OurFuture.org Blogs: Stewart Acuff

To Reduce Economic Inequality, Protect Workers’ Rights

Stewart Acuff — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 14:49:06 -0400

(Co-authored by Stewart Acuff, Organizing Director, AFL-CIO and
Sheldon Friedman, Research Coordinator, AFL-CIO Voice@Work Campaign)

Friday’s House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearings shined a welcome spotlight on obscene pay for CEOs of corporations whose financial manipulations sowed the seeds of the mortgage crisis. In the process, Chairman Waxman’s hearings made an unstated but compelling case for protecting workers’ freedom to form unions and bargain collectively, starting with passage of the Employee Free Choice Act. Here’s why.

The CEO pay excesses documented by Waxman are bad enough, but are not even the tip of the iceberg of worsening economic inequality in America. Not only CEO pay, but also corporate profits and especially the share of income and wealth going to the very top of the nation’s economic pyramid, have been rising for more than a generation, with predictable and increasingly harmful consequences.

The story about CEO pay is well known, but bears repeating. According to the Institute for Policy Studies and United for a Fair Economy, in 2006 Corporate America’s CEOs were paid more than 364 times what the average worker was paid—in other words, they received for a single day what a worker needed an entire year to earn. By contrast, the ratio of CEO to worker pay was “only” 24 in 1965 and 35 in 1978. The highest-paid CEOs of large European corporations are paid only one third as much as their U.S. counterparts, even though the corporations they run have nearly fifty percent higher sales volume.

Corporate profits more than quadrupled over the last 35 years. The share of personal income received by the top one percent of households reached 21.8 percent in 2005 (latest figure), capping a 30-year rise from 8.9 percent in 1976.

Wealth ownership, of course, is even more concentrated. The richest one percent of Americans owns 34 percent of all private wealth—which is more than is owned by the bottom 90 percent. In 2004, median wealth of the richest one percent was 190 times the median wealth of all Americans—up from 130 times as much in 1983.

Why does high and rising economic inequality matter? For starters, bigger shares of income and wealth going to those at the top translate into smaller shares for everyone else. Those at the top of the economic pyramid have been soaking up so much of the gain from economic growth that the wages of America’s workers are lower today in real terms than in 1973, despite an increase in productivity of more than 80 percent over the last 35 years.

But there’s an even deeper problem. Extreme economic inequality sharpens perhaps the ultimate contradiction between capitalism and democracy. This can be seen in the corrosive influence of money in the nation’s politics, as corporations and the wealthy buy ever more influence with their increasing opulence. Meanwhile, political participation by the working class and especially by the poor, preoccupied with the challenges of their daily lives and cynical about politics, trends down. Worst of all is the starvation of the public sector that occurs as the fate of the rich increasingly becomes decoupled from the rest of us, enabling them to opt for private solutions behind the high walls of their gated communities—in education, health care, public safety, and more.

Extreme inequality also destabilizes the economy, rendering it more vulnerable to bursting financial bubbles and the painful unwinding of excessive debt—which accumulates as working families substitute heavily-promoted borrowing for the wage increases they are not getting. To add injury to insult, extreme inequality may even be bad for your health. There is growing evidence that more egalitarian countries fare better in terms of life expectancy and other public health outcomes—and there are cogent arguments for the link being causal, not spurious.

Why, then, has economic inequality been rising in the United States? There are of course multiple reasons, but this is where the connection between inequality and the nation’s dismal failure to protect workers’ rights, especially the freedom to form unions and bargain collectively, becomes apparent. It is no accident that economic inequality has been trending up in the United States for more than a generation, while workers’ rights, union density and collective bargaining coverage have, at the same time, been trending down.

Nor is it an accident that the United States ranks number one in economic inequality but dead last in collective bargaining coverage, when compared with other wealthy developed countries. A bar graph ranking wealthy countries by collective bargaining coverage shows a steady stair step up, while adjacent bars for various measures of economic inequality reveal a stair step down. Countries in which a higher proportion of workers enjoy the benefits of collective bargaining also tend to have a lower level of economic inequality.

Why is collective bargaining so effective at reducing extreme economic inequality? There are several reasons, but heading the list is greater bargaining power for workers in dealing with the corporations that employ them. During the quarter century after World War II when union density and collective bargaining coverage in the United States were far higher than today, wages rose in step with productivity, and the gains from economic growth were distributed proportionately across the income spectrum. Indeed, during this period those at the bottom of the economic ladder achieved a modest increase in their share of the pie.

This may seem like ancient history now that we are four decades into the immensely successful corporate assault on workers collective bargaining rights that began in the 1970s. But when workers have access to it, collective bargaining remains a potent force for their economic advancement—and reduced inequality—to this day. Collective bargaining lifts wages of all workers, but is especially effective in raising wages for low-wage workers—as economist John Schmitt, among others, has shown. Under the banner of equal pay for equal work, collective bargaining also attacks inequality by giving wages of women and workers of color an extra boost. Economists at the London School of Economics have found that collective bargaining even restrains CEO pay.

