NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS | June 18, 2021 | PAGE 7
Who’s on our side?
By Graham Trainor Oregon AFL-CIO President
Is it a labor shortage crisis, or a low wage, no benefits crisis?
It’s hard to miss the countless dramatic
news stories claiming that current labor
shortages are the result of overly gen-
erous unemployment insurance bene-
fits. In fact, we’ve seen a rush by Re-
publican governors in nearly half of
states across the country to eliminate
increased unemployment insurance
benefits under the guise that businesses
need workers and that extra $300 in
supplemental benefits incentivizes
them to stay home.
There is no question that some in-
dustries have faced challenges filling
open positions as the economy has be-
gun to reopen. But as we race towards
state and federal goals of a 70% vacci-
nation rate and the subsequent eco-
nomic reopening push, we must look
carefully at what the real barriers are
and are not for workers reentering the
labor market.
Let’s start with childcare. Working
women, especially women of color,
have been forced to make impossible
choices throughout the entire pan-
demic. Not only did a pervasive gender
pay gap exist prior to COVID-19 tak-
ing hold of our lives (with most women
of color making between 54 and 62
cents to every dollar their white male
counterparts make), but now over a
decade of progress towards gender
equality in the workplace has mostly
stalled out since March 2020. Layer
these inequities with a broken childcare
system, where affordable, accessible,
quality care is nearly impossible to
find. According to a survey by the U.S.
Chamber of Commerce, a quarter of
unemployed Americans say they can’t
go back to work because of childcare
or other family care needs. There is no
denying that on-going school closures,
childcare deserts and the demands on
parents and caregivers—most of whom
are women and mothers—are prevent-
ing countless workers from returning
to work.
Another factor often glossed over
when Corporate America claims the
“overly generous” UI benefits are the
reason for current labor shortages is
one of personal and public health con-
cerns. While trends and outbreak data
continue to look more promising, we
are still in the midst of a global pan-
demic that has taken the lives of nearly
600,000 Americans and nearly 3,000
Oregonians, 117 of them the direct re-
sult of a workplace outbreak. For retail
workers, restaurant and hospitality
workers, and all those who interface
with the general public, these jobs are
now substantially more dangerous than
they were two years ago. It seems
rather convenient to omit these grim
statistics when prognosticating about
the barriers to fully reopening, but the
reality for immunocompromised Ore-
gonians, those who live with someone
who is immunocompromised, and
those who are unable to be vaccinated
is often one of constant fear, risk, and
isolation. To suggest that these workers
should simply get over their fears and
return to work for the good of our
economy is shameful and heartless
given the immense risk of exposure
they still face every day.
Now, let’s talk about wages. In a
capitalist economy, there are a few
ways that labor shortages are created.
As a New York Times article from May
entitled “The Myth of Labor Short-
ages” suggests, one way that labor
shortages are created is when workers
demand such high wages that busi-
nesses cannot stay afloat. It’s fair to say
that this is not what is happening in to-
day’s economy. Instead, capitalism
solves labor shortages when an em-
ployer or an industry raises wages for
labor and thus incentivizes more work-
ers to join or rejoin the workforce.
Have we become so accustomed to low
wages that it’s harder to see these out-
landish talking points from corpora-
tions and the elite for what they are?
Do we really believe that working Ore-
gonians do not want to get back to
work, get back to some sense of nor-
malcy, and regain some economic foot-
ing after the past 15 months of turmoil?
Working Americans have gained
some long-overdue leverage in the
economy as the race to reopen pro-
gresses. Employers and elected offi-
cials have an opportunity, and an obli-
gation, to ensure that frontline and
essential workers, and all working peo-
ple, are protected, respected and paid
as we rebuild from this dark period in
our history. The Oregon Labor Move-
ment will continue to stand up, speak
out, and fight for the dignity and re-
spect of all working people, and we
will continue to call out false slogans
and squash myths about the experi-
ences of working Oregonians.
And we should regularly be asking
ourselves, our employers, and our
elected leaders, “If an extra $300 really
is enough to keep a worker from reen-
tering the workforce, what does that
say about that job, that industry, and
our economy?”
The Oregon AFL-CIO is a 138,000-member-strong
federation of labor unions.
Scabby the Rat and Fat Cat set up at Portland Public Schools HQ
Construction projects at several Portland Public Schools are go-
ing to non-union firms, and the school district is making it hard
for building trades unions to check and see if those firms are
obeying labor laws. The contractors submit records document-
ing that they’re paying prevailing wage, but the district is delay-
ing, redacting, and charging excessive fees to release those
records. This lack of transparency prompted a visit to the district
office in Northeast Portland on June 10 from Operating Engi-
neers Local 701’s “Rat Tracker” and Laborers Local 737’s “Fat Cat.”
Representatives from more than a half dozen other building
trades locals took part in the protest. They’ll be back every Thurs-
day through July 1. (Photos by Mike Gutwig)