Higher wages won't substantially raise prices

Many low-wage employers have been waging a war of fear against raising the minimum wage upwards of $15 an hour. They put out a message, for example, that a fast-food hamburger will now cost $10 and will make products unaffordable.

But a new New York Times piece shows that just isn't the case. Where some jurisdictions have raised their local minimum wage to levels approaching $15 themselves, several restaurant chains are reporting it hasn't caused them to dramatically increase prices. Representatives from Shake Shake, Domino's Pizza, Chipotle and Chili's said prices haven't gone up more than two percent.

As the Times' article states, inflation is not likely to run rampant if salaries are increased:

The last seven years have featured flat wages in inflation-adjusted terms, combined with rising corporate profit margins, two phenomena that aren’t completely unrelated. The behavior we’re seeing out of major restaurant chains may just be a sign that this is reversing, and that worker compensation will gain at the expense of corporate profits. If that’s the case, worker pay has some room to run before consumer price inflation is a real problem.

Workers' salaries should not be held hostage by obscene corporate profit margins. Hardworking Americans have been getting the short end of the stick for far too long. They only want to be able to earn a fair wage so they can support their families. But right now, that's a real struggle for many of them.

Despite what critics of a higher minimum wage might believe, the U.S. businesses will not be devastated by an increase in the salary floor -- even to $15 an hour. Instead, raising wages will improve the economy because it will give people more money in their pockets to spend. And that's good for everyone.

Another example of corporate welfare run amok

Again and again, local and state governments have chosen to give millions in handouts to multi-national corporations so they will come and bring jobs. But repeatedly those efforts have failed.

The latest example is featured in a fine piece by The Washington Post looking at the practice in the Deep South, where the tax breaks have been large and the jobs have largely paid little. Workers there (and elsewhere) pay for these deals on the front end and then get screwed on the back end!

The article details the decision by Chinese company Golden Dragon Precise Copper Tube Group to build  and open a factory in Wilcox County, Ala. last year after much lobbying from local officials. Oh yeah, and approximately $200 million in corporate welfare tax breaks, infrastructure improvements and cash payments.

When the deal was announced in 2013, the average worker was expected to make $15 to $17 an hour. But even the company itself only places that rate at $13 an hour. Meanwhile, those throughout the state are paying the price, as the article explains:

Company executives visiting the region were greeted with imported Chinese tea and Mandarin video messages. Alabama’s state workforce team explained how, if chosen for the job, they would visit Golden Dragon’s Chinese headquarters, study the process, and make videos and training courses for the new U.S. employees. In Alabama, Golden Dragon wouldn’t pay taxes for 20 years; it would get free roads and land. 

Alabama also did something no other state was willing to try: Its legislature passed the “Made in Alabama” act, a tailored law that allowed the state to reimburse Golden Dragon for several prior years of tariffs. A version of the law had first been drafted by [company consultant Raymond] Cheng and a lawyer, according to Cheng and a lawmaker who sponsored the bill. 

Ultimately, the company was given the choice of the reimbursements or an extra $20 million in cash. Golden Dragon chose the cash.

This grand payout, mind you, takes place against the backdrop of a community that is undereducated and impoverished. And elected officials there seem to take advantage of this fact, as the Post noted:

In wide swaths of the Deep South, public schools struggle, turning out workers who lack basic skills. Agricultural work has long faded, while job opportunities in once-prosperous industries such as textiles and timber have been lost to cheaper options in Latin America or automation at home. Politicians say they must give freebies to lure companies here, or offer nothing at all and watch the region — which already lags behind the rest of the country on most measures of well-being — fall even further behind.

So what was the answer in the case of Golden Dragon? Workers late last year voted to unionize. Obviously, they must know that union jobs pay better and provide a real path towards a middle-class lifestyle.

The real solution, however, is to stop giving sweetheart deals to rich corporations. Investment in people, not the powerful.

Paychecks not keeping up with cost of living

How much does it take to make ends meet? A helluva lot more than a worker can earn from a minimum wage job, according to a new report from the Alliance for a Just Society.

While the wage floor varies from state to state, the document shows that a single adult needs way more than such a salary to pay for life's essentials. The amount ranges from $14.26 an hour in Arkansas to $21.86 an hour in Washington, D.C. Given the different minimum wage rates across the country, minimum wage workers would have to work 110.7 hours a week in Hawaii to make a living wage, while Virginia workers would have to work 103.2 hours, tops in the country.

Jill Reese, associate director of the Alliance for a Just Society, said the numbers show the losing battle everyday Americans find themselves in, especially those trying to support a family:

A wage that keeps families trapped in poverty and despair, no matter how many hours they work, is a national crisis. We know that it's not unheard of in our country that someone is working full time and is still homeless -- this is unacceptable.

While there has been a push to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour across the country, the reality is that is not even enough in many places. In fact, the report finds that in 35 states and the District of Columbia, such a salary would not provide a living wage. Nationally, the living wage for a single adult is $16.87 an hour according to the paper.

Respect and dignity are sorely lacking in the workplace. Low-wage jobs are soaring, while those that support a family are harder to find. Such a reality not only hurts workers, it hurts the American economy at large.

That's why the Teamsters put forth its "Let's Get America Working" platform last month. Union jobs are better paying jobs with good benefits and provide for retirement. Organizing will increase the number available, but won't solve all the nation's problems.

Lawmakers and the private sector need to remember the plight of hardworking Americans. It's in all of our best interests.

New jobs don't make dent in U.S. poverty rate

The U.S. economic recovery is not everything it might seem to be at first blush. Anyone looking at the number of jobs created or the falling unemployment rate would certainly be encouraged by the nation's path forward since the end of the Great Recession, for instance.

But when it comes to standard of living, however, the economy is not delivering. In nearly every state in the nation, the poverty rate remains higher than where it stood pre-recession. And despite the growth in jobs, poverty overall has remained persistent, according to new U.S. Census Bureau statistics this month.

