RTW Still Wrong for New Hampshire
Last year, despite some twisted political maneuvering and trickery by New Hampshire House Speaker William O’Brien (R), he and other anti-worker lawmakers and their out-of-state backers could not override Gov. John Lynch’s (D) veto of a right to work for less bill. With a new legislative session underway, they’re back at it again.
Thursday, the House labor Committee will hold a hearing on a new right to work (RTW) bill. Although the calendar may have changed, the facts haven’t—right to work is still wrong for New Hampshire, a new Economic Policy Institute (EPI) report finds.
Political economist Gordon Lafer provides new evidence that RTW laws have failed as economic development strategies and would likely harm New Hampshire. Right to Work: A Failed Policy, A New Hampshire Update strengthens the findings of Right-to-Work: Wrong for New Hampshire, an analysis of why RTW was particularly unsuited to New Hampshire that EPI released last April.
Some of the new evidence Lafer examines that confirms the harm that RTW has caused to state economies includes: Read the rest of this entry »
State Dept. Cracks Down on Abuse of Foreign Students by Hershey and Others
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In response to protests by foreign students exploited in a factory subcontracted by the Hershey Company and advocacy by the AFL-CIO and our allies, this week the U.S. State Department announced that it will make major revisions to a guest-worker and cultural exchange visa program and barred participation by a major player in the program, the Council for Educational Travel, USA (CETUSA).
Harika Duygu Ozer, one of the students involved in the protest, told the New York Times:
I hope this sends a clear message to other recruiters like CETUSA, that we will not be your captive workers.
As we reported last summer, students recruited for a cultural exchange program found themselves instead all but indentured to a factory in Palmyra, Penn., where they were made to perform dangerous work loading Hershey products with no safety protection for less than the minimum wage. In addition, the students stayed in housing provided by the Hershey contractor, for which it overcharged. Rents were deducted from the students’ pay. Read the rest of this entry »
Who Broke the Economy?
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If you want to prepare yourself for the inevitable election year discussions/arguments with your right-wing uncle or tea party neighbor about the nation’s economy and how we got into the ditch that we’re finally driving out of, check out Failure by Design: The Story Behind America’s Broken Economy.
Named last month by The Washington Post as one of the best political books of 2011, it is a broad narrative of how the economy has failed to deliver for most Americans over much of the past three decades. Says author Josh Bivens, an economist for the Economic Policy Institute (EPI):
Over the past 30 years we’ve seen this rapid increase in inequality in the U.S. economy with more and more of economic growth going to a smaller and smaller slice of the people. None of that was an accident…it was not just something that happened….It happened because we very much changed the policy of the U.S. economy.
He says the policies that were put into place—including “an all assault on the right of workers to organize”—guaranteed “that the already rich got an ever increasing share of economic growth.” In other words, those policies sowed the seeds that grew into the 99 percent.
Click here for a video with Bivens. The book is available through the EPI bookstore and Amazon.
So-Called Right to Work Law Would Reduce Indiana Wages
More evidence that backers of Indiana’s ”right to work” for less (RTW) legislation are wrong when they claim so-called right to work promotes economic growth.
A new report out moments ago from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) finds that if a “right to work” law was adopted in Indiana it would be far more likely to reduce workers’ wages and benefits. It follows the release this morning of similar findings by University of Notre Dame economic professor Marty Wolfson.
In “Working hard to make Indiana look bad: The tortured, uphill case for ‘right to work” political economist Gordon Lafer writes:
In Indiana and elsewhere, large sums of money have been devoted to backing RTW bills, with lobbyists claiming that RTW significantly improves both the number of jobs in a state and the wages people earn because companies that had avoided the state will flock there. The evidence shows that these claims are completely without scientific foundation.
More Proof of CEO Greed (In Case You Had Doubts)
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In 1965, when the U.S. economy was humming, the average CEO collected $24 for every $1 earned by a worker. Today, as the economy struggles, that ratio is $243-to-$1. It sounds bad and as the chart shows, looks even worse. The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) shows the trend here.
The Snapshot graph is part of the EPI report, “Occupy Wall Streeters Are Right About Skewed Economic Rewards in the United States,” released late last month.
