Unions Can Help Create Good Jobs for People of Color
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Increasing union membership is one of the keys to creating more good jobs for all workers, but especially for people of color and those in low-wage jobs, several experts said today. Many of the 8.1 million jobs lost during the current recession have been good jobs, including union jobs in manufacturing. The jobs now created, mainly in the service sector, are less likely to provide what working families need.
In a new report released today, Algernon Austin, director of the Economic Policy Institute’s (EPI’s) program on Race, Ethnicity and the Economy, says the United States has too few good jobs. He defines a good job as one with a wage that can support a family, health care benefits and retirement security. Using that minimal standard, Austin found that Hispanics are less than half as likely as non-Hispanic whites to have good jobs, and African Americans about two-thirds as likely.
Government Grows the Economy
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Economist Jeff Madrick, director of policy research at The New School’s Bernard Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis, is among several key speakers at next week’s Building the New Economy conference here in Washington, D.C. AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and United Steelworkers President Leo Gerard also are among keynote speakers. Here, Madrick shares with us why government involvement in the economy is essential to ensure a robust, successful nation.
America had been living a free-market myth for a generation until the credit crisis of 2008 and 2009 descended on the nation—and the world. One expression of that myth, found frequently on the editorial pages of the popular media, was that government does not grow economies, business does. In other words, government, don’t meddle where you’re not needed. Politicians are even easier to belittle than government itself.
Trumka: Retirement Security Promise Must Be Kept
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The ability to retire after a lifetime of hard work is not just an economic issue, it’s a moral one, said AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, speaking today at the Retirement USA “Re-Envisioning Retirement Security” conference.
Joining U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis and an array of experts and leaders, Trumka took part in a conversation about the breakdown of the promise of retirement security and what we need to do to restore it.
Trumka called the retirement security crisis one that
threatens American workers with yet another painful consequence of the “you’re on your own” social and economic model of the last thirty years.
Jobs with Justice Week of Action: Demanding Real Economic Recovery
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This week marks the one-year anniversary of the Wall Street bailout, and Jobs with Justice (JwJ) is launching a Week of Action to demand that the banks use our taxpayer dollars to finance the recovery and not their own corporate agenda.
During the Sept. 24-Oct. 1 week of action, working people will join with students, activists, community leaders and others across the country to highlight Big Banks’ misuse of tax dollars. So far, few of the billions in taxpayer money that went to Big Banks have reached Main Street. Instead, executives of banks that were bailed out with taxpayer dollars have lined their pockets with stock options that guarantee them huge windfalls for years. While they get richer, they have laid off more than 160,000 employees since Jan. 1, 2008.
To top it all off, Bank of America, which received $45 billion in taxpayer-funded bailout support, has spent more than $1.5 million lobbying on Capitol Hill against the reforms that would protect consumers from a future financial crisis, such as restrictions on executive compensation, home mortgage lending and credit card fees. The bank also is lobbying on a consumer rights bill, on student lending issues, on a bill that would’ve allowed bankruptcy judges to alter mortgages and on a proposed federal regulatory oversight agency.
Retirement Security Is Matter of Dignity
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For more than 70 years, the three-legged stool of Social Security, pensions and personal savings have guaranteed retirement security for millions of retirees. It ensured that the promise of America—-if you work hard and play by the rules you will live in a comfortable and secure retirement—is fulfilled.
But now that stool is broken and many retirees are suffering from the fall. Once guaranteed pensions are being tossed aside for insecure 401(k) plans or junked altogether.
Today, the AFL-CIO Convention adopted a resolution reaffirming the federation’s commitment to strengthen and improve existing public and private defined-benefit pension plans and 401(k)s.
Pennsylvania AFL-CIO President Bill George summed up the issue this way:
We need to develop a bold new initiative for those without pensions, based upon the principle of mutual responsibility—with government, employers and individuals all contributing. This, together with Social Security, must provide a universal, secure and adequate income for retirees in the 21st century.
Johnson’s Daughter Asks Seniors to Fight for Health Reform
Lynda Johnson Robb, the daughter of former President Lyndon Johnson, says that now is the time to pass health care reform and complete the promise of generations.
In a new video delivered to members of the Alliance for Retired Americans in Pittsburgh for the 2009 AFL-CIO Convention, Robb says her father’s fight for Medicare should inspire us to go further in building a better health care system.