Data culled from the 2015 Current Population Survey Annual Social and Economic Supplement found:

• Changes in income inequality between 2013 and 2014 were not statistically significant as measured by the shares of aggregate household income.
  
• The poverty rate for families and the number of families in poverty were 11.6 percent and 9.5 million in 2014, neither statistically different from the 2013 estimates.
  
• In 2014, 6.2 percent of married-couple families, 30.6 percent of families with a female householder and 15.7 percent of families with a male householder lived in poverty. For married-couple families, both the poverty rate and the number in poverty increased. For families with a female householder, the poverty rate was not statistically different from 2013, while the number in poverty declined. Neither the poverty rates nor the estimate of the number of families in poverty showed any statistically significant change between 2013 and 2014 for families with a male householder.

Here's one thing we do know -- the jobs being created are paying low wages. They don't allow everyday Americans to earn enough to support their families. They are not going to put this country on a real path to economic recovery.

That's why the Teamster rolled out a plan earlier this month called Let's Get America Working that would create good-paying jobs by investing in infrastructure and vocational education. These are sustainable opportunities that will help not only workers, but U.S. businesses as well.

It's time for America to move beyond being a fast-food jobs nation. It must become a real jobs nation that provides employment that gives respect and dignity to workers.That's how this country will truly get back on track.

Corporations holding onto more of their profits

Everyday Americans continue to struggle to earn enough to keep a roof over their heads and pay the bills. As has been stated repeatedly in this space, part of the problem is the thousands-upon-thousands of jobs that have been shipped overseas due to lousy trade deals. In return, displaced workers are forced to accept low-wage employment, making it nearly impossible to make ends meet.

But that's not the entire story. Evidently, it seems corporations have been holding out on their employees. A new Economic Policy Institute report finds that less company income is going to pay workers in the last 15 years: 

Between 2000 and the second quarter of 2015, the share of income generated by corporations that went to workers’ wages (instead of going to capital incomes like profits) declined from 82.3 percent to 75.5 percent, as the figure shows. This 6.8 percentage-point decline in labor’s share of corporate income might not seem like a lot, but if labor’s share had not fallen this much, employees in the corporate sector would have $535 billion more in their paychecks today. If this amount was spread over the entire labor force (not just corporate sector employees) this would translate into a $3,770 raise for each worker.

How is this right or just at a time when many are slipping out of the middle class even as they work full-time or in some cases multiple jobs? What is shows, unfortunately, is the outsized role that big business' campaign cash plays in the policy-making process.

Workers deserve dignity and respect in the workplace, and the chance to earn a fair wage for an honest days work. That is happening less and less, unfortunately. Which is why the Teamsters rolled out a platform earlier this month called "Let's Get America Working" that addresses the needs of creating better paying jobs and protecting workers in the job, among other things.

The U.S. cannot afford to leave the majority of its citizens behind. But that's what is happening right now. Only when a bipartisan majority of lawmakers come together to challenge corporate America and ensure that more good jobs are made available will that change.

Today's Teamster News 09.01.14

Trade
Stop conflating trade policies with trade itself (opinion)  The Oregonian   ...Trade clearly has benefits for Oregon's economy. The relevant question is whether individual trade agreements are helping or hurting. There is little debate that U.S. trade policy is worsening the country's job-displacing and wage-suppressing trade imbalance...
Trade treaties expose Australia to costly litigation, experts warn  Sydney Morning Herald   ...Australia risks getting swept up in a wave of litigation by foreign corporations wishing to sue over unfavourable domestic laws, experts warn, after the government rejected a bill to ban controversial trade agreements...
State Battles
Voter Suppression in Wisconsin  Blogging Blue   ...a town or municipal clerk now has the authority to stop dead in its tracks any voter registration drive that any organization or group of concerned citizens may want to mount in that jurisdiction...
War on Workers
A Look at Income Inequality, Hour by Hour  Wall Street Journal   ...Inflation has been low by most measures in recent years, but wage growth for the majority of workers has been even lower. That means even small amounts of inflation have been painful for vast swaths of the workforce...
The Changing Face of Temporary Employment  New York Times   ...The work of temping has changed vastly — today 42 percent of temporary workers labor in light industry or warehouses...
Labor Day stems from deadly labor strike, but few Americans know the history  New York Daily News   ...A labor movement in Chicago in 1894 left 30 Pullman workers dead, and later spurred Congress and President Grover Cleveland to pass a bill creating Labor Day. But the history of this holiday is rarely taught in schools, and there are few full-time labor journalists to write about working class communities...
Labor Today  New York Times   ...five years into an economic recovery that has been notable for resurging corporate profits, the number and quality of jobs are still lagging badly, as are wages and salaries...
Six reasons to kiss a union member  Arizona Republic   ...1. The 40-hour work week: Back in 1903 a labor organizer named Mary Harris "Mother" Jones led the "March of the Mill Children" over 100 miles from Philadelphia to President Theodore Roosevelt's Long Island summer home in Oyster Bay, New York, to publicize the terrible conditions of working children (unions ended child labor eventually, too) and to demand a 55-hour work week...
More Workers Are Claiming ‘Wage Theft’  New York Times   ...Mr. Rangel stands to receive more than $20,000 in back pay as part of a recent $21 million legal settlement with Schneider, a national trucking company...
Low-paid Britain: 'People have had enough. It's soul destroying'  The Guardian   ...Yes, they have jobs … but the five people featured below are typical of millions who have no security, no holiday or sick pay, limited hours, and no dignity at work...
Woman Working Four Part-Time Jobs Dies in Car While Trying to Nap  Gawker   ...A 32-year-old woman was found dead inside her SUV in a convenience store parking lot, where she was trying to get some extra sleep between shifts at her four part-time jobs, the New Jersey Star-Ledger reports...
International Paper worker killed in accident identified  WJCL   ...A maintenance worker was killed Sunday afternoon at International Paper in Savannah. Firefighters and emergency crews responded to an industrial accident at the plant around 2:30 p.m. International Paper said Ricky Salter, 58, died in the paper roll handling area...
Popeye's night shift worker killed in Anne Arundel County  Baktunire Syb   ...An employee at a Popeye's Restaurant off Richie Highway in Brooklyn Park was found dead early Sunday with significant trauma to her upper body, Anne Arundel County police said...  

