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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (April 1, 2011)
APRIL 1, 2011:NWLP 3/29/11 10:10 AM Page 11 A workers must stand together By JEFF JOHNSON Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin is attempting to accomplish what has been a long-term right-wing strategy to break public employee unions. Folks like the billionaire Koch brothers, Karl Rove and others who funded Scott Walker and the Tea Party candidates in 2010 know that if public employee unions can be broken then the labor movement can be broken as well. What is at stake here is the funda- mental values of who we are as a peo- ple, our democratic rights, and who gets to set the terms of dialogue. This is an attack on the middle class and the American dream. But if the voices of union workers can be stifled, it is also an attack on the poor, the vulnerable and immigrants as well. Workers and public servants in par- ticular did not create the deficits that many of our states are facing today. In fact, on average public employees earn about 10 to 12 percent lower wages than their private sector counterparts, and they receive modest pensions. In Washington State, public employees have accepted a 3 percent wage cut over the next two years as well as a 25 per- cent increase in their health care pre- mium and co-pay shares. For decades in our country there was an implicit “social contract” that was based on shared prosperity — with ris- ing productivity, there would be a rising standard of living. Workers would be able to afford homes and put their kids through college — health care, sick leave, vacation and pensions were part of the package as well. The “social contract” is over, even though productivity and profits con- tinue to rise for banks and corporations. The “Great Recession” was created by Wall Street banks and insurance companies. They turned our economy into a giant casino, where they bet our manufacturing base, our infrastructure, education and health care funding against the house. They won; we lost. Unemployment is at 9.2 percent in Washington state, unless you are a per- son of color, and then it ranges from 25 to 75 percent, or unless you work in the building and construction trades, where the unemployment rate ranges from 30 to 60 percent. We have the highest poverty rate in Washington state since the 1950s; foreclosures are going through the roof; and as a nation we have the most unequal distribution of income and wealth since the Gilded Age of the late 19th century. This is the backdrop they created for trying to set private sector workers Teachers, unions blamed for factors beyond their control To The Editor: I am baffled and frustrated with how teachers are being held accountable and even blamed for circumstances beyond their control. We cut funding for public education, resulting in larger class sizes, and ex- pect the student-to-teacher ratio to have no impact on our young learners’ suc- cess. We ask teachers to reach children who come to school hungry, tired and scared because of complicated family lives or because they are sleeping in homeless shelters or cars. We expect teachers to successfully deal with students with physical, emo- tional and mental challenges, the same APRIL 1, 2011 children who often have little or no ac- cess to health care or medication. Then, when students do not meet ed- ucational standards, we flunk the teacher rather than looking at the myr- iad of other ways that our society has failed these children. I am not a teacher, but I have many friends and family members who are, and I know that they do the best they can within a very flawed system. Our focus must shift from blaming teachers, and teachers’ unions, to look- ing at how to meet the needs of the chil- dren and families who are most at risk. Debra Kidney AFSCME Portland against public sector workers, and non- immigrant workers against immigrant workers. These divide-and-conquer tac- tics are as old as capitalism. As work- ers, we need to be smarter and stand in solidarity. The policies that led to the recession and the acceleration of wealth to the top include: • Deregulating the financial industry • Creating a tax code filled with ex- emptions for the wealthy • Rewarding companies that off- shored jobs • Creating trade policies that reward multinational corporations but de-in- dustrialized our country, turning the phrase “Made in America” into a relic of the past • Financing two wars simultaneously Notice, you don’t see funding for af- fordable housing, home care services, early childhood education or public safety in the list above. But the Repub- lican governors of Wisconsin, Ohio, et al, would have us pay the cost of deficits by cutting programs that our most vul- nerable need, contracting out public employee jobs or simply removing the rights of workers to have a voice at the workplace. They should be looking toward the wealthy and corporate America to fix the deficits that they created. The banks are sitting on over a trillion dollars of assets that they are not reinvesting in America, while corporate America raked in nearly $1.7 trillion in profits during the third quarter of 2010. This is the most profitable corporate America O PEN F ORUM has ever been. We need, as labor, to stand in soli- darity and say no to budget cuts that punish the vulnerable, no to foreclo- sures, no to union busting, no to con- tracting out, and no to pitting workers against each other and non-immigrants against immigrants. We need a moral budget and revenue document that fills the deficit hole by declaring a moratorium on tax loop- holes. (Editor’s Note: Jeff Johnson is pres- ident of the Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO.) Consider pol’s trade policy before voting To The Editor: This is a copy of a letter I wrote to President Obama: “Dear Mr. President, Regarding your weekly radio ad- dress, may I remind you that a half-truth is no better than a lie. I refer to your en- couraging comments about the growth in U.S. exports, while failing to mention that they continue to be outpaced by im- ports. Following the recent closure of a pa- per mill here in Oregon, the head of the local union representing those workers had a article in the Northwest Labor Press showing how the closure was the NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS result of failed U.S. trade policies. Just as the Tea Party served notice on Re- publicans that they will no longer be getting a vote simply because they have an “R” after their name, the days of you and your party getting labors’ vote sim- ply because you have a “D” after your name are coming to an end. For a growing number of us, the cri- teria is — we will vote for NO free- traders, regardless of party! In the areas of exportation of manufacturing jobs, and failing to close the border to slow the onslaught of illegal aliens compet- ing for the crumbs that are left, it has become painfully obvious that your ad- ministration is no better than the Bush Administration. Henry Ford was once asked why he paid his workers so much, He replied: “So they can afford to buy my cars.” I hold this truth to be self-evident — for a nation’s economy to survive and thrive long term, either Mr. Ford or the free- traders and out-sourcers can be right — NOT BOTH! Thanks for listening.” Dean Wolf IBEW Local 48 Tigard, Oregon PAGE 11