But these anti-inequality effects of collective bargaining are just the beginning. As the famous economist John Kenneth Galbraith wrote more than half a century ago, strong democratic independent trade unions are a vital source of countervailing power, without which unbridled corporate power would make capitalism unlivable. Social Security, civil rights, women’s rights, progressive taxation, high quality public education, and health care for all are but a small sample of the national policies that cannot be implemented or defended without a strong labor movement.

Easing the arduous path to collective bargaining for the millions of workers who want and need it will also help stabilize the economy, by restoring wage increases to their rightful place as the engine for balanced economic growth, instead of inherently unstable financial bubbles or the unsustainable build-up of consumer debt.

To rein in extreme economic inequality, therefore, it is imperative that workers’ freedom to form unions and bargain collectively be protected. The Employee Free Choice Act, when passed, will constitute a giant step in that direction. This vital legislation to protect workers’ rights is also needed to curb out-of-control economic inequality and ameliorate its many damaging consequences.

AFL-CIO and TUC Unite Against Unionbusting

Stewart Acuff — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 11:34:34 -0500

I just got back from a weeklong trip to Britain to sign an organizing protocol with the AFL-CIO counter part, the British Trades Union Congress (TUC). The trip was one of the first concrete steps coming out of our Global Organizing Summit that the AFL-CIO hosted on December 10 and 11, 2007.

On December 10 and 11, 2007 the AFL-CIO hosted the first-ever Global Organizing Summit. Two hundred and forty five labor leaders and organizers from 45 countries took part. The summit was held to define the causes of the global economic race to the bottom and begin to discuss what the global labor movement could do together, collectively to resist and reverse that race to the bottom.

It is now clear that there is a worldwide effort on the part of global corporations and their partners in rightwing government to lower the wages and living standards of workers the world over – in part by making it more and more difficult for workers to form unions and bargain collectively, thus weakening worker power.

This assault on worker wages, living standards, bargaining power started at least 30 years ago in the U.S. and, unfortunately, it has been remarkably successful. While our productivity has increased by 75% since 1973, our wages have stagnated and are now declining. The average CEO in 1982 made 42 times as much as the average worker. Today, it is over 400 times. We have as many people without healthcare – 47 million – as we had in 1965 when we enacted Medicare. And union density – the percentage of workers in unions – has declined from 20% in 1980 to 12.5% today.

The answer to this crisis for workers in America is the Employee Free Choice Act, which would help restore the freedom to form unions and bargain collectively. The Employee Free Choice Act would streamline the process for organizing and limit the amount of time employers can abuse, intimidate and terminate workers who are organizing. It would allow for real penalties against employers found guilty of violating the law and workers rights. And it would allow for first contract mediation and arbitration in a dispute.

So, on the second afternoon of our Global Organizing Summit, the entire body went to Capitol Hill for a forum held by the Senate and House Labor Committees to testify why it is important to workers all over the world that the world’s richest economy and most powerful nation restore and honor workers rights to form unions and bargain collectively. As one rank-and-file worker from Malaysia said, “how can we build workers rights in the developing world if the major multi-national corporation in our country come from a culture, a society, and economy where workers’ rights are treated with disdain?”

But it is not just in the developing world where these tactics we in the labor movement collectively refer to as “union busting” are gaining footholds and abusing workers.

One of the United States’ most notorious union-busting firms, The Burke Group, has now opened offices in Britain and across much of Western Europe. And they are employing the same sort of worker intimidation and abuse that they have brought to workplaces across America. They have abused and tried to intimidate British workers in organizing campaigns at Kettle Chips, the airline Flyers, GE Caledomi, and others.

All this is why the British Trades Union Congress, in one of the first concrete outcomes of the Global Organizing Summit, negotiated an organizing protocol with the AFL-CIO. The protocol includes a commitment to:
· Pro-actively share information about the activity of union-busting firms in the U.S. and the U.K., and develop a shared database of union-busting activity.
· Work together to develop and deliver ‘Busting the union busters’ training materials for union officers and organizers in both the U.S. and U.K., and to exchange training and organizing staff.
· Jointly work to lobby governments and relevant international bodies to restrict the activities of the union busters.
· Promote public awareness of this issue in both our countries, naming and shaming where appropriate those employers who use union busters to deny workers their right to organize.
· Work with other union Federations around the world in an effort to tackle this issue.
On February 9, I went to London to sign the protocol and begin to implement it. For a week I spoke to organizers, met with British unions, did trainings, and talked about American style union-busting.

The first day I was there I met with Dr. John Logan with the London School of Economics, probably the world’s foremost global authority on union busting. We talked about his groundbreaking research on union busting in Western Europe.

The next morning, Monday, February 11, I opened the TUC’s first-ever strategic research training. Later, I did an interview with the Financial Times and met with organizers. Monday night I met with the TUC’s Leading Change -- 20 up-and-coming labor leaders preparing for larger roles in the British Labor movement.

Up at 5:00 a.m. on Tuesday. Lots of coffee, a BBC radio interview over the phone from the hotel at 5:40 a.m. BBC has at least four different radio stations. At 6:15 a.m. a car took me from the hotel past Big Ben, House of Parliament, and Westminister Abbey to the studio to do the radio program, Good Morning, Scottland. Later I did the Today Show. And about noon I did BBC World. Turns out Britain was horrified about what is now commonplace in America – abusing and intimidating workers for trying to form unions.