Today's Teamster News 07.13.14

Teamsters
Teamsters: Port Truck Drivers In Los Angeles Agree to "Cooling Off" Period  teamster.org   ...The port drivers agreed to the “cooling off” period after the trucking companies agreed to accept all drivers back to work without retaliation and without being forced to sign away all future rights in new truck leases...
Trade
Enormous, Humongous May Trade Deficit Follows Continuing Pattern  Trade Reform   ...The trade deficit fell 5.6 percent in May, to $44.4 billion. That’s $44.4 billion of orders that could have gone to businesses that make and do things inside the U.S. Those companies would have had to hire hundreds of thousands of people to get that done...
TPP talks make progress, barring thorny issues  Japan News   ...the 12 countries including Japan and the United States are expected to hold a session of chief negotiators again as early as in September to pave the way for an envisioned broad agreement in November...
Why the Chinese Are Snapping Up Real Estate in the U.S.  Five Thirty Eight   ...the Chinese spent $22 billion on U.S. housing in the 12 months through March — 72 percent more than they spent the year before...
State Battles
Scott Walker's job creation program is ineffective (opinion)  Wisconsin State Journal   ...Walker distributed $975 million in grants, loans and tax credits, resulting in limited job creation. Thirty percent of businesses receiving WEDC assistance contributed to Walker's campaign and received 60 percent of funds distributed...
In Wisconsin, Gov. Scott Walker's security detail costs balloon 239 percent  Milwaukee Journal Sentinel   ...taxpayers spent more than $2.23 million in 2013 for the 10 state troopers who protect Walker and his family, Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch and dignitaries from other states and countries who visit Wisconsin. That was up from $657,457 paid out by Gov. Jim Doyle on security during his last year in office in 2010...
War on Workers
Tracy Morgan Sues Walmart Over Deadly Crash in New Jersey  New York Times   ...the plaintiffs contend that the company should have known how little sleep its driver was operating on, and that it allowed him to commute an unreasonable distance before starting the shift that brought him to New Jersey...
The Economy Is Binging on Fast Food and Low Wages—and It Needs to Change  Ann Arbor Independent   ... lower-wage industries employ 2 million more workers than at the start of the recession, while mid- and higher-wage industries each employ about 900,000 fewer workers...
U.S. Chamber Lobbies To Kill Measure That Would Punish Wage Theft  Huffington Post   ...Despite the lobbying from business groups, the wage theft amendment passed the House with bipartisan support Thursday afternoon … Some of the nation's leading business lobbies (pressured) ... House lawmakers to spike bipartisan legislation that would take government contracts away from firms that have committed wage theft...
Citigroup's $7 Billion Fraud Deal: The Clique's Still Clicking in DC  Huffington Post   ...Citigroup is back in the headlines as the result of a new settlement with the Justice Department over its mortgage fraud, reportedly for the sum of $7 billion. This deal is being trumpeted as a major win for the American people. It's not. The money's not enough (and some of it probably won't be paid out), the wrong people are paying, and there will be no prosecutions for criminal behavior...
Flunking Out, at a Price  New York Times   ...For years, federal and state regulators have done little as dubious operators of for-profit colleges and trade schools have pocketed tuitions funded by taxpayer-backed loans. Many students left these colleges with questionable educations and onerous debt loads that cannot be erased in bankruptcy. Regulators have finally woken up to this ugly reality. And, once again, taxpayers and borrowers will pay the price of regulatory failures...

Massachusetts, IKEA raise minimum wage

Federal contract employees walked off the job dressed as Rosie the Riveter.

Massachusetts and IKEA raised their minimum wages today, showing workers can win concessions when they stand together and fight.

The wage increases for the lowest paid workers follow a concerted series of walkouts and job actions over the past two years by workers at Walmart, warehouses, fast food restaurants, retail stores, ports, food processing companies and federal contractors. The Teamsters Union has strongly supported those actions, as locals directly support warehouse workers, port truck drivers and workers at Taylor Farms.

President Obama recently ordered the minimum wage for government-contract workers to $10.10. That isn't enough, they say. More than 100 hourly employees walked off the job even as Obama was speaking at a summit on working families on Monday:  The Washington Post reported,

“Nobody who cooks our troops’ meals or washes their dishes should have to live in poverty,” he said of workers in federal buildings, speaking Monday at the White House Summit on Working Families in D.C.. “That’s a disgrace.” 

But less than half a mile away, about 150 of those same hourly employees took a different stance. They had walked off their jobs in federal buildings earlier that morning, gathering outside the Smithsonian’s National Zoo in a protest aimed directly at the president... 

“The struggle is that we do not make enough money to be able to survive,” said Joanne Kenon, a greeter at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo. “To live in D.C., it costs a lot.”

Raising the minimum wage isn't enough, though, if workers can't organize and negotiate with employers. And commercial activity will continue to stagnate so long as so much of the American workforce earns poverty wages.

In Massachusetts, according to Reuters,

Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick on Thursday signed into law a measure raising the minimum wage to the highest of any U.S. state, $11 per hour, by 2017... 

"Raising the minimum wage brings a little relief to the working poor, many of whom do jobs we could not live without and who recycle money right back into the economy," Patrick said in a statement announcing the signing.  

The law will raise the state's minimum wage in stages from its current level of $8 per hour and follows similar moves by neighboring Connecticut and Vermont. 

Here's a report on IKEA's action, according to USA Today:

IKEA, the iconic home furnishings chain, plans to announce Thursday that it will raise its minimum wage by 17%, joining a growing national movement to boost the pay of low-wage workers. 

The Gap, whose stores include Gap and Old Navy, also has announced plans to increase its pay floor this year. 

