SEARCH
2008 in Review: Remember January, With a Jobless Rate of 5 Percent? |
|
It was a classic “Good News-Bad News Year” for working families in 2008. First, the good news. Working families mobilized to Turn Around America and gave a pink slip to McBush, electing Barack Obama and ending eight years of the most anti-worker administration in U.S. history.
Now, the bad news. Millions of workers got their own pink slips as the Bush economy tumbled even faster toward disaster. In between, the Employee Free Choice Act gained momentum, health care reform jumped to the forefront in the public debate and workers continued to fight anti-worker employers and weak labor laws to form unions and bargain for a better life.
Here’s the first of a six-part AFL-CIO Now blog series on the year that was.
********
January-February
 |
|
In what became a month-by-month flood of bad economic news, the first unemployment report of the year showed the jobless rate jumping to 5 percent—at the time, the highest level in two years. But the worst was to come. A month later, news came that for the first time in four years, the economy lost jobs—17,000 of them. That first wave of job loss was a tsunami by year’s end.
With the economy’s downhill ride gaining speed, the AFL-CIO proposed a five-point economic-recovery plan to turn it around. President Bush and congressional Republicans blocked the sweeping stimulus package, even denying aid to the growing number of jobless.
In a rare bit of good economic news—the result of a 2006 and 2007 mobilization by the AFL-CIO and other groups to raise state minimum wages—low-wage worker in 14 states got a pay raise Jan 1.
Way back when the 2008 election campaign was just beginning, working families and their unions played big roles in the Iowa caucus, in the New Hampshire, Michigan and Florida primaries and on Super Tuesday. Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) took the lead in the Democratic race. On the Republican side, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani faded from the race as the Fire Fighters (IAFF) punctured his overblown 9/11 leadership claims. Mitt Romney quit the race as Sen. John McCain took the GOP lead.
Building support for the Employee Free Choice Act, union members won commitments from 1,600 state and local lawmakers—including 18 governors.
In February, the AFL-CIO launched the 2008 Health Care for America Survey. The online survey gave workers and their families across the country the chance to make their voices heard on the cost of health insurance, quality of health care, access to prescription drugs and possible solutions to the wide array of health care problems facing the nation. By the time the survey closed, more than 27,000 took part, many telling their own stories.
 |
||||
|
||||
The United Steelworkers (USW) continued their drive to protect children from imported toxic toys and prevent trade of toxic items. In 2007, more than 7.5 imported toys were recalled because of high lead levels. Other toxic imports included lipstick, toothpaste, seafood, children’s lunch boxes and pet food. The USW’s National Day of Action demanded legislation to safeguard Americans from toxic imports and hold corporations responsible for the toxic products they import into the country.
Here are some other headlines from January and February:
Martin Luther King Jr.—Visionary Trade Unionist
21,000 Oregon School Workers Join AFT
17,000 Child Care Providers in New York Join AFSCME
5,000 Join California Nurses Association/Nurses Organizing Committee
AFL-CIO, U.K. Unions Join Forces Against Union Busters
Liberia’s Firestone Rubber Workers Win a Union Voice
Paul Krugman: Unions Create a Strong Middle Class
Traffic Controllers Declare Staffing Emergencies at Four Airports
Flight Attendants Unified for Bargaining
Violence Against Workers Still Rampant in Colombia
AFL-CIO Delegation Colombia: No Trade Deal Until Murders, Union Busting Stop
3 Comments
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
Yes, it’s been quite a year. But to understand the significance of what happened we need to put events - both good and bad -into perspective.
First, let’s get real when we talk about umemployment. The Census Bureau recently did a practice run in Muskegon, Michigan for the upcoming national census. It was no surprise to people who’ve been critical of the Bueau of Labor Statistics’ (BLS)monthly reports that 20% of census respondants said they are unemployed. This contrasts with the BLS’s report that only a little over 7% are out of work. The problem is, the BLS only reports the number of people recieving unemployment benefits. As we know, benefits don’t last long, and when you lose part-time jobs you don’t qualify for benefits. On top of that, companies are fighting tooth-and-nail against new claims, which often causes people who legally qualify for benefits to drop their claims. My guess is that about 1 in 5 Americans is out of work. And the recession has only just begun.
Second, while it’s encouraging that unions around the world are cooperating more and more, there is no major initiative to form truely international unions. The global economic system is one big, if complex, institution and labor needs one big union if we’re going to get justice. Those Indonesians, Indians, and Gualtamalens doing the jobs that used to be done by Americans are not scabs. They’re exploited workers squeezed by competetive pressures, just like we are. Only international unions can reduce competition between workers.
Finally, let’s not look at this recession as something new and different. Because recessions are so common, capitalist economists describe massive unemployment and suffering as being part of “the normal business cycle.” On top of the short-term suffering experienced by millions of laid-off workers and their families, we know there are millions of Americans who never recover when the economy improves. But that’s considered “normal” in a capitalist ecomnoy, too. There’s no reason anyone should be out of work - ever. If we have to change the way the economy functions to insure that everyone can have a job, then let’s do it. It’s time to end poverty and unemployment forever.
So, instead of bemoaning our fates when we hear bad news, or celebrating when we hear something good, take a look at the big picture. It’s clear that we have work to do in the new year.
Agreed, it is time to end both unemployment and poverty, but what happens here (in the US) is a short and small incremental movement toward lessening the sting of these things instead of actually eradicating them. To really do something meaningful and lasting about poverty or unemployment would mean taking this country in a completely different direction toward Scandanavian type Socialism, but fear and hatred of such concepts keep all of us down.
I suppose I’m more of a pragmatist than anything and what I see right now tells me that we’re going to continue down the road of incremental changes with few if anything being drastic.
You’re right: people are afraid to change. But why do they accept the fear that aflicts us all every time the economy takes a dive? Now that pensions are being phased out, retirement funds tied to the stock market, and unemployment insurance in most states so miserly, the future looks bleak for several currently-employed million workers. Not only has the money for investment been pocketed by corporate officers and investors, and jobs moved overseas, productivity has gone up so much a lot of the people who lose their jobs now will never find another decent-paying job in the future. That’s been the result of every recession since WW II. Once a majority of workers find the’re still impoverished after working 40-60 hours a week maybe we won’t be so fearful of change. evaporate.