More ambiguity
So here is more room for uncertainty, a quality seemingly hated by those who insist we have clear answers, and tolerated by the rest of us who feel clear only that we do not.
The labor movement, created in the 1920s to organize blue collar workers against the arbitrary excesses of big business, has suffered what seems to be a big rupture in its structure. Two of its biggest members have broken away from the umbrella AFl-CIO over the issue of how they spend their money and energy. Ostensibly, the breakaway unions want more emphasis on signing up new members rather than on using money to influence political campaigns.
In reality the issue is the huge bleeding of members from organized labor over the past generation. In the seeming growing consensus about big business' need to be unfettered, unregulated so as to better pursue the goal of lager profits, labor has been seen as an albatross, a hinderance to efficiency. And with the shift from an industrial economy to a service and tehchnology economy, the ability of large unions to speak for the working people has nearly vanished.
Now CAFTA has joined NAFTA as we join another trading region seeking to eliminate barriers between nations.
It is true that this must mean that more American jobs will go to nations with lower wages. And this will continue to whittle away at American middle class jobs. When will something come along to expose the obscenity, not to mention the drag on morale and profitability, of gargantuan salaries of those at the top of corporate America? Until it does, we should protest against the false piety of business leaders saying these trade agreements are good for everyone. The gap between CEOs and the lower end wage earners is larger in our nation than any other.
I hope the restlessness in the labor movement may begin to address some of these inequities.
The labor movement, created in the 1920s to organize blue collar workers against the arbitrary excesses of big business, has suffered what seems to be a big rupture in its structure. Two of its biggest members have broken away from the umbrella AFl-CIO over the issue of how they spend their money and energy. Ostensibly, the breakaway unions want more emphasis on signing up new members rather than on using money to influence political campaigns.
In reality the issue is the huge bleeding of members from organized labor over the past generation. In the seeming growing consensus about big business' need to be unfettered, unregulated so as to better pursue the goal of lager profits, labor has been seen as an albatross, a hinderance to efficiency. And with the shift from an industrial economy to a service and tehchnology economy, the ability of large unions to speak for the working people has nearly vanished.
Now CAFTA has joined NAFTA as we join another trading region seeking to eliminate barriers between nations.
It is true that this must mean that more American jobs will go to nations with lower wages. And this will continue to whittle away at American middle class jobs. When will something come along to expose the obscenity, not to mention the drag on morale and profitability, of gargantuan salaries of those at the top of corporate America? Until it does, we should protest against the false piety of business leaders saying these trade agreements are good for everyone. The gap between CEOs and the lower end wage earners is larger in our nation than any other.
I hope the restlessness in the labor movement may begin to address some of these inequities.
posted by Blayney at 12:36 PM
1 Comments:
Blayney:
Labor is like water...it seeks to find and fill in the lower levels. With the globalization of travel and then communication came the dismantling of geographical borders. No longer do they constitute a barrier to business markets or employment. The labor unions made great contributions to former generations of workers, but are powerless in dealing with natural economic forces. These forces are, by the way, apolitical. Example: A Chinese research engineer wishes to be employed and volunteers his services through the internet at cents per hour. Simultaneously, a US engineer offers his services expecting $25 per hour plus benefits. You are a division head at an engineering company. All work is done and reported over a computer. Need I go further? As many companies establish divisions over there to sell to this huge new market, this disparity will only increase the seeming ineffctiveness of US labor unions. Buggy whip anyone?
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