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On the Eve of Labor Day… |
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On the eve of Labor Day, or any day, this is a great article by economist Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR).
In “The Right to Unionize: Key to Democracy,” published on Truthout this week, Baker points out how Big Business has waged war against unions and their members, an anti-union drive that has clear support from the federal government. For instance:
Government policies have also supported anti-union practices in other ways. A main purpose of trade agreements like NAFTA was to make it as easy as possible to relocate factories overseas. The high dollar policy Robert Rubin initiated in the Clinton era also put U.S. manufacturing, and its unionized workers, at a huge disadvantage. A 30 percent over-valued dollar effectively imposes a 30 percent tariff on goods exported from the United States, while providing a subsidy of 30 percent on goods imported into the United States.
And as we near Labor Day 2007, Baker reminds us that the decline of unions has been a key factor in this nation’s worsening inequality.
Unions have also been essential to a wide range of political initiatives over the post-war period. Programs like Medicare, Medicaid and Head Start would not have been possible without the strong support of the labor movement. The same is true of the key civil rights legislation of the sixties. More recently, the labor movement was at the center of the effort to prevent President Bush from privatizing Social Security. It will be difficult to make much progress on a wide range of social and economic issues without the support of a strong labor movement.
Check out the full article here.
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Labor Day was established to pay tribute to the American workers, and as a special bonus, American workers were given the day off. How many people have off on Labor Day? We have to start respecting the work that people do in this country, and paying our workers well. No more shipping jobs overseas and all that. No more corporate tax loopholes. No more safety violations. No more extreme pay differences between labor and management, particularly CEO pay. The only protection workers have ever had is through the unions, and it is something that we cannot give up on. It’s the only thing that can honestly revive our economy, and this nation, and it is the only thing that can give American workers hope for their futures. UNIONS ARE NEEDED NOW MORE THAN EVER.
I owe my life to American labor. The AFL stepped in to rescue my family when they were under a death sentence by the Nazis.
To read the complete story:
http://thestrangedeathofliberalamerica.com/