The verdict is in. Corporate greed has thrown this economy so far off-balance that its fundamental stability is now at stake. The only irony is that the jet-setter corporate royalty was the last to figure out that the party has long since been over.
Working people have been living in an economic crisis for years, taking on longer hours, second jobs, credit cards and toxic loans just to stay afloat. Even though worker productivity has soared over the last 25 years, families have struggled to maintain their toehold on the middle class.
This debt-driven, feed-the-rich economic policy has finally come home to roost. America lost over 2.5 million jobs last year and millions more are at stake. Indiana’s unemployment rate nearly doubled to 9.2 percent as the state shed over 100,000 jobs last year. Foreclosures are at an all-time high. Health care costs are spiraling out of control.
We need to make significant, lasting changes to make sure that our economy will work for everyone once again.
Our new president has already demonstrated a commitment to working families by fighting wage discrimination and extending health care to millions of uninsured children. He has a plan to address Wall Street’s culture of entitlement by implementing new rules for the financial sector.
A few weeks ago, both houses of Congress introduced the Employee Free Choice Act — a critical piece of legislation that will restore workers’ freedom to choose how to form a union and bargain for better lives.
Unions are our nation’s single best ticket to the middle class. Workers who have a union are much more likely to have health care and pensions and earn a living wage. Unions also give working people real job security, a hot commodity these days.
The Employee Free Choice Act would level the playing field for workers who want to be able to sit across a bargaining table with their employer. Instead of being forced to go through a company-controlled balloting process, workers would be able to form a union when a simple majority of them at their workplace signs authorization cards.
Both the ballot system and the less-divisive majority sign-up method are already legal and currently in use — they have been for 73 years. The difference is that today, your boss decides how you get to form your union. The Employee Free Choice Act would remove that corporate veto power and strengthen penalties for companies that violate their employees’ rights.
President Obama has pledged to sign this act into law because he understands that we can’t have a strong middle class if working people don’t have the power to bargain collectively. A new Gallup poll shows that a solid majority of Americans support legislation that will make it easier for workers to form unions.
However, company managers routinely harass and intimidate workers who try to get organized. In one out of four organizing efforts, according to Cornell University research, at least one worker is fired for supporting the union. Even if workers form a union, their employers won’t negotiate a contract nearly half the time.
No CEO would work without a contract, so why should we? While corporate executives fired thousands of employees and took billions in taxpayer-funded bailouts, they continued to cash in on lavish compensation packages and outrageously high bonuses.
Corporate executives have already amassed millions of dollars to defeat this critical legislation. On a recent conference call, Home Depot co-founder Bernie Marcus suggested that any retailer who refused to donate to their cause, “should be shot.”
As long as workers are denied a seat at the bargaining table, corporate greed will continue to run roughshod over our economy. The Employee Free Choice Act will give workers the power to bring a measure of democracy back to the workplace.
As our government strengthens its oversight of the markets through regulations from above, workers can be the eyes and ears on the ground. Standing together, we can hold these corporations accountable and make our economy work for all of us.
John Sweeney is the president of the AFL-CIO. Ken Zeller is the president of the Indiana State AFL-CIO.
Flashpoint
FlASHPOINT: Public should solidly support Employee Free Choice Act
- Flashpoint
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As you know if you pay attention to national affairs, the United States faces a perfect fiscal storm at the end of this year.
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FLASHPOINT:Bipartisan vs. Nonpartisan
During the primary election season there was much discussion regarding whether bipartisanship is a positive or negative attribute as it relates to the work of the United States Congress.
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FLASHPOINT: School libraries essential for reading achievement
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FLASHPOINT: ‘Private’ clubs should be exempt from smoking bans
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FLASHPOINT: Downtown developers should share more details on project
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FLASHPOINT: Be careful when making accusations of ‘racism’
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FLASHPOINT: Historic hotel demolition was shameful day for Terre Haute
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FLASHPOINT: Notes on saving structural history
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FLASHPOINT: Can anyone hear the call from Farrington's Grove
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FLASHPOINT: We have the power to co-exist without violence or prejudice
Innumerable forces in our lives, and throughout our society, seem to have convinced us that immediacy is best. We have to do it now. We have to have it now. We must go there now. We need it now!
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FLASHPOINT: Issue surrounding Florida shooting fueled by race
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FLASHPOINT: Indiana — open for business
With the 2012 legislative session in the rearview mirror, the two-year work of the 117th General Assembly elected in November of 2010 is complete.
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FLASHPOINT: The Constitutional challenge to the Affordable Care Act
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FLASHPOINT: The burning questions of ‘Fahrenheit 451’
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FLASHPOINT: Wonderful place to be during a very hard time
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FLASHPOINT: America’s energy brings America jobs
The increase in fuel prices affects many aspects of our daily lives.
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FLASHPOINT: Change coming to the Indiana Statehouse
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FLASHPOINT: White House rejects Keystone XL: Sad day for U.S. workers
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FLASHPOINT: Graduation rates are up; great news for Indiana
As Hoosiers celebrate the conclusion of a truly remarkable Super Bowl experience, there is even more good news that should fill us with pride.
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FLASHPOINT: Tech trail leading us into a dense, digital forest
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FLASHPOINT: Republicans enable war on middle class, unions
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FLASHPOINT: Howey ignores truth to advance his agenda
Brian Howey’s Jan. 8 column about the U.S. Senate race proves once again that he will not allow the facts or journalistic ethics to get in the way of attacking Richard Mourdock and promoting his chosen candidate, Dick Lugar.
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FLASHPOINT: Putting fairness first
This time of year, with chords of Auld Lang Syne still ringing in our ears, it’s not uncommon or unnatural to think of days gone by as being more desirable than the era we live in today.
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FLASHPOINT: What really motivates right-to-work proposal?
You may have heard about the upcoming “right-to-work” legislation before our lawmakers in the next session of “law making.”
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FLASHPOINT: The right-to-work debate: ‘Devil at Our Doorstep’
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FLASHPOINT: State’s House Democrats will offer alternative for job creation
As the leaders of single-party control in state government outline their agendas for the 2012 session of the Indiana General Assembly, it is easy to be cynical about their intentions in the months to come.
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FLASHPOINT: Community colleges must lead way in reshaping higher education
In the 1970s, I began what was three decades in the automotive industry. ... Today, in my position as president of Ivy Tech Community College of Indiana, I see higher education confronted with some of these same challenges.
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FLASHPOINT: There’s little right about ‘right to work’ proposal
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