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About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (March 9, 2011)
opinion Black unemployment Too High “challenging people to Shape a Better future now” B ernie f OSter Founder/Publisher B OBBie D Ore f OSter executive editor t eD B anKS advertising Manager J errY f OSter account executive l iSa l Oving news editor B rian S tiMSOn reporter D aviD K iDD graphic Designer M Onica J. f OSter Seattle office Coordinator J ulie K eefe S uSan f rieD Photographers The Skanner Newspaper, established in October 1975, is a weekly publica- tion, published each Wednesday by IMM Publications Inc., 415 N. Killingsworth St., P.O. Box 5455, Portland, OR 97228. Telephone (503) 285-5555. E-mail: info@theskanner.com World Wide Web site: http://www.theskanner.com Fax: (503) 285-2900 the Skanner is a member of the National Newspaper Pub lishers Association and West Coast Black Pub - lishers Association. All photos submitted become the property of the Skanner. We are not re - spon sible for lost or damaged photos either solicited or unsolicited. © 2011 the Skanner. ALL RIGHTS RE SERVED. REPRODUCTION IN WHOLE OR IN PART WITHOUT PERMISSION PROHIBITED. Knowing What’s important can change Your life! Subscribe to The Skanner – don’t miss an issue! please sign me up for: q 1 year $74 q 2 year $140 q New Subscription q Renewal ________________________ name _________________ address _________________ city _________________ State ______ Zip ________ phone Mail with check or money order to: The Skanner P.O. Box 5455 Portland, OR 97228 E ven though the unemploy- ment rate in the United States is finally beginning to inch downward, the painful truth is that African American unem- ployment continues to remain at a crisis level. While the overall eco- nomic forecast appears to be improving each month for the last year, the official national unem- ployment for the first time in more than two years is at 8.9 percent. There are more than 13.7 million unemployed persons in the United States, as of this month. But, Black American unemployment persists in double digits above 15.3 percent. For teenagers in our communities, the unemployment rate is more than 40 percent. All labor surveys show that African Americans have the highest rate of unemployment of all groups sur- veyed. These unemployment per- centages indicate a dire socioeco- nomic condition for the African American community in 2011. President Barack Obama stated, “Our top priority right now has to be creating new jobs and opportu- nities in a fiercely competitive world. And this week, we received very good news on that front. We learned that the unem- ployment rate has fallen to its low- est level in nearly two years as our economy added another 222,000 private sector jobs last month.” We agree with the stated priorities of President Obama. The chal- lenge, however, for the African American community is to increase meaningful and produc- tive job creation for African Americans and others ahead of the current pace of increased employ- e DucatiOn S erviceS Benjamin F. Chavis Jr. ment because of the disproportion- ate high unemployment in our community. Understanding the magnitude of the problem is important. But just restating the devastating impact of high unemployment is not going to produce the solutions that we need. Improving the quality of providing more employment opportunities for African Americans and others. There is a direct relationship between the entrenched Black American poverty rates and the persistent Black American unem- ployment rates. But, these two social indicators are also directly related to the issue of education, particularly to the issue of a high quality education for Black American children. Children in our communities are three times likely to be poor as White children according to the 2010 U.S. Census Report. More than 40 percent of African American children are born in poverty. Economically Children in our communities are three times likely to be poor as White children education in the African American community is an important factor to help increase employment opportunities. Increasing the establishment of African American owned businesses is another key factor in creating new jobs and economic sustainability for the African American commu- nity. Private jobs are now show- ing the greatest increase in the overall national employment rate. Simply put, we need more Black American entrepreneurs and we need more businesses to be estab- lished and owned by Black Americans so that they can con- tribute directly to the increase in impoverished children given an inadequate education is a formula not only for acute unemployment, but it is also a recipe for prolonged social misery, unjust imprison- ment and intractable poverty. I salute the continued efforts and leadership of Marion Wright Edelman and the Children’s Defense Fund to call renewed national attention to the systemic problems and challenges concern- ing African American and other children. Edelman emphasized, “We need to revive a policy voice for children. The cradle-to-prison pipeline - breaking it up is going to be the overall framework from which we move forward.” Over the years the Children’s Defense Fund has led the way in identify- ing programs and projects that work in the interests of the proper development of our children, in addition to articulating the public policy interests of all children in America. Today, with the eco- nomic challenges of the nation and calls for severe budget cuts, it appears that a number of programs that will affect the quality of life for children in the United States may be cut. Thus, the issue