AFL-CIO is going to fight back !!!

[Heath]

This week, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney outlined the federation’s vision for stopping the senseless slaughter of good American jobs.

In a speech to the National Press Club, Sweeney described how America’s workers have struggled over the past 25 years as “a perfect storm of outsourcing, offshoring, tax evasion, layoffs, work speedups, wage cuts, health care cuts, pension cuts, shifting risks, bashing unions and short-changing communities” has swept across the economic landscape.

President Sweeney talked about the immediate action Congress and President George W. Bush can take to stop the erosion of good jobs in America, including:

Guaranteeing America’s workers the freedom to form unions and bargain for a better life.
Giving workers the same protections as corporate interests in our trade policy.
Making it illegal for companies to buy or sell products made in sweatshop conditions.
Repealing tax laws that encourage companies to send jobs overseas.
Passing universal health care coverage.
Telling corporate America to rejoin our national community by investing more in workers and less in their executives.
Doubling the money we spend on education and job training.
Raising the minimum wage.
This plan is a must-read for anyone concerned about the destruction of good jobs in America. Read President Sweeney’s full speech today:

http://www.aflcio.org/goodjobs

Please help us spread the word about this important plan by forwarding this message on to your friends and family. Thank you for all you do.

In Solidarity,

Working Families e-Activist Network, AFL-CIO

P.S. For more information about this plan, read the following news coverage of Sweeney’s speech.

Labor Chief Urges Action on Health, The New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/19/national/19labor.html

AFL Chief Decries Corporate ‘Job-Killing Strategy,’ Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06019/640440.stm

 

[Heath]

This is good stuff

 

[Reba]

Some questions and statements about the proposals:

Making it illegal for companies to buy or sell products made in sweatshop conditions.

Who would define and monitor "sweatshop conditions" overseas?

Passing universal health care coverage.

Not for that.

Telling corporate America to rejoin our national community by investing more in workers and less in their executives.

What does that mean?

Doubling the money we spend on education and job training.

Who are "we"? What level of education and job training do you mean? Do you mean post-secondary training, such as apprenticeships?

Raising the minimum wage.

Not a good idea.

 

[Endymion]

Not a good idea.

Reba's right about raising the minimum wage.

In economics, when we apply a price floor (the minimum wage), we generate economic inefficiencies because now market behavior no longer operates at its natural, equilibrium level. Sometimes this can be good if we want to protect other parts of american society. The economy isn't everything, just like money isn't everything.

However, whenever we raise the price floor we have with minimum wage, we also harm the economy. When you raise the minimum wage, you also raise unemployment. Less firms can afford to pay for the same amount of employees.

This increase in unemployment also lends to a bigger problem. Okun's Law is a fundamental law in the field and it roughly states for every 1% increase in unemployment, we lose 2.5% of output in GDP.

This means if you raise minimum wage by a certain amount, unemployment goes up by 1% and consequently, GDP goes down. All near 300 million citizens of the US are now 2.5% poorer.

 

[pek1]

Not a good idea (raising minimum wage).

No, of course not, Reba. Why raise it when the GOP loves to hear how much Americans have trouble making ends meet and having to work 2 or more jobs just to make a decent living. Let them starve to death, then ask why they have sin in their lives, right? Have their church pastor preach on tithing, making them feel guilty about something, while they, themselves walk out to their brand new Mercedes after church, laughing at their people getting into their cars that have to be jump started.

 

[Reba]

...having to work 2 or more jobs just to make a decent living.

That's the point. Why should someone continue working two minimum-wage jobs? Minimum wage work is entry level, temporary work. That is not a life-time career. It motivates people to work their ways up the ladder for better jobs. Minimum wage work is great for developing job and people skills, work ethic, resume material, income for students, retiree supplement, etc. It is not intended for 30-year full-time careers.

Why should someone get paid the same per hour for working in a fast food restaurant as someone who has a college degree working in a specialized profession? What would be the incentive to struggle thru four years of college just to earn one or two dollars more per hour than a burger flipper?

Also, did you not read Endymion's post? He explained very clearly the economics of it.

Let them starve to death, then ask why they have sin in their lives, right?

What on earth are you talking about? What does sin have to do with minimum wage?

Have their church pastor preach on tithing, making them feel guilty about something, while they, themselves walk out to their brand new Mercedes after church, laughing at their people getting into their cars that have to be jump started.

What is your problem?

 

[pek1]

Reba,

You did not read it in its entirety, did you? Suppose these people can't afford college or a trade school, then what? Better themselves? How? The GOP would rather kick a person while they're down and keep them down, so that they can be made an example of and who knows what else. Declare them unfit parents for working minimum wage and take their kids away, is that next, Reba? When will it end? I vote for a liveable wage, which the GOP has repeatedly refused to do, time and again. :thumbd: We need to start voting with our wallets and checkbooks in our hands and looking at them while we vote.

 

[Reba]

... The GOP would rather kick a person while they're down and keep them down, so that they can be made an example of and who knows what else.

Where do you get such ideas?

What do you suggest for the people who will become unemployed as a result of raising the minimum wage? Do you have as much sympathy for them?

Declare them unfit parents for working minimum wage and take their kids away...

Again I ask, where do get that information?

... I vote for a liveable wage, which the GOP has repeatedly refused to do, time and again. :thumbd:

Minimum wage work was never intended to be a permanent full-time career. People should be paid for the value of their work, not for an artificial figure that someone has determined to be "a liveable wage".

 

[Heath]

The paycheck speaks louder combined with the realities of life. I am all for a payraise. It is high time America got its act together and stopped this overseas stinking thing with inferior products that break right out of the box or after a few uses and is a waste of money. The quality of the products overseas in some countries are a horror story and it is high time that Corporate America started to pay the American workers a good paycheck. We have better quality standards and demand it.

 

[Reba]

If you raise the minimum wage in the US, you can expect even more businesses to send their work overseas.

 

[Reiko]

How about instead of corporations handing out multi-million dollar bonuses to their executives, they instead pay their employees better and stop outsourcing so much.