not offered contract renewals.  Anyone complaining about working conditions is similarly unlikely to be renewed.

This model provides great flexibility for the employer in its everlasting search for increased profit margin.  It also provides great uncertainty for those who own nothing but their ability to work, and is a form of institutionalized slavery without the shackles and chains.  This model is also a by-product of weak Labor movements in countries with weak enforcement of Labor law.  Extreme and widespread poverty is another by-product.  Also, child labor is tolerated in many of these countries because it is a means of survival.  Children who spend their days working are also spending their days being uneducated.  Poverty and ignorance lead to unhappy and desperate people who are easily influenced by demagogues and religious fanatics.  Unhappy and desperate people, influenced by demagogues and fanatics, become suicide bombers and “terrorists”.

Not unlike many other young people, one of my daughters is working as contractor - a one-client contractor.  She has no Social Security, no pension, no health insurance, and little leverage to negotiate her rate.

So, let’s review.  Weak labor unions and lax enforcement of labor laws can lead to abusive labor - management relations.  Such abusive relations lead to all manner of social ills.  I welcome the New York Times editorial, but the analysis didn’t go far enough.