EPI Honors Krugman with Distinguished Economist Award
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Paul Krugman, The New York Times columnist and Nobel Prize-winning economist, was honored last night with the Economic Policy Institute’s (EPI‘s) first-ever Distinguished Economist Award.
In this EPI video, Krugman shares his vision for a decent society, discusses the radicalizing impact of the policy debates of the past decade and reveals his philosophy on making our society a better one for all.
Krugman, says Robert Johnson, executive director of the Institute for New Economic Thinking,
does this translation from the technical, high church of economic thinking to things that common sense people can understand.
The award was presented at EPI’s 25 anniversary celebration that also honored former Labor Secretary Ray Marshall, one of EPI’s founding members, and the workers in Wisconsin who rose up against Gov. Scott Walker’s (R) attack on collective bargaining and sparked a nationwide movement. Click here for a video tribute to Marshall and here for a slide on the Wisconsin actions.
Unions Stand with Occupy Movement in Oakland and Nationwide
The Alameda Labor Council and California Labor Federation are standing in solidarity with Occupy Oakland’s Nov. 2 Day of Action. In a message to activists, council Executive Secretary-Treasurer Josie Camacho says working families are “inspired by the spirit of the fight against Wall Street.”
This Day of Action will be a public demonstration of support for the right to peaceably assembly without interference, and against the growing wealth and income inequality created by Wall Street and the actions of the richest 1 percent.
Along with encouraging noontime worksite actions and joining the 5 p.m. PDT mobilization at Oakland City hall, the labor council and its affiliates will hold a “cookout” to feed everyone taking part.
Last week, police used tear gas to disperse Occupy Oakland protesters and arrested dozens. They have since been allowed to return. But authorities have shut down Occupy actions and arrested protesters in other cities, including Atlanta; Chicago; Richmond, Va.; Rochester, N.Y.; and other cities. AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka says it is a:
tremendous dishonor to America when the voices for the powerless are suppressed by the powerful—the top 1 percent.
Occupy movements continue to stay strong across the nation. In Montana, union members joined Occupy Helena protesters in a march and rally. Says Montana State AFL-CIO Executive Secretary Al Ekblad:
Report: Black Wealth Has Nearly Disappeared
The failing economy has caused wealth for black households to all but disappear, according to a shocking new report by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI). Since 1983, median wealth for black households fell by nearly two-thirds from $6,300 to $2,200 in 2009—a decrease of more than 65 percent.
This means half of black households have less than $2,200 in wealth. Among white households, median wealth fell substantially since 2007, but at $97,900, remains higher than the 1983 level of $94,100. White median wealth is now 44.5 times higher than black median wealth. Read the report here.
Report: Trade Deficit with China Costs 2.8 Million Jobs
The U.S.-China trade deficit has eliminated or displaced nearly 2.8 million jobs, mainly in manufacturing, following that country’s entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001, according to a study released today. View an interactive map of jobs lost throughout the United States here.
“Growing U.S. trade deficit with China cost 2.8 million jobs between 2001 and 2010” by Robert Scott, EPI’s director of trade and manufacturing policy research, finds that all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico suffered jobs lost or displaced as a result of the growing U.S.-China trade deficit.
The report cites illegal currency manipulation as a major cause of the trade deficit. Unlike other currencies, the Chinese yuan does not fluctuate freely against the dollar, but is artificially pegged in order to boost China’s exports.
New Report: So-Called Right to Work Is Wrong for Michigan
Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R) and his Republican/tea party supporters—the same gang that eliminated basic democratic rights of cities and towns by imposing a “financial martial law”—are at again. This time they are pushing a so-called right to work law as the answer to state’s foundering economy.
A new Economic Policy Institute (EPI) paper, “‘Right to work’: The wrong answer for Michigan’s economy,” by political economist Gordon Lafer, debunks the claims that backers of Michigan’s “right to work” for less law are peddling. They are the same phony stats and figures trotted out by its backers each time the issue comes up in state legislatures.
Such laws make it illegal for a group of unionized workers to negotiate a contract with union security clauses that require each employee who enjoys the benefit of the contract to pay his or her share of the costs of negotiating and policing it.
