How Will Big Business Solve Job Crisis?
Will Millions Never Enjoy a Steady Job?
By Harry Kelber

Even if the Obama administration is correct in insisting that its $787 billion stimulus package has saved or created as many as three million jobs, Congress, worried about the enormous budget deficit and national debt, is not likely to allocate many more billions for job creation, especially with all the signs of economic recovery.

Even under the most optimistic calculations, the government will have created no more than five million new jobs. That would still represent only a fraction of what is needed to provide a full-time job to every American adult who needs one.

When companies, large and small, decide it is a profitable time to begin rehiring, they will have a huge labor pool of more than 30 million unemployed workers to pick and choose from. Every one they hire must in some way contribute to their profitability.

Let’s remember that the goal of business firms is to gain maximum production while reducing the number of their employees (to cut labor costs) They are not interested in creating jobs for needy workers. It will be easy to cut wages and benefits to levels below what they were before the recession began. Workers will be competing with each other for the available jobs.

Under these circumstances, the newly-hired workers will be completely defenseless, unless there are strong unions to fight in their behalf, But it is doubtful that the AFL-CIO will be able to recruit these workers unless they change their current methods of organizing. Only 7.2 percent of the nation’s industrial work force in private industry is in unions, the lowest rate since 1901.

Here is a sample of AFL-CIO President Trumka’s inspiring message to union members, made just after Obama’s Jobs Summit:
“Now is the time for all of us to get busy and work together to bring the big changes that are essential, starting with enacting a jobs bill that is big enough to create jobs for the millions of people who want to work and can’t find jobs. The time for small change is long gone.” (Now, that's leadership in action!)

How Can We Build Unions Strong Enough to Defend Workers?

Big Business has so terrified our labor leaders that they won’t initiate major organizing campaigns unless they get the support of the government through the passage of the Employee Free Choice Act. So the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and its business allies have used their pressure on the ruling Democrats in Congress to prevent passage of the EFPC.

The AFL-CIO and Change to Win are strictly silent about why they allowed “card check,” the core of EFCA, to be eliminated from the proposed legislation (they have an established policy of remaining silent about defeats and embarrassments), so we won’t be told about what’s swept under the rug.

Anyway, Trumka’s proposed 5-point plan to create two million jobs in a year is now yesterday’s news, largely because it was just a statement and never supported by a full-blown campaign.

* * * * *

During the economic recession, many companies were able to reduce their financial losses by massive layoffs of their employees. The nation’s 500 top-ranking companies laid off 500,000 of their employees. More than 17,000 public companies and at least 20 million private companies participated in the layoff binge. They had no regard for the years of loyal service by their employees.

What about the hundreds of thousands of workers whose jobs have been eliminated or turned over to “temps” or whose companies no longer exist? What happens to the victims of recession who are also the victims of economic recovery?

Should we abandon them? Think about it. It might be you.—Harry Kelber