Las Vegas
AFL-CIO Executive Council statement
In the years after World War II, when the “greatest generation” came home, raised families and built their futures, economic growth was strong and productivity soared. These heroes shared in the wealth they helped create as wages rose along with productivity. Strong unions and a government committed to balance power between America’s corporations and their workers meant that we grew together as the economy prospered.
A generation later, as the sons and daughters of these heroes came home from Vietnam and joined the workforce in the mid-1970s, the balance of power began to shift, wages stagnated and the crucial relationship between productivity and wages was ruptured. The American social contract began to unravel.
Corporate leaders, who once saw themselves as the stewards of our country’s productive assets, now see themselves as the representatives of shareholders and increasingly keep productivity gains for themselves. And, more and more, employers—public and private—are walking away from their obligations to provide health care and retirement security for their employees.
Today, America’s workers are the most productive workers in the world and they work harder than workers in any other developed economy. Nevertheless, they face stagnating wages and rising insecurity. Working families maintain their living standards only by working more jobs and longer hours and by sending more family members to work. As we once grew together as a nation, today we are growing apart—economically, politically and socially.
Stagnating wages and rising economic insecurity are the results of anti-worker economic policies pushed by corporations—The Corporate Agenda—enacted by complicit politicians and justified by free-market fundamentalists. They destroy good jobs in America, inhibit union growth and weaken the bargaining power of workers. These policies—slow growth, free trade, privatization and deregulation, tax cuts for the wealthy, the falling value of the minimum wage and attacks on workers’ rights—are shredding our social contract and undermining the American Dream.
This is our America. It needs to work for all of us.
We must change the direction of our country’s economic policies and reconnect with the economic values of America’s working families to ensure that the economy meets the urgent needs of all the people of this nation. Our country’s economic policies should serve six principles that are grounded in the economic values of U.S. workers and serve their interests:
- FIRST, our government must ensure that everyone has the opportunity to work in a job that pays a living wage, is provided with high-quality and affordable health care and is able to enjoy a dignified retirement. These should not be the goals of our system—they should be basic rights for all. They should not be things that we work toward—they should be realities today.
- SECOND, America’s workers should enjoy the fundamental freedom to associate with their fellow workers. They should have the freedom, without interference from their employers, to form unions at their workplaces, and they must be able to bargain collectively for respect at work and a fair share in the value they help create. Promoting a strong and growing union movement should be an explicit policy of our government.
- THIRD, corporations that operate on our soil must be accountable for their actions under our laws and standards. Corporations must obey the law and pay their fair share of taxes. They must consider the interests of their employees and the communities in which employees live and place those interests on an equal footing with those of corporation owners. And all employers must contribute to the health care and retirement security of America’s workers.
- FOURTH, we need an international trading system that raises living standards for workers everywhere. Trade agreements must protect and promote the rights of workers at least as well as they protect intellectual property and capital.
- FIFTH, we must develop a national strategy to invest in America’s communications and transportation infrastructure and rebuild our manufacturing base so our country can be competitive in the 21st century.
- SIXTH, government must provide public services to all Americans—particularly education for our children and care for those most in need. And we must insist that corporations and our wealthiest families pay their share of the taxes needed to support these services.
We must change not only the economic policies of our country, but also the policy makers. We need workers’ voices in the highest levels of key policy-making government agencies at all levels—federal, state and local.
Working together we can build a society that rewards hard work, a society that inspires young people to realize their potential and a society that values equality and economic justice. We can and we must realize the promise of America and restore hope to our children and future generations.
In the months ahead, as we turn our attention to the fulfillment of our sacred democratic right to elect our leaders, we must consider which candidates for office will receive our support. We will do so not on the basis of personalities or media hype but on a principled discussion about where those seeking to lead our nation stand on the key issues we face.
For too long, we have allowed politicians to “split the difference”—talking about the concerns of ordinary working men and women while voting to protect and enhance the interests of their own corporate and wealthy benefactors.
We must insist that all who seek the support of the union movement give a clear and specific account of themselves and their plans. They must tell us whether or not they share our values and agree with our description of our nation and its challenges. More importantly, they must tell us whether they subscribe to our principles and how they intend to achieve them.