​The privately held Ikea plans to raise its average minimum wage from $9.17 an hour to $10.76 starting January 1. The increase will affect about half of the 11,000 employees at its 38 U.S. stores. 

"It's driven from our vision of wanting to create a better everyday life for our coworkers," acting IKEA President Rob Olson said in an interview.

IKEA still has much to answer for. The company has locked out 300 Teamsters in Richmond, Canada, for more than a year.

Today's Teamster News 05.05.14

Trade
Block the Trans Pacific Partnership (opinion)  Quad City Times   ...For anyone not familiar with TPP, it is yet another bad trade deal that does not take human rights, consumer rights, worker rights and environmental standards into adequate consideration...
Pacific partners should push back against TPP until U.S. shows respect for financial reforms  The Japan Times   ...One big risk that may be a deal breaker is U.S. insistence that TPP partners surrender their right to regulate global finance...
State Battles
With Unlimited Financial Campaign Contributions, One Robber Baron Can Control a State  Truthout   ...If you want to see how just one Wall Street robber baron can squash democracy for the sake of greed and privatization, just look to the Missouri legislature…."Sinquefield and his wife spent more than $28 million in disclosed donations in state elections since 2007, plus nearly $2 million more in disclosed donations in federal elections since 2006, for a total of at least $30 million..."
War on Workers
Recovery Has Created Far More Low-Wage Jobs Than Better-Paid Ones  New York Times   ...The deep recession wiped out primarily high-wage and middle-wage jobs. Yet the strongest employment growth during the sluggish recovery has been in low-wage work, at places like strip malls and fast-food restaurants...
Homeless and working for Amazon: the trap of the seasonal job cycle  Guardian   ...Since Amazon opened its warehouse in Jeffersonville, one homeless shelter, Haven House, has been a home to between two and six of its employees at all times...
Deride and Conquer: Dismantling the USPS  Truthout   ...Since the 1970s, the right has patiently tried to wrest control of the US Postal Service from the government using a three-step strategy characterized by: a) ideologically legitimizing its effort through scholarship cooked up in Koch-funded think tanks like Cato and the American Enterprise Institute; b) politically codifying it in generic, legal templates drawn up in legislative boiler rooms like the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), and c) economically executing their plan by forcing USPS to operate in a commercial arena where it would be squeezed on one side by government constraints, and, on the other, forced to compete with global private carriers like FedEx and UPS not subject to the same legislative mandates...
LEAKED: Docs obtained by Pando show how a Wall Street giant is guaranteed huge fees from taxpayers on risky pension investments  Pando   ...An increasing number of those pension funds are being stealthily diverted into high-fee, high-risk “alternative investments” that deliver spectacular rewards for the Wall Street firms paid to manage them – but not such great returns for pensioners and taxpayers...
Jobless Benefits Are Disappearing Much Faster Than Jobs Are Appearing  Five Thirty Eight   ...Fewer Americans are receiving unemployment benefits than any time in nearly six years. And yet there are 2 million more people unemployed than there were back then...
Too Big to Jail Continues: DOJ May Charge Two Banks with Criminal Acts, But Not Hold Them Criminally Accountable  Truthout   ...The Department of Justice might make an agreement with banks in which they would plead guilty to criminal activity without, it appears, holding them criminally responsible beyond fines and perhaps some temporary restrictions...
U.S. Firms With Irish Addresses Get Tax Breaks Derided as ‘Blarney’  Bloomberg   ...The technique these companies use to lower their tax bills -- shifting legal addresses to low-tax Switzerland, Ireland, and Bermuda -- was in the spotlight last week. Pfizer Inc., the largest U.S. drugmaker, said it’s seeking a British address, a move that might save more than $1 billion a year in U.S. taxes...
Miscellaneous
Circus Audience Initially Thought Accident Was Part of the Act  ABC News   ...Authorities are trying to determine what caused a support frame to collapse during an aerial hair-hanging stunt during a circus performance Sunday, sending eight acrobats crashing to the ground and injuring 11...The incident happened about 45 minutes into a performance of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus' legends show … in Providence, R.I...

Today's Teamster News 04. 28.14

Trade
Najib cites ‘sensitivities’ as Obama struggles to push trade pact  The Malaysian Insider   ...Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said today that he and US President Barack Obama had agreed to upgrade bilateral relations but suggested that his country remains far from ready to sign a US-led trade pact due to domestic "sensitivities"...
U.S. did not "bully" Malaysia into TPP, Obama says  Global Post   ...There have been a series of protests in Malaysia against the U.S.-led Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade initiative in the days leading up to Obama's arrival on Saturday for a three-day visit...
State Battles
House Republicans Still Seeking Needed Votes For 'Right-To-Work' Ballot Proposal  St. Louis Public Radio   ...After two weeks of vigorous lobbying, Republican leaders in the Missouri House acknowledge that they have yet to obtain the extra four votes needed to send to the state Senate a measure to put a right-to-work proposal on the August ballot...
Wall Street’s Pension Gamble  In These Times   ...In a new report for the union representing ...(North Carolina) public employees, former Securities and Exchange Commission investigator Ted Siedle documents how secrecy is allowing financial firms to bilk the Teachers' and State Employees' Retirement System, which is the seventh largest public pension fund in America...
War on Workers
Recovery Has Created Far More Low-Wage Jobs Than Better-Paid Ones  New York Times   ...But job losses and gains have been skewed. Higher-wage industries — like accounting and legal work — shed 3.6 million positions during the recession and have added only 2.6 million positions during the recovery. But lower-wage industries lost two million jobs, then added 3.8 million...
One Year After Rana Plaza, Safety Issues in Walmart Supply Chain Persist  ...a compensation fund for victims was set up to enable retailers to donate to the impacted workers, but only $15 million—one-third of the $40 million goal—has been raised by the International Labor Organization (ILO), which chairs the fund. The corporate community’s inaction has left survivors scrambling to make a living without adequate healthcare or wages, according to a report by Human Rights Watch…
My protesting isn’t terrorism: How Big Ag teamed with lawmakers to criminalize speech  Salon   ...Activists are being prosecuted for challenging the interests of business. I should know — I spent 40 months in jail...
Supreme Court Taking Up Police Searches of Data Troves Known as Cellphones  New York Times   ...In a major test of how to interpret the Fourth Amendment in the digital age, the Supreme Court on Tuesday will consider two cases about whether the police need warrants to search the cellphones of the people they arrest...
'Happy Days’ no more: Middle-class families squeezed as expenses soar, wages stall  New York Times   ...A recent poll conducted by the Washington Post and the Miller Center at the University of Virginia found that 40 percent of those calling themselves middle class felt less financially secure than they were just a few years ago. Forty-five percent said they worry “a lot” about having enough money stashed away for retirement, and 57 percent said they worry about meeting their bills. Less than half said they expect their kids to do any better...
Miscellaneous
The Koch Attack on Solar Energy  New York Times   ...At long last, the Koch brothers and their conservative allies in state government have found a new tax they can support. Naturally it’s a tax on something the country needs: solar energy panels...

