EFCA - A Jobs Fail

[viral2010]

efca - a jobs fail

by brad peck

earlier today the president spoke to the afl-cio where he said that: "we are going to keep on fighting to pass the employee free choice act." glenn spencer had this to say:

[color=#00007f]we welcome the president's call to rebuild our economy, but taking away the private ballot and imposing government-dictated union contracts on employers won't help. misguided bills like card check, overbearing regulations from the department of labor, and a slanted nlrb will only discourage america's job creators from putting people back to work.

keith smith at nam has more on the speech:

[color=#00007f][the] president quickly followed that statement up affirming the administration's plans to use federal regulatory agencies to implement labor's agenda. the president said officials have already made numerous policies changes through pro-union executive orders and appointments at both the national mediation board and the national labor relations board (nlrb)...he said that the fight for efca in the senate will be tough but "our work doesn't stop there. there is a reason why we nominated people the national mediation board." he said "we're going to make sure that the national labor relations board is restored..."

[color=#00007f]the president is conceding what we (employers) have consistently warned against: in failing to push through congress the policies demanded by labor like card check legislation, he is instead using the executive branch and regulatory agencies to achieve the same policy end. the outcome will be a system that increases labor-management conflict, undermines the dynamic labor marketplace, and adds huge new costs to u.s. businesses struggling to create jobs and stay competitive in the global economy.

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august 04, 2010 at 03:55 pm in author: brad peck, card check, economy, unions |

[Chico David, BSN, RN]

Yeah, that part about "staying competitive in the global economy" means that big business wants the American worker to compete for a job against workers in places like Kenya and Vietnam where they can get people to work for a dollar or two a day. No thanks.

I grew up and went through school in the 50s and early 60s when we learned in school that the great strength of America was that we had a strong middle class, rather that a few rich and a great mass of poor like other countries. That middle class was built by three things: strong unions, a progressive income tax and the post-war GI Bill. Back in those days the average CEO of a large company made 30 times the wage of a front line worker, not 3-400 times like today. Back then the top 1 percent of the population made 9 percent of the national income, not 27 % like today. Back then when worker productivity went up, real wages rose to match, so that workers got a fair share of the fruit of their labor. Back then, a single wage earner could support a family in a decent style.

Then the relentless, highly organized, and well funded campaign began to break unions and convince American workers to vote against their own economic interest. Pensions have almost disappeared from the private sector and the big business forces are doing all they can to destroy them for public sector workers. Now it takes two workers to support a family, as real wages have declined or stagnated for most workers while the income of the top 1% has skyrocketed.

The final goal is a world where no worker has any security - no health security, no job security, no retirement security. Where every young person finishes school with massive educational debt and stays in debt all their life. That debt and insecurity makes for a really docile worker, afraid to ask any questions or talk back to the boss.

Meanwhile, distract the worker with fear of scary brown people, or scary Muslims, or scary gay people or whatever. Keep them hating and fearing someone so they won't stop to notice who is really doing all this to them. Sadly, too many people seem willing to buy it as long as they still have their cable TV and video games.

But there is one little bright spot: The rapid growth of nurse unions and the commitment of those unions to build a more just health care system and a more just society in general. And I, for one am proud to be part of that effort.

[viral2010]

How many nurses nationally vs number of nurses in unions?

[Chico David, BSN, RN]

Hmm...Have to think on that for a while. Since many (most?) of the state nurses associations are dominated by managers and have not chosen to do collective bargaining, a lot of nurses are scattered among other unions that are not mostly nurses.

But for a rough estimate, I think there are about 2 million RNs nationally.

Of those, the NNU unions have about 150,000

Other non-NNU state nurses associations: Maybe 60,000 (the largest share in New York)

SEIU: about 40,000

All others (including Teamsters, Laborers, Steel Workers, Teachers unions, etc) maybe another 50,000 - but that's really a guesstimate)

Total: roughly 250,000.

Unlike unions in other fields, all of the above are growing, with the fastest growth being in CNA/NNOC (the largest component of NNU) which has a bit more than doubled in the last 10 years. Nurses call constantly wanting someone to come organize their hospitals, but the biggest thing delaying growth is the availability of skilled organizers. It's hard and demanding work, with much of your time away from home. CNA/NNOC could be growing twice as fast if we had the organizers to do the work.