Getting Our Economy Back on Track
40 Years Ago — With sanitation worker Elmore Nickelberry (left) at an event held in January in Memphis, Tenn., to mark the birth of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the historic AFSCME sanitation workers strike of 1968. King was murdered in Memphis the day after addressing strikers and their supporters.
Photo Credit: John L. Focht
Message from the Secretary-Treasurer
By William Lucy
More than 7 million people in our nation are jobless. The number of people who were without work for more than half a year—the long-term unemployed—increased by nearly 50 percent from January 2001 to December 2007. Median household income has dropped by nearly $1,000 since 2001, and almost 37 million Americans are poor.
These measures give us statistical evidence of what we already know is true: Workers and families are suffering. But engaging in the blame game won’t solve the problem. Instead, we must roll up our sleeves to rebuild our nation’s economy and restore our middle class.
Creating Meaningful Opportunities
The stimulus package advanced by President Bush and passed by Congress is not going to provide workers with the kind of fundamental relief that will end their pain. A tax rebate of $600 to $1,200 may offer a short-term boost that allows people to pay down a credit card or take a vacation, but it won’t make a real or lasting difference for most workers.
The “magic bullet” isn’t a quick infusion of cash or miniscule interest-rate cuts by the Federal Reserve Board. What we need is creation of jobs—and not just any jobs, but good jobs.
Too many workers have to patch together two or three part-time jobs to earn just one full-time salary. Therefore, we must create meaningful opportunities for men and women to work not at dead-end jobs with paltry or non-existent benefits, but at decent jobs that promise good wages and benefits. Furthermore, we must bring all the pressure we can to bear so that both houses of Congress pass the Employee Free Choice Act—which would allow workers to join unions without employer intimidation and interference—and the next President signs it.
Investing in Infrastructure
We could create many of those jobs through a massive investment in our nation’s infrastructure. This includes the 4 million miles of roads, bridges and highways; the 600,000 bridges and nearly 300 tunnels; the 2.3 million miles of natural gas and oil pipelines; the 15,000 miles of levees; and the 1.4 million miles of water pipes and sewer lines upon which we rely. Rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure would be a shot in the arm for our nation’s economy and rehabilitate systems one expert has said are held together with “Scotch tape, bailing wire and prayers.”
To have a significant impact, this investment should be coupled with labor project agreements to set the terms and conditions for employment on complex construction projects. The very best agreements provide job training and ensure that most of the jobs will go to residents in the community where the project is going up and that workers earn a living wage.
Another area full of potential is health care, an industry in which many AFSCME members work. Home health care, diagnostic and other outpatient and laboratory facilities, and hospitals that provide long-term care or rehabilitative care offer job opportunities in the public and private sectors.
But workers need training for such positions. In addition, too many of these jobs pay starvation wages offering little chance for advancement. It’s crucial that our nation fund education programs to prepare workers for these opportunities, and that workers be able to organize unions so that they are on a pathway to the middle class instead of a road to nowhere.
We have the know-how to get our economy moving again. The question is: Do we have the will to make it happen?