Things have never been worse for men in their prime earning years

Men in their prime earning years are having unprecedented difficulty in making a living, let alone feeding their families.

The number of men aged 25-54 who are not employed is a staggering 10.4 million, according to the Wall Street Journal. We're all familiar with the reasons: 

Some had jobs that went overseas or were lost to technology. Some refuse to uproot for work because they are tied down by family needs or tethered to homes worth less than the mortgage. Some rely on government benefits. Others depend on working spouses….

The trend has been building for decades, according to government data. In the early 1970s, just 6% of American men ages 25 to 54 were without jobs. By late 2007, it was 13%. In 2009, during the worst of the recession, nearly 20% didn’t have jobs.

Things are a little better -- the unemployment rate among men in their prime earning years is now only 17 percent. But just getting a job isn't good enough these days. The number of breadwinning men who work in low-income jobs like Walmart or McDonald's is 3.65 million, according to   a study about to be released by researchers at the University of Massachusetts-Boston.

 Today, 21 million people are the primary breadwinner in their households:

Over the last 30 years, the number of all U.S. workers has grown 40%, roughly in line with the adult population. But over that same time period, the number of low-wage workers who also live in low-income households has climbed 94%.

The Naked Capitalist nails it: 

The duration and severity of unemployment among men in their peak earning years suggests that there is both more suffering than is readily apparent, and that this group is also likely to wind up impoverished in their old age. These men, with their sense of identity often strongly vested in being producers and breadwinners, face a grim future in psychological as well as financial terms. To put it more bluntly, this level of unemployment is suicide futures.

Today's Teamster News 01.26.14

Wal-Mart lays off 2,300 Sam's Club workers  USA Today   ...The layoffs, which cut 2% of the membership club's employee count of about 116,000, mark the largest since 2010, when the Sam's Club unit laid off 10,000 workers as it moved to outsource food demonstrations at its stores.
Bill Durling, a spokesman at Sam's Club, says that a little less than half of the cuts were aimed at salaried assistant managers...
Former Venture Capitalist Worth $8 Billion Compares Criticism Of Rich To Nazi Germany  Buzzfeed   ...Tom Perkins, a founder of the KPCB, compared the current wave of ostracism towards the uber-rich to attacks on Jewish people by the Nazis during World War II. Perkins, of course, is a member of the ultra-wealthy club, with an estimated net worth of $8 billion and ownership of a San Francisco penthouse he spent $9 million to construct.)...
They’re Fast-Tracking the Future, TPP Style – But We Can Stop Them  TradeReform   ...TheWikiLeaks documents show that every other country in the negotiations stood against American intellectual property demands...
Gender Wage Gap for Union Members Is Half the Size of Non-Union Workers' Wage Gap  National Women's Law Center   ...female union members earn over $200 per week more than women who are not represented by unions—an increase that represents a larger union premium than men receive...
Why are US corporate profits so high? Because wages are so low  Reuters   ...Companies have been unable to raise prices much because of the economic recovery has been fragile. But they’ve still managed to boost profits beyond anything ever seen before because they’ve got away with employing as few workers as possible at as low a rate as possible...
GDP By Industry for 2012  Economic Populist   ...Finance, insurance, real estate, rental, and leasing is an astounding 19.5% of GDP which is unchanged from before the recession.  Real estate and rental and leasing by itself actually grew, whereas finance and insurance shrank their percentage of the GDP pie.  Considering this sector was the cause of economic implosion, this is probably not a good thing to have it being almost 20% of the overall economy...
Swarms of drones could be the next frontier in emergency response  NBC News   ...a group at Carnegie Mellon University ... is building a swarm of cheap, small flying helicopters that could come to the aid of officers across the country who find themselves facing off against suspects they can’t always see...
Security Check Firm Said to Have Defrauded U.S.  New York Times   ...The company that conducted a background investigation on the contractor Edward J. Snowden fraudulently signed off on hundreds of thousands of incomplete security checks in recent years, the Justice Department said...
The Federal Government Shouldn’t Directly Contribute To America’s Job-Quality Problem  Economic Policy Institute   ...far too many people working for private firms— but for the benefit of the federal government, with their wages ultimately paid by the taxpayers—are likely working for poverty wages. This is unacceptable; it is damaging to those workers and their families, and it hurts the economy by reducing demand for goods and services—currently a problem of crisis proportions...

It isn't the recession, stupid, it's China

China's unfair trade practices cost U.S. workers $37 billion in just one year, according to a new report by our friend Rob Scott at the Economic Policy Institute.

That comes out to an average of $13,505 for every U.S. worker who lost a job in manufacturing because of China's rapacity. Scott assumed (correctly, we think) that workers laid off after their factory moved to China ended up making far less money as fast-food cooks, rental counter clerks and call center workers.

