Building Trades News

by Richard Slawson, Executive-Secretary

To listen to the politicians in power in Washington D.C., the American economy has never been better. Unemployment is down to just 5 percent, taxes are lower than ever, business is expanding and making record profits, home ownership is up, average family wealth is up, interest rates are low and the opportunities for further growth are expanding. All of this, politicians in the nation’s capitol would have us believe, is because of the tax cuts that the current administration has implemented.

But the politicians whose party is not in power have a different explanation. The employment statistics are up because they include the military, which has recently expanded, and doesn’t count those who have dropped out of the workforce. Business is expanding on the backs of American jobs being cut and huge numbers of foreign made products being imported. Home ownership is in jeopardy because families have used adjustable rate and interest only loans to purchase homes that they really couldn’t afford.

Wages are not keeping up with the cost of living except for the wealthiest Americans. Interest rates have been kept low artificially in the face of huge increases in the national debt created by the unconscionable tax cuts approved by the administration. And opportunity for American business is declining because of the unfair trade agreements that have been slammed through Congress.

I would be predisposed to agreeing with the “outs” that there are more negatives that working Americans are facing today due to tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans and the loss of a strong manufacturing economy. Newspaper articles, editorials and reports are all telling readers that investment in the stock market -- in American business -- will make them money. They just have to pick the right business or stock fund to make their fortune. But even if the investment come on was true, too many Americans don’t have the money to invest to begin with.

Why, when American and foreign corporations are making huge profits and CEO’s and upper management are being paid 1,000 times the average worker, are average American families so far in debt, bankruptcies edging higher every day, jobs with decent pay and benefits so hard to come by and housing prices out of reach for so many families? The answer that most economist, politicians and opinion writers would give is that globalization, profits and competition have caused the imbalance between the high incomes of the bosses and the lack of opportunity and decent incomes for the average American family. But there is another reason that the mainstream media and all of the economic experts don’t talk about -- the roadblocks to unionization.

Searching the internet, it is easy to find out what people are thinking about on any subject. There are thousands of articles, opinion columns and research papers on the economy. But, unless you go to the AFL-CIO web site or one from another unions, you will find an amazing lack of recognition on the profound impact that unionization has had on the middle class – and how it has created better jobs, higher wages and better benefits plans for workers.

It’s disappointing that no political party is talking about the value of supporting worker rights. Instead Republicans talk about taking away workers rights. And Democrats only talk about supporting unions in private. The economic realities of 2006 are that American workers are not going to fully participate in or have a fair share of the economic pie unless they are organized and force political parties to listen and big business to negotiate better wages, benefits and conditions.

Building Trades News is one way to voice our opinions about worker’s rights and why we need more labor unions across the country – but one newspaper is not enough. Working people need to respond in newspapers and magazines and on web-sites so that information about the benefits of unionization can be a part of all discussions about the economy.

The American people need to know that the realities of the 2006 economy include the fact that if they are not organized, they will not be partners in the any benefits that flow from their work. No one will inform them if organized labor falls down on the job. There is no better New Year’s resolution than for us to do just that!