Harkening back to the administrations of Franklin Roosevelt, John Kennedy and her father, Robb noted that they would want to make the most of the opportunity to add to the historic achievements of Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security:
They would say that ensuring all Americans have guaranteed, affordable health care is the missing piece of the modern American social contract, the unfinished business of their legacies.
This is also the unfinished business of our generation. I urge America’s seniors, and all Americans, to finish this project by working for affordable health care for all.
Check Out Live Webcast of AFL-CIO Convention
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The AFL-CIO’s 26th Constitutional Convention—for the first time ever—will be webcast live, via Ustream, beginning at 3 p.m. Sept. 13 and running through the closing gavel on Sept. 17. To check out these historic proceedings, stop by our convention site here.
There will be a lot to see on the Ustream webcast. Many of us on the AFL-CIO staff are leaving today by bus for Pittsburgh to set up and prepare for the convention. Not only will delegates elect new leaders for the federation, we will pay tribute to retiring AFL-CIO President John Sweeney.
In addition to live webstreaming, we plan to blog, post video clips and photos and update you via Facebook and Twitter. (Follow the AFL-CIO on Facebook at www.facebook.com/AFLCIO and Twitter at http://twitter.com/AFLCIO. We will use the hashtag #aflcio09 for our convention updates.)
Why Labor Day Matters
Kent Wong, director of the UCLA Center for Labor Research and Education, says this Labor Day provides an opportunity for progressives to join together to rebuild the economy and reinvigorate the fight for social and economic justice.
Labor Day is a time to celebrate the accomplishments and contributions of working people throughout the generations. American workers are among the most productive in the world. Labor unions have been a positive social force that helped to build the American middle class, to improve wages and working conditions, to provide for health care and retirement benefits, and to ensure that the wealth generated by working people is fairly distributed.
But Labor Day 2009 finds the U.S. economy in the worst recession in decades. Bank failures, corporate downsizing, the mortgage crisis and tremendous economic insecurity are signs of the times. The United States has lost more than 6 million jobs, and more than 45 million Americans are without health care.
The economic policies of the Bush administration brought us to where we are today. I would summarize the policies of the Bush administration as the “three D’s”—deregulation, deindustrialization and deunionization.
What Is at Stake for Retirees in Health Care Debate?
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Alliance for Retired Americans President Barbara Easterling lays out the case for reform of Medicare, which turned 44 this week, in this cross-post from the Huffiington Post.
As we honor Medicare’s success—it has reduced senior poverty by two-thirds—it is also an opportunity for retirees to become more aware of what is at stake for them in health care reform.
The Alliance for Retired Americans, a progressive grassroots advocacy organization, held 30 events around the country to mark Medicare’s birthday and advance a pro-retiree agenda for this year’s health care debate.
What can the health care bill do to help current and future retirees? Here are a few ideas:
- Help Early Retirees. More than 5 million Americans ages 55-64 do not have health insurance. People in this age group should be able to buy in to Medicare so they can see a doctor more often, especially for preventive care.
- Close the Donut Hole. The “donut hole” coverage gap in Medicare Part D means that each year about one in four seniors will spend several months paying full price for their prescriptions while still having to pay their premiums.
Back to School for IBEW Retiree
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If you were looking for the union label at Penn State University’s recent graduation ceremonies, you likely would have spotted Regis Kingera. The 72-year-old retired Electrical Worker (IBEW), who earned his Bachelor of Science degree after enrolling at Penn State following his 1998 retirement, was sporting the IBEW logo on his mortarboard.
Our friends at IBEW.org have posted a fascinating look at Kingera’s post-retirement accomplishments and how his union electrician’s career provided his family with a good middle-class life, helped shape his children’s values and supported his retirement goals.
Read on.
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The American philosopher and education reformer John Dewey once coined a phrase that has echoed through universities for decades: “Education is not preparation for life–education is life itself.”
That maxim rings true for 72-year-old IBEW retiree Regis Kingera. On May 16, he walked across the stage to receive his diploma at Penn State’s College of Liberal Arts commencement ceremony. But far from being a checkered flag at the finish line, Kingera humbly sees this accomplishment as one more stone on the path of his life.