of economic resources that need to be generated and dedicated to help remedy these issues is of great concern. There will be no easy solutions going forward. But, one thing is clear: our long struggle for free- dom, justice, equality, and empowerment is not over. While we have to keep our demands and pressure on the federal and state governments for responsible polit- ical and social policies in the areas of employment and education, as well as for child and family devel- opment, it will be increasingly important for all of us to find new and innovative means to take a greater responsibility for the eco- nomic development of the African American community specifically to ensure that we ourselves do more to create the businesses, jobs, schools, and other institu- tions that we need to improve our quality of life for our children and for our future. Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis Jr. is Senior advisor to the Black alliance for educational options (Baeo) Could Protests Happen in washington? T he weeks of angry protest and heated controversy in Wisconsin have sparked a national debate over the role of public sector unions and whether mandatory collective bargaining contributes to massive increases in spending, rising taxes and chronic budget deficits. With our state facing its own $4.5 billion deficit, the question naturally arises, could Wisconsin-style collective bar- gaining protests happen here? It’s entirely possible – because Washington already has the same kind of collective bargaining sys- tem in place. In 2002, majority Democrats in Olympia passed a sweeping col- lective bargaining bill and sent it to Governor Locke for his signa- ture. It was treated like a routine civil service law, but it actually represented a radical shift of power from the legislature to the governor’s office. With the stroke of a pen lawmakers lost control of over $2 billion in wages per year, and a further $608 million annual- ly in healthcare, step increases, cost-of-living raises and other employee benefit costs. In the four years after collective bargain- ing went into effect, state spending increased 33%. In Olympia, state operating costs are now decided in a series of closed-door meetings between union executives and governor appointees. The negotiations are secret. The public is not allowed page 4 The Portland Skanner March 9, 2011 p OlicY r eSearcH Paul Guppy to know the starting and ending positions of each side, what is dis- cussed, the amount of public money involved, or what conces- sions each side makes. No legislative oversight or pub- lic comments are permitted. The meetings are not covered by TVW, and are not subject to the Freedom of Information Act. Lawmakers Instead the union agreed to a small increase of just 3% in how much state workers contribute. In addition to collective bargain- ing, public sector unions are heav- ily involved in politics. In 2010 public unions spent $2.7 million dollars to help elect or defeat can- didates for state legislative office. Nationally, unions gave $171 mil- lion to political candidates in 2010. “We’re spending big – and we’re damn happy it’s big,” said AFSCME’s national president Gerald McEntee during last fall’s In the four years after collective bargaining went into effect, state spending increased 33%. cannot attend negotiating sessions, offer proposals or participate in the discussions. They may only vote up or down, with no amend- ments, on the final binding agree- ment. A dramatic example of how col- lective bargaining restricts law- makers’ control over the budget occurred last November when, to help solve the budget deficit, Governor Gregoire asked state employees to contribute 26% of the cost of their health coverage, a level typical in the private sector. Union executives refused, even though the governor had been elected with strong union support. campaign. In 2010 one political consulting firm, Moxie Media, used union funds to create up to 40 political action committees to obscure the source of contributions it made to state legislative candidates. The firm’s executives were accused of using contributions from public- sector unions and other sources to create a fake Republican cam- paign against a Democrat incum- bent. The political strategy led to a campaign finance investigation by the Public Disclosure Commission and the state Attorney General. Unions represent the interests of their members, but the outcome of elections determines who repre- sents the public interest at the negotiating table. By supporting or opposing candidates for public office, unions influence who sits on both sides of the table. This conflict of interest was best sum- marized by an AFSCME district president; “We have the ability, in a sense, to elect our own boss.” Collective bargaining severely hampers the legislature’s ability to carry out its normal constitutional functions. In addition, experience indicates collective bargaining contributes to higher labor costs to the state, especially health care costs, without necessarily improv- ing the quality of services deliv- ered to the public. As some critics put it, under collective bargaining the governor bargains and the unions collect. Ending Washington’s ten-year experiment with mandatory col- lective bargaining would serve the public interest because it would return control of state operating costs to the legislature, restore constitutional balance with the executive, and reduce the political influence of union campaign spending on public policy. Paul guppy is Vice President for research at washington Policy Center, a non-partisan independ- ent policy research organization in washington state.