Most news reports blamed "the recession" for the disappearance of good jobs. The Washington Post, for example, reported on a National Employment Law Project study in February:

Mid-wage occupations, paying between $13.83 and $21.13 per hour, made up about 60 percent of the job losses during the recession. But those mid-wage jobs have made up just 27 percent of the jobs gained during the recovery. 

By contrast, low-wage occupations paying less than $13.83 per hour have utterly dominated the recovery, with 58 percent of the job gains since 2010.

Scott, though, puts the blame where it belongs: on China. He examined the impact of the U.S. trade deficit with China after it entered the World Trade Organization in 2001. Here are some of his other findings:

• The increase in the U.S. trade deficit with China between 2001 and 2011 eliminated 2.7 million U.S. jobs, over 2.1 million (76.9 percent) of which were in manufacturing.
• Growing U.S. trade deficits with China between 2001 and 2011 displaced a disproportionately large number of good jobs for minority workers—958,800 good jobs with excellent benefits, 35.0 percent of total jobs displaced.
• China trade cost U.S. workers 997,700 good jobs with excellent benefits for workers without any college education 
• Workers with a bachelor’s degree or more education lost 1.057 million jobs
• Rapidly growing China trade deficits cost nearly 1.1 million jobs in computer and electronic products between 2001 and 2011.

Read the whole thing here.

Nationwide fast food strike announced for Aug. 29

A national fast food strike involving thousands of low-wage workers will take place Aug. 29, the first national job action since the wave of one-day strikes began last fall in New York City.

The Low Pay Is Not OK website tells us:

Fast food and other low wage workers across the country are going on strike on August 29. We’ve had enough of struggling to get by on minimum wage or barely more, so we’re walking off our jobs to demand $15 an hour and the right to form a union without retaliation.

The fast food strike movement spread to eight U.S. cities over the summer and shows no signs of stopping. Workers in other low-wage occupations are also expected to strike soon in what some commentators call "strike season."

Q13Fox in Seattle reported:

Many, such as Burger King employee Terrance Wise, said the walkout is an effort to put pressure on the $200 billion fast-food industry. 

“The more of us who go on strike that day, the louder our message will be that it is not right for companies making billions in profits to pay their workers pennies,” Wise said. 

Retail workers from stores such as Macy’s, Sears and Dollar Tree are expected to join in the strike, lowpayisnot.org organizers said. 

The strike will take place the day after the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington, a march that called to raise minimum wage of $2 per hour. Adjusted to inflation, that minimum wage would equal $15.26 an hour today, according to an online inflation rate calculator. The federal minimum wage in 1963 was $1.25, which would equate to around $9.45 today.

You can support the fast food strike by signing the petition here -- or brown-bagging it on Aug. 29. Or you could join them on a strike line in your city.

Biggest wave of fast-food strikes begins today

Fast-food strike in New York City today.

A wave of fast-food strikes began in New York City today as workers prepare to walk off the job in seven more cities over the next few days. It is likely to be the biggest mobilization of low-wage workers since the short, sudden one-day job actions began in November.

Fast-food workers are striking in restaurants like McDonald's, Papa John's and Wendy's in New York City. More walkouts are planned for Chicago, St. Louis, Detroit, Milwaukee, Kansas City, Mo., and Flint, Mich. The workers demand a living wage and the right to form a union without retaliation.

The success of previous fast-food strikes has given momentum to the growing movement for livable wages. Josh Eidelson, writing in Salon, spoke to a fast-food worker a month ago:

St. Louis Jimmy John’s employee Rasheen Aldridge told Salon that there “was a whole lot of nervousness” when he and three co-workers at his store first went on strike in May. “There was a big chance that I could of got fired,” said Aldridge, “because that’s just how, you know, fast food operates.” But when they returned to work in one piece, he said his co-workers’ reaction was “You know, you guys sort of took the step we all need to do.”

Today's walkout is generating national media attention, as The New York Times, broadcast and cable news networks and the financial press. Steven Greenhouse at The New York Times writes:

Often relegated to the background, America’s low-wage workers have been making considerable noise lately by deploying an unusual weapon — one-day strikes — to make their message heard: they’re sick and tired of earning just $8, $9, $10 an hour. 

Their anger has been stoked by what they see as a glaring disconnect: their wages have flatlined, while median pay for chief executives at the nation’s top corporations jumped 16 percent last year, averaging a princely $15.1 million, according to Equilar, an executive compensation analysis firm. 

In recent weeks, workers from McDonald’s, Taco Bell and other fast-food restaurants — many of them part-time employees — have staged one-day walkouts in New York, Chicago, Detroit and Seattle to protest their earnings, typically just $150 to $350 a week, often too little to support themselves and their families. 

Bloomberg News reports that low-wage jobs are the fastest growing sector of the U.S. economy:

The leisure and hospitality industry, which includes restaurants, is adding jobs faster than any other sector in the U.S. In June, the sector added 75,000 jobs, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Fast-food cooks make $9.02 an hour, or about $18,760 a year, on average, according to 2012 data from the Washington-based agency.

The problem of low wages isn't limited to fast-food workers. Today, Hope Yen at the Associated Press reported that 80 percent of adults in the United States struggle to earn enough money at some point in their lives:

Four out of 5 U.S. adults struggle with joblessness, near-poverty or reliance on welfare for at least parts of their lives, a sign of deteriorating economic security and an elusive American dream... 

Nationwide, the count of America's poor remains stuck at a record number: 46.2 million, or 15 percent of the population, due in part to lingering high unemployment following the recession.

Workers strike, storm DC rail station, demand living wage from federal contractors

Scores of Washington, D.C., federal contract workers walked off the job and stormed the city's main rail station today to voice their anger over their poverty wages. The rally at Union Station is the third one-day strike in three weeks by workers demanding the government require its contractors to pay employees fairly.


Workers call out federal contractors for low wages.

Demonstrators brought attention to their plight by walking through the station where many of them are employed. They were seen by hundreds of commuters toward the end of the morning rush hour before being asked to leave. They later took their fight to the U.S. Department of Transportation, where they "pied" a protester dressed as Uncle Sam.

