Friday, January 2, 2009

High wages aren't the problem; they're the goal

Unions, which mean better jobs and more secure and stable families, families who attend more PTO meetings and give more to United Way, ought to be models for policymakers; instead, they're afterthoughts -- or enemies. It doesn't add up.
"If you ask me, American workers have been silently bailing out their companies for 35 years," says Nancy Holle, a leader in the advocacy group Central Indiana Jobs With Justice.
"Want an increase in profits? Take it out of the workers' pay. Have them work longer with no increase, or let them go, and the CEOs get a bonus. Time after time, time after time. The U.S. worker works harder and longer than workers in any other industrialized country. It has been a silent bailout."
It is no coincidence that fewer and fewer of those workers are organized. Republican presidents, governors and legislators have not been inclined to make life easy for Democratically-inclined labor; and sadly, laborers themselves have become so conditioned to going unprotected that they resent those who have some insulation.

Down on Upward Mobility - IndyStar.com

Who Wants to Kick a Millionaire? - The New York Times
A Race to the Bottom - The New York Times

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