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Low wages, union hate sustain nonstop war on workers

Date Posted: December 4 2009

By Sean McGarvey
Secretary-Treasurer
AFL-CIO Building and Construction Trades Department

If I asked you to name the longest running war in our nation’s history, what would you say? The Vietnam War? The dual conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan?

Well, from my perspective I would say that the United States’ longest running war has been one waged against American workers. Granted, it is not necessarily a bloody conflict like traditional military wars. But, it is a war nonetheless, and it has produced unspeakable casualties and destruction all across our great nation… simply because American workers have had the audacity to seek decent wages, health and retirement benefits, and safe work conditions. In other words, we have endured a Hundred Year War because of a simple demand by American workers for security and peace of mind.

In more recent times, we are witnessing an intensified war of attrition that businesses are quietly waging on workers. This modern offensive is centered upon a deeper unraveling of jobs and job security, thanks to a globalized economy in which relentlessly hard-pressed American workers are increasingly pitted against cheaper labor pools in Latin America, South Asia, China, and even the American South.

In today’s America, the story is all too familiar by now. A large corporation announces its grandiose plans to locate a new manufacturing facility somewhere in the United States. State governments scramble to put together lavish packages of tax incentives, land transfers, relocation expense credits, and other goodies to entice the company to locate in their state. A bidding war ensues, and the ending is, sadly, always the same. The company invariably selects a location that offers the most generous package of incentives, coupled with a business climate designed to ensure a compliant, low-wage workforce.

The recent examples of Volkswagen and Boeing illustrate this disturbing trend.

A few years ago, Volkswagen was at the center of an intense courtship being mounted by many states who were swooning over Volkswagen’s plans to construct a $1 billion manufacturing facility here in the United States. In the end, they selected the state of Tennessee – where Governor Phil Bredesen and his economic development advisors put together a $600 million package of taxpayer money and resources. This stunning amount was almost $200 million higher than any other state. And the most outrageous component to the package offered up by Governor Bredesen was the intentional omission of any type of “local hire” mandate that would have forced Volkswagen to utilize local contractors and local workers.

This omission is even more egregious when placed in contrast to the fact that Tennessee has one of the highest unemployment rates in the nation.

With an agreement in hand, and in quick order, it became abundantly clear that Volkswagen’s move to America would not be accompanied by an adherence to its own formal company policy espoused through its Declaration on Social Rights and Industrial Relationships at Volkswagen. This declaration “represents the basis of Volkswagen Corporate Policy.” The document goes on to declare that VW acknowledges the basic right of its employees to establish and join unions, and it even goes so far as to encourage partnerships with contractors who share this view.

Apparently for Volkswagen, that progressive policy stance only applied to its operations outside of America. Because when they arrived on our shores, they immediately picked up arms and joined the on-going war on American workers.

This became abundantly clear when the Building and Construction Trades Department approached the company to discuss the inherent benefits of constructing this plant under a project labor agreement. Our suggestion was quickly and summarily dismissed.

Now, as construction of this facility commences outside of Chattanooga, a troubling picture is starting to emerge. Contracts are being awarded to out-of-state contractors who are utilizing out-of-state workers, as well as workers from other countries. One such contractor has incurred so many reportable safety incidents that it has been temporarily suspended from the jobsite.

It’s just another sad chapter in this long-running saga.

And, unfortunately, still another chapter is being written. This week Boeing announced that it is forgoing its workforce in Everett, Washington in order to shift production of its 787 jetliner to the promised land of South Carolina. Gary Chaison, a labor expert at Clark University, summed it up succinctly when he told The Washington Post, “This is the escape from collective bargaining.”

What’s worse, is the fact that Boeing and officials from the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers had been involved in negotiations to put the second 787 assembly line in Washington state…at the same time that they were secretly meeting with South Carolina officials on a $170 million deal to bring that project to the Palmetto State.

Why South Carolina? Maybe it’s the fact that the state has the 9th highest number of families living below the federal poverty line (12%), or it could be the fact that South Carolina ranks 41st out of 50 states in family income ($8,000 less than the national median income).

The actions of both Volkswagen and Boeing speak volumes. Who needs union busters, patrolling shop-stewards, or legions of high-paid lawyers fighting wage and hours claims when we have a nation of governors and other politicians who are willing to prostitute the workers of their states?

Additionally, an examination of the corporate opposition to the Employee Free Choice Act offers a glimpse of how the war on American workers continues, and how persistently companies seek to disadvantage their workers. EFCA would allow workers to form a union when a majority of them sign union cards in a given workplace. "Card check," as it is frequently called, enables them to organize unions without the need for an election. In a column surveying the business elite's response to the Act, Wall Street Journal op-ed columnist Thomas Frank wrote: “Card check is about power. Management has it, workers don't, and business doesn't want that to change.”

In Frank's estimation, the current struggle over EFCA is the latest incarnation of a constantly evolving struggle between workers and employers. For the under- or unemployed seeking jobs all across this nation, the current recession isn't a time-out from the normal struggle, it's more like a new open season for corporate attacks on them.

The nation finally has a Democratic Congress and a President who is on record as supporting the Employee Free Choice Act, which would attempt to level the playing field between workers and employers. However, the nation’s executives are not going to give up without a fight. Recipients of federal bailout money got together last fall to plot how they would use those funds for a political attack on the Employee Free Choice Act.

Actually two wars are going on, and only one of them seems to have caught the attention of the press. The headlines about the first war read: Desperate Companies Forced to Cut Jobs. But for American workers, they seem to be experiencing a second war in which businesses – such as Volkswagen and Boeing – are using bad economic times to act in ways they couldn't in the best of times.