The Twitter feed of @GoodJobsNation gave a full running commentary of the morning's events, which showed workers trying to feed their families on $8.25 an hour aren't going to take it anymore. Among the chants heard at the rally:

American flag UP! Corporate flag DOWN! Workers' wages UP! Corporate wages DOWN!

Members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus attended the rally and urged President Obama to sign an executive order to ensure federal contract workers are paid a living wage. Minnesota Rep. Keith Ellison tweeted:

We're going to demand that the Prez sign an executive order to make sure you're paid a #livingwage

Ellison speaks to strikers

The protest comes at the same time as the release of a new report by the National Employment Law Project (NELP). The report details how the federal government is promoting poverty through its contracting practices. The paper notes that Americans are funding millions of low-wage jobs through federal contracts that keep places like the Smithsonian Institution running and haul loads of cargo out of the Port of Charleston:

We interviewed a total of 567 workers in federally contracted jobs: 104 workers who
manufacture military uniforms in Tennessee, Kentucky, and Puerto Rico; 429 workers in Washington, D.C., who provide food service, retail services, or janitorial services in various buildings occupied or controlled by the federal government; and 34 port truckers who haul loads under federal contracts out of the port of Charleston, South Carolina.

NELP calls for administrative action so that so many workers won't fall through the cracks. A poll done as part of the report shows that 74 percent of those employed under federal contract jobs earn less than $10 an hour. Only 26 percent receive sick days, and only 11 percent receive employer-provided health insurance. One in five depends on Medicaid for health care:

The federal government needs to lead by example as it once did and ensure that federally linked activity does not inadvertently subsidize low-road employment and fuel poverty, but instead supports the type of quality jobs that communities and our economy need to grow and thrive once more.

DCist just published a report on the strike, noting:

They also chanted, "We can't survive on 8.25," which is the minimum wage in the District of Columbia. As DCist previously noted, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's urban planning department's "living wage calculator" places the living wage for one adult in D.C. at $13.68 per hour.

Stay tuned.

Today's Teamster News 06.19.13

Fast-food workers echo 'Occupy' spirit  Chicago Tribune   ...Labor unions have been knocked back, knocked down and knocked out for so long that a new generation of organizers is beginning to try something new. Instead of unionizing and then protesting, they're protesting first...
Alan Grayson On Trans-Pacific Partnership: Obama Secrecy Hides 'Assault On Democratic Government'  Huffington Post   ...Progressive Democrats in Congress are ramping up pressure on the Obama administration to release the text of Trans-Pacific Partnership, a secretive free trade agreement with 10 other nations, amid intensifying controversy over the administration's transparency record and its treatment of classified information...
Brazil protests erupt over public services and World Cup costs  The Guardian   ...Some of country's biggest ever rallies sweep major cities as bus fare rise is last straw in spiral of high costs and poor services...
When the Government Asks, Tech Companies Usually Turn Over User Information   AlterNet   ...How often do technology companies hand over user information to the government? More answers to that question have come out in recent days...
Student loans: Government looks to make $50B profit  WJLA TV   ...Lauren Brice, who recently graduated with a law degree, has money on her mind. “My undergraduate loans and my graduate loans together are about $167,000,” she says. The notion that the government will make a record $50 billion profit on student loans this year has her unsettled...
Union ratchets up pressure on Amazon Germany   Associated Press   ...Union members at online retailer Amazon's German operations have begun a two-day strike to ratchet up pressure on the company over pay demands. The ver.di union says Amazon's roughly 5,300 workers receive lower wages than their peers in the online retail industry...
US Workers protest over low wages  Press TV   ...People in California are protesting against working longer hours for less pay and less protection...
Florida blocks cities, counties from voting on sick pay laws  CNN News   ...Florida's governor has signed a law that says cities and counties cannot make businesses offer paid sick leave...
Planned civil service changes irk N.J. state workers  Philadelphia Inquirer   ...New Jersey public employees are bracing for what their union leaders say is the latest anti-worker onslaught by the Christie administration...
Oklahoma voter registration law survives U.S. Supreme Court decision  The Oklahoman   ...The Supreme Court decision to strike down a voter registration law in Arizona will not affect the process in Oklahoma, which requires registrants to attest to U.S. citizenship but not provide documents proving their status...
Why Pennsylvania's voter ID law probably won't be affected by the Supreme Court ruling on Arizona's election law  Patriot-News   ...A ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court Monday striking down an Arizona voter identification law will likely have little consequence in another legal case - that of the Pennsylvania voter identification law, legal experts said...
Carnival operators sued over wage law  Boston Globe   ...Workers who set up carnivals around New England have sued a New Hampshire amusements company, alleging it violated minimum wage and overtime laws by requiring employees to work long hours at a low weekly salary...
Investigation Shows Politicians Profit off Foreclosure Sales  WNYC News   ...When New York State Senator John Sampson was arrested last month for allegedly embezzling $440,000 from foreclosure sales, the curtain pulled back on a little known corner of the state’s justice system – the job of foreclosure referee...
Teamsters want Hernando County to stop reclassifying jobs, adding pay  Tampa Bay Times   ...The Teamsters union has put Hernando County on notice this week to "cease and desist" from the practice of reclassifying some county jobs. The union, representing 400 county workers, said the practice is allowing management to circumvent the employees' contract with the county and give altered jobs with higher salaries to chosen employees...
City Of Oakland Considers Contract With Known Lawbreaker, Teamsters Joint Council 7 Says  IBT   ...Politically connected firm poised to get lease despite nearly $1 million judgment for violating California Labor laws and a $235,000 debt to the City...
Sign Up for the 2013 Teamster Women's Conference  IBT   ...The Teamster Women’s Conference will be held September 19-21, 2013 in New Orleans, Louisiana. Register now to join your Teamster Sisters and Brothers!...