More interviews that afternoon and a meeting with all the organizers of Britain’s teachers union, the ATL. Then on the train to Cardiff, Wales.

They picked me up at 7:30 a.m. Wednesday morning in Cardiff for the drive to Swansea for the Wales TUC organizing conference. There I spoke about union busting, America’s economic crisis for workers and the global assault on workers and workers’ rights. Later I was privileged to meet and learn form two women organizers from CONNECT who had won a contested reorganization fight with Vodafone, one of the world’s largest telecom corporations.

The next day I presented at a seminar at Cardiff University. When president of the Atlanta AFL-CIO I had led the organizing of the 1996 Atlanta Centennial Olympic Games. London is getting the games in 2012. Acknowledging that we operated in much more hostel environment I told the story of the fight for justice in the Atlanta Olympic Games.

When we finished the seminar at Cardiff University I took the train back to London. Friday morning I met with a group of 20 British union organizers again about the 2012 London Olympics and what we had done in Atlanta leading up to the 1996 Olympics. We held a brief ceremony for TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber to sign the protocol next to John Sweeney’s name and I was headed back to the U.S.

Remembering James Orange: He Spent His Life Standing Up for Others

Stewart Acuff — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 13:35:29 -0500

Last Saturday evening, Feb. 16, America lost one of our greatest warriors for social justice and I lost one of my best friends. The Rev. James Orange died at Crawford Long Hospital in Atlanta after being hospitalized for gall bladder related issues.

During the 1960s and 1970s, Rev. Orange was a key field organizer for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. More than that, he was a member of Dr. Martin Luther King’s inner circle. He joined Dr. King during the Birmingham movement where he organized the demonstrations of school children who were firehosed and attacked by police dogs. Those images broadcast across the nation helped turn public opinion to support the civil rights movement.

Rev. Orange also played key roles in civil rights actions in Selma, Memphis and Chicago—and in Dr. King’s last campaign, the Poor People’s Movement. In both Memphis and Chicago Rev. Orange was assigned to deal with the street gangs attracted to the movement but not committed to King’s nonviolent civil disobedience. He never stopped teaching activists and organizers the principles and basic tactics and strategies of nonviolent civil disobedience.

In 1977 Rev. Orange became a union organizer. He personified the link between the civil rights movement and the union movement. He understood at his core what Dr. King taught – that civil rights without economic rights or justice was insufficient.

Reverend and I began working together in 1985 when I went to Atlanta as an organizer for SEIU to start the Georgia State Employees Union (GSEU/SEIU Local 1985). Reverend knew activists and political leaders all over Georgia and he opened doors for me and our staff wherever we went. He marched with us in Milledgeville and Savannah, helped with a 72 hour, round the clock, vigil and picket line in Augusta, and when budget cuts threatened staffing levels at state hospitals and prisons, Reverend Orange helped us take over state department heads’ offices and went to jail with us.

We became closer than ever when Andrew Young ran for governor of Georgia in 1990. Together, with many others, we worked on field operations across the state. We worked to connect union activists to civil rights activist in the Ambassador’s campaign.

Rev. Orange was a central reason I became president of the Atlanta Labor Council in 1991. For the next 10 years we worked as a team, more closely than I’d ever worked with anyone and he became one of the closest friends I will ever have.

Rev. Orange, to me, was defined by a profound and deep faith in people and in God. His politics and activism came from that same well that watered Dr. King and so many other southern organizers and activists—a belief that Jesus Christ’s admonition to love others was the essence of Christianity. He had an immense capacity for love and empathy and belief in the basic good in all people. He also possessed a passion for justice for all.

As we campaigned for the 1996 Olympics to be done fairly with decent, family––supporting wages and benefits under union contracts, Rev. Orange helped organize and lead the demonstrations and rally the broader community. On Sept. 18, 1992, when 10,000 marched on the Olympic flag ceremony, Rev. Orange was the chief marshal. Two months later when we took over the Olympics headquarters, Rev. Orange helped organize and lead the protest. Six months later Rev. Orange helped broker the meeting that led immediately to the labor agreement on the construction of the Olympic Stadium.

When the Atlanta Labor Council took on Georgia Republican Rep. Newt Gingrich in 1995, Rev. Orange was central to the planning and execution of the marches, rallies and the demonstration when we occupied Gingrich’s Congressional District offices.

Rev. James Orange never failed to stand up when called on or speak out when it mattered. He spent his life standing up and organizing and fighting for all of us. He believed intensely in our capacity as human beings to create the Beloved Community and to win justice and equality for all.

He lived the values of the movement for social justice. He never failed any of us. He was the best friend you could ever have because he was unwavering in his loyalty while always helping you do the right thing. In the depths of the despondency of a long struggle he would say: “What we gonna do now? We gonna keep going? The Lord ain’t brought us this far to turn us loose now.” He constantly called you to you best. He lived his life connecting to the better angels in all of us.

I will miss him for the rest of my life. But my life is much richer for having shared so much of it with him.