By John J. Sweeney
This is a story about power. Working people had it. Corporations took it. And we've got to get it back.
America's economy is not delivering for working families today. We are the most productive workers in the world—but our wages and incomes are stagnant. We work longer hours than workers in any other developed country—but massive job losses have swamped us with income insecurity. Our economy generates more than $13 trillion a year in income—but our health care and retirement benefits are disappearing. We're working more jobs and more hours and sending more family members to work—but we're struggling just to keep up.
Why is it so hard for so many working men and women to make a living in the richest country in history?
Power.
The American economy didn't always work the way it does today. When the middle class was built in the years after World War II, a rough balance of power between labor and employers allowed us to negotiate a social contract that assured that workers would share in the increasing productivity they helped create. As productivity rose, real family incomes doubled—the swiftest jump in living standards in history. And incomes became more equally distributed because the poorest families made even faster gains than the wealthy. This was a period of great social movements and struggles for justice—for women’s rights, civil rights and the rights of people with disabilities, to name a few. Unions thrived and the power of workers created a strong economy and a more just society.
But since the early 1970s, we've witnessed a massive shift in power from workers to corporations. Manufacturing jobs—the seed of our middle class—have disappeared while technology and globalization have enabled corporations to ship work to low-wage, no-rights countries. As the share of workers who belong to unions declined, so did our bargaining strength.
And as this happened, the link between the work we do and the pay and benefits we receive was broken.
But the economy isn't like the weather. We don't have to sit around and wait for it to change. We can change it. Our economic problems are not accidents or acts of God. They are the direct result of unrestricted free market economic policies that have dominated our country for decades to the benefit of corporations, corporate executives and the wealthy. And we can change them.
With a populist majority in Congress and a real chance to take back the White House in 2008, change is well within our reach. Finally, working family issues are in the national spotlight again and we can begin replacing the corporate agenda that has ruled us for decades with a working family agenda based on our values:
- Anyone who wants to work should have a job.
- Workers are proud of the work we do and deserve respect for doing it.
- All workers and our families should be able to live in dignity with health care and retirement security.
- Every worker must enjoy the freedom to form a union and bargain collectively.
- Workers want to contribute to, and share in, building a world-class economy.
Our path back to a balance of economic power is neither short nor smooth. But it will be successful. One of the first steps on that path is a massive economics education program we are launching to ensure that every AFL-CIO union member understands the forces undermining our living standards and the policies we need for a strong economy. We are training hundreds of union activists to agitate, educate and mobilize thousands of members beginning with the primary election cycle in 2008 and continuing throughout the year. With this educated, mobilized corps of activists, we will elect a working family-friendly president and Congress to enact our working family agenda.