Whoa. Fed governor says low-wage jobs are a problem

Even the crony capitalists are starting to realize that low-wage jobs are stifling prosperity. Federal Reserve governor Sarah Bloom Raskin says she's concerned about the quality of available jobs, according to the Wall Street Journal. The Journal reported:

After finding mostly security, restaurant and life guard positions at a job fair held at community college near her home, Ms. Raskin said Tuesday that she investigated the type of jobs that have been gained since the economy emerged from recession.

The onset of fast food strikes spreading across New York City, Chicago, Detroit, St. Louis and Seattle shows how important the creation of good jobs with livable wages, healthcare, and hope of a retirement is.

Originally, fast food and other minimum wage jobs were meant as short-term jobs for teens, but have since become long-term, poverty jobs for adults.  CNN reports:

Nationally, fast food workers have a median age of 28, and two-thirds of them are women, according to data from the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. 

Such low-end jobs often have replaced jobs with salaries of $40,000 or more, sums which were enough to cover rent and food as well as transportation and insurance, according to the National Employment Law Project, an organization that campaigns for a higher hourly wage. 

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the most marginal jobs -- in the sense that they allow the employees to eke out the barest of livings -- will continue to dominate the labor market in the coming decade, leaving many with little choice of employment because so many of middle-income jobs have been permanently eliminated.

And the worst is yet to come – fast food job growth averaged 25,000 gained jobs per month last year – and is expected to continue the trend over time.  Former U.S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich explains:

Jobs are slowly returning to America, but most of them pay lousy wages and low if non-existent benefits. The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that 7 out of 10 growth occupations over the next decade will be low-wage — like serving customers at big-box retailers and fast-food chains. That’s why the median wage keeps dropping, especially for the 80 percent of the workforce that’s paid by the hour.

Without representation, low-wage workers are working on starvation wages and have little power to protect themselves from rampant wage tampering.  With seven of the decade’s 10 top fastest-growing occupations paying low-to-poverty wages, it’s important to stand up and protect workers rights.

Labor federations, including Change to Win, are supporting the fast-food strikes through campaigns such as Fight for 15 and Fast Food Forward. You can sign a petition to support the workers here.

Today's Teamster News 04.08.13

America Is Ruled by Billionaires, and They Are Coming After the Last Shreds of Our Democracy  Alternet   ...Between 2000 and 2012, the real net worth of 90% of Americans has declined by 25%...
The Fries-With-That Economy  New York Times   ...food services and drinking places ... have been adding jobs for 37 consecutive months. ... As a result of all this cumulative hiring, the industry accounted for almost one in 13 of all American jobs in March. That is the highest share it has held...
Tax Lobby Builds Ties to Chairman of Finance Panel  New York Times   ...At least 28 aides who have worked for Mr. Baucus, Democrat of Montana, since he became the committee chairman in 2001 have lobbied on tax issues during the Obama administration -- more than any other current member of Congress...
Mexico to back Japan joining TPP  AFP   ...Visiting Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto will likely announce his support for Japan's plan to join talks on forging a huge Pacific-wide free trade zone on Monday, officials said...
Britain's biggest unions put weight behind plan for general strike  The Independent   ...Plans for the first general strike in modern British history have been backed by the country’s two biggest unions. The proposed 24-hour walkout would be the first time since 1926 that private and public-sector workers have co-ordinated a nationwide mass action...
No Doomsday but Ontario Takes Out the Knives  Real News Network   ...In Ontario, Canada, the Ontario government is pursuing, like most other governments around the industrialized world, austerity policies...
Chiquita sues to block release of documents related to terror group payments  Charlotte Observer   ...Charlotte-based Chiquita sued the Securities and Exchange Commission, seeking to block the release of documents related to payments the company made to terrorist groups in Colombia to protect its banana-growing interests...
Bank Of America To Pay $36.8 Million To Military Members For Improper Foreclosures  ThinkProgress   ...Bank of America was already paying 142 military members under the original 2011 agreement, but a further review required by the settlement found 155 additional military homeowners who were subject to improper foreclosures...
Taping of Farm Cruelty Is Becoming the Crime  New York Times   ...Some of the legislation appears inspired by the American Legislative Exchange Council, a business advocacy group with hundreds of state representatives from farm states as members...
Crackdown on Dissent Intensifies as DoJ Usurps Authority of Capitol Police  Wisconsin Citizens Media Cooperative   ...After a two-month lull, the Walker Administration’s crackdown on dissent in the Wisconsin State Capitol has kicked back into high gear...

Whoa! Hundreds of NYC fast food workers strike today

"We can't survive on $7.25 an hour."

Hundreds of fast food workers in New York City are walking off the job right now to protest poverty wages. It's the 45th anniversary of the Rev. Martin Luther King's assassination while supporting a sanitation workers' strike in Memphis. They're carrying signs that evoke that watershed moment with the words "I Am A Man."

Steven Greenhouse at the New York Times quoted Jonathan Westin, executive director of New York Communities for Change:

We believe that it’s a continuation of a civil rights fight against low wages and for Martin Luther King’s movement to win dignity and living-wage jobs.

Reuters reports:

Employees from familiar chains such as McDonald's Corp, Wendy's and Yum Inc's KFC are seeking to roughly double their hourly pay to $15. They also say they want the right to form a union without intimidation or retaliation.

Winning such concessions will be difficult. Low-wage, low-skill workers lack political clout and face significantly higher unemployment than college graduates. 

As many as 400 workers from more than five dozen restaurants around New York City have committed to turn out for protests planned at various locations, said Jonathan Westin, director of Fast Food Forward, which organized Thursday's actions and is backed by labor, community and religious groups. 

That turnout would be twice as large as in November, when the city's fast-food workers also walked off the job, Westin said.

The Guardian reports the workers are paid so little money they have to choose between food and transportation. Naquasia Legrand told the newspaper:

You have to decide whether to feed your family or get a Metrocard so you can go to work. Or you have to choose between paying your rent or feeding your child. 

You can show your support for the workers by signing a petition here.