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.
Trumka: Immigration Reform Crucial For New Economy
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The United States needs a new economic strategy to replace the failed model of the past 30 years–one that focuses on developing a workforce with world class skills and world class rights and trade policies that serve the interests of the American people, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka told the City Club of Cleveland today.
But we cannot talk about any meaningful workforce strategy without confronting our own “contradictions, hypocrisy and history on immigration,” he said. In a dynamic global economy in the 21st century,
we simply cannot afford to have millions of hard-working people without legal protections, without meaningful access to higher education, shut off from the high-wage, high-productivity economy.
It is just too costly to waste all that talent and strength and drive.
(Trumka will be live on “America’s Workforce” radio show on WERE Radio 1490 AM at 4 p.m. EDT. Click here to hear the broadcast.)
Report: Unbalanced Immigration Enforcement Hurts All Workers’ Rights
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When Josue Diaz, an immigrant worker and his co-workers protested the inhumane and illegal working conditions at a construction site in Texas, their employer called local police and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), a division of the Department of Homeland Security. But the law enforcement officials didn’t enforce the workers’ rights or penalize the employer. They arrested the workers.
Diaz’s experience is not unusual. According to a new report released today, the federal government’s immigration enforcement in recent years—including a heavy reliance on raids and often inadequately trained enforcement agents—has severely undermined efforts to protect workers’ rights, which in turn harms both immigrant and native-born workers alike.
The comprehensive report, “ICED OUT: How Immigration Enforcement Has Interfered with Workers’ Rights,” was prepared by the AFL-CIO, American Rights at Work and the National Employment Law Project (NELP). Drawing on case studies like Diaz’s from across the country, the report examines a series of alarming incidents between 2005 and 2008.
Taking the Next Steps to Build Strength Through Diversity
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The diversity of the union movement is its strength. Building on the success of the historic Resolution 2 passed in 2005, the AFL-CIO Convention adopted a far-ranging policy to create more inclusive unions and a more diverse leadership.
The resolutions, “A Diverse and Democratic Labor Movement” and “Unions Should Give People with Disabilities a Voice and a Face,” call on unions to reach out at every level to build diversity.
The resolutions require every state federation and central local bodies to establish concrete goals for expanding diversity in their leadership. We also will increase our commitment to include lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender workers and workers with disabilities at all levels. And to secure the future of the union movement, we will actively recruit, train and include young workers in all activities and programs and provide opportunities for leadership.
AFSCME Secretary-Treasurer William Lucy said the union movement stands on the threshold of a crusade to rebuild the middle class. The progress made in including new workers in union leadership has chipped away at one more source of divisiveness in our movement. He praised the unions for successfully carrying out the mandate of Resolution 2 to make convention delegations more inclusive—43 percent of delegates are women or people of color.
Here’s How to Fix Nation’s Broken Immigration System
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The current immigration system is badly broken and needs a comprehensive overhaul. The Obama administration has put immigration reform on the legislative agenda this year by calling for a new system that “controls immigration and makes it an orderly system.” The White House also says such a plan should include a path to legal status for undocumented workers.
A new report released today by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) lays out an approach to fixing the system in a way that protects the rights of all workers. Written by former Labor Secretary Ray Marshall, this approach already has been adopted by both the AFL-CIO and Change to Win.
Marshall told a Capitol Hill press conference this morning:
Current immigration laws subject foreign workers to grave risks, exploitation, and uncertain futures, while depressing wages and working conditions for all workers. This framework addresses these defects. All workers will benefit from these reforms.
AFL-CIO, Change to Win Agree on Joint Immigration Framework
The AFL-CIO and Change to Win (CtW) today announced a historic joint unity framework for immigration reform. The joint announcement and proposal is a critical sign of support for the Obama administration and Congress to address immigration reform and to ensure that the issue remains a priority. It also signals that immigration reform is an important part of economic recovery.
The framework for comprehensive reform was developed with the guidance of former Secretary of Labor Ray Marshall and the Economic Policy Institute.
In a statement, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said:
Our nation’s broken immigration system isn’t working for anybody—not immigrant workers who are routinely exploited by companies and not U.S.-born workers whose living standards are being undermined by the creation of a new “underclass.”
As a part of broad-based economic recovery, we need a comprehensive solution—and soon. The development of a unified labor position, a position centered on workers’ rights, puts us on the path to a legislative solution.
