Take Back America: Empowering Workers

[Omaha Steve]

by Seth Michaels, Mar 19, 2008

http://blog.aflcio.org/2008/03/19/take-back-america-empowering-workers/

Some three-quarters of the American public say we’re in a recession—and by now, most economists agree. Economic inequality is greater than it’s been in generations and wages are declining after years of stagnation. The middle class is getting squeezed out of existence.



As labor and civil rights leaders noted at “Empowering Workers: A Progressive Imperative,” a session at Take Back America 2008, it’s no coincidence that these tough times have been marked by a sharp decline in the ability of workers to form unions and empower themselves.

AFL-CIO Organizing Director Stewart Acuff says the crisis in our economy can be traced directly to the loss of freedom for workers to form unions.

A weakening economy, exploding inequality, and the middle class squeeze are directly related to the wage decline created by the abolition and destruction of workers’ freedom to form unions.

This economic crisis has ramifications in the political realm as well, Acuff notes—and political action is necessary to fix what’s wrong.

When our workers are denied their freedom of association, denied the right to mutual aid, the notion of working for the common good is undermined and our democracy is undermined. Sooner or later, economic inequality trumps and overwhelms political democracy.

What is happening to American workers is not inevitable. It is not the result of natural forces…it’s the result of bad public policy, and we can change it with good public policy.

FULL story at link.

[midnight]

1. The folks who are for the work visas that keep nurses from

gaining any power crafted Nafta, and all the other corporate loop holes to protect the insurance co. and drug co. Some doctors might see this whole mess as unaceptable, but the drug co. are able to compensate them. Now the nurses are lucky to have a job....Hopefully the foreign nurse they oversee is not more trouble than helpful...."This economic crisis has ramifications in the political realm as well, Acuff notes—and political action is necessary to fix what’s wrong." I hope this comes to bear on the side of the American workers....