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Kim Bobo on NPR: Protecting Workers’ Rights Will Help the Economy |
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Yesterday, NPR’s “Here and Now” looked at workplace issues, with guest Kim Bobo, executive director of Interfaith Worker Justice and author of Wage Theft in America.
Bobo helps cut through the misleading corporate spin surrounding the economic crisis, the auto industry’s troubles and the Employee Free Choice Act.
As she points out, giving all workers the freedom to form unions and bargain isn’t just good for those workers who form unions. The effects on workers who don’t have a union, or those who already have one, are positive as well.
Unions raise the standards overall for workers in the country…all workers in an industry where there’s representation by unions, the wages and the benefits in the whole industry.
She lays out the three main points that make up the Employee Free Choice Act: majority sign-up for union representation, arbitration for first contracts and stronger penalties for companies that violate the law.
Under the Employee Free Choice Act, workers would have the choice of how to choose a union. Currently, employers have the decision…what’s wrong with the system right now is that employers have this long period of time when they run anti-union campaigns against workers. 85 percent of employers run these anti-union campaigns, and if you’ve been a worker in a workplace, where your employer is constantly telling you, “Vote against a union. Watch this video that tells you how bad unions are. We might have to close down if we have a union here.” And workers are scared.
Bobo says unions can help build the middle class and restore prosperity to the economy by protecting employees’ paychecks and allowing them to have economic security and purchasing power in their communities.
One of the best ways to stimulate the economy right now would be to ensure that all workers are paid what they deserve.
It’s a great interview and much-needed in a media climate that’s too frequently hostile to unions and out of touch on workplace issues.
3 Comments
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The simple fact is we are a service economy. Corporations cannot outsource jobs, such as: personal care attendants (PCA), waitresses, cashiers…
We must make work for each other:
Use bank tellers–NO ATM’S
Use grocery store cashiers–NO BAR-CODE SCANNING CHECK OUT
Do not bus your tray! Do not return your shopping cart! - WE NEED THESE JOBS!!
Think of the things we do ourselves that we didn’t 30 years ago. Here’s one: We pump our own gas. My best friend is 72; it’s hard on her. When did gas become self-serve?
I never liked selve serve gas . In fact as we age we may see the return of Gas Station attendants Older people could use the service (One Station around here kept one station FULL serve)and people used it.( when it is 4- in windy Chicago) Gas Stations can use some of those wind fall profits. I think it started 1973 also no oil check,very few Gas Stations that can help you fix a tire or a small problem Thank God I live close to one that can repair a tire or change oil for a good price. That is a lot of jobs gone from the Gas Stations. Also tips and commissions have gone way down.
Decent middle income sit down resturants.
Smaller Grocery stores I never liked Super Jewel.
I think a lot of “I can bring home the bacon and fry it up in the pan”thinking did away with any service for women at all or any other considerations.
I would rather see people working at decent wages than outsource one more job.
In fact I think companies used to hire more Older people for receptionist or security or some other less stressful jobs but now all they do is DUMP YOU and No one cares if you are a life long learner—So 30 years ago people had Pensions,stock purchase decent jobs low prices and job security
NOW WE HAVE NOTHING
NOTHING BUT DEBT waiting to get a better paying job making sure our kids got better paying jobs.
And the crooks out there we have no protection from.
Another problem exasperating the job front are the numbers of people who are refusing to retire and stay on the job till they drop. They are scared stiff they will lose their benefits or have them greatly reduced. Then, there are those who have retired and are trying to re-enter the job market because their pension is so crummy or was destroyed by a merger or buy out they can’t make it anymore.
We should adopt a system like Europe where the companies pay your pension money into a federal fund where they can’t touch it. Corporations in America have proven time and time again that they are completely untrustworthy and do not know what fiduciary responsibility means.
With Obama in office, let’s change the laws under ERISA to benefit the workers not the corporations. Your pension money should belong to you, not for the company to steal. Whatever you have accrued should be paid at the rate of 100%.