“In our capitalistic society, revenue is distributed downward with the executives creaming from the top and the drippings circulated to those at the bottom. This must be reversed.” William Burrus – former APWU President

Missed Opportunities 
by Burrus

Not a day passes that individuals with a liberal commitment do not saturate the dialogue with tales of disparities between the haves and have not’s, and the need for solidarity to reverse this trend. Labor unions lead the cry for the need for unity and constantly solicit their membership to embrace the need for a revolution to redistribute the nation’s wealth. Included in this continuous cry is the appeal to support liberal politicians to do the bidding of the “workers.” Each attack on wages, benefits and conditions of employment is accompanied by reams of editorials expressing the liberal view that workers must rally around industry specific objectives.

Yesterday, it was the workers in manufacturing whose wages plummeted when faced with competition from third world countries. Next, were the public service workers, police, firemen and school teachers whose pensions were gutted and their wages held up to ridicule. Now come the postal workers and after conning inexperienced negotiators into turning back the clock a full generation on rewards for work the forces driving this attack on working people thirst for more in reducing health care benefits for postal employees. And the beat goes on. On cue, you can expect strident editorials that describe the unfairness of the most recent attack on working people and how the latest effort will adversely affect the American public. Television commercials, op-eds and white papers are circulated with a sprinkling of public demonstrations denouncing the corporate attack with no coherent strategy to combat the forces of greed.

The workers of each industry, including manufacturing, public services, government and postal workers will respond one at a time in a defensive mode as they are under attack with no combined strategy that an attack on one is an attack on all. Where is the long term vision that the issue is not just 5-day delivery or 100 fewer postal plants, FEHBA coverage or tenure for school teachers? The issue is the structure of the capitalistic system that has been converted to top down distribution with corporate profits divided into executive pay and shareholders benefits dominating. What is needed is not an industry specific response that will surely be isolated but a cohesive strategy to change the arc of the curve from top down to bottom up. This will not be achieved by appealing to the self-interest of hundreds of millions of individuals who have their own personal challenges but a broad attack on the capitalistic system. Industry specific campaigns are doomed to failure because by definition they exclude the interest of the vast majority. We need to find the soft spot of capitalism and combine all of our resources to maximize pressure. What service or product do ordinary workers provide that is indispensable and can we leverage it to exact concessions?

In this era of computerization and mobility of production, American workers no longer corner the market on manufacturing, skills or knowledge. There are no products that cannot be designed and manufactured in a competing country where wages are depressed and there is qualified available labor so our leverage is not in industry specific demonstrations. What is needed is the realization that we must begin at the bottom and create a platform that will elevate all workers. We need to strengthen and expand the base.

In our capitalistic society, revenue is distributed downward with the executives creaming from the top and the drippings circulated to those at the bottom. This must be reversed. The most common activity that cannot be outsourced is services that presently serve as the platform for upward mobility. We must strengthen that base to protect the myriad of levels above. If service workers earned a livable wage with decent working conditions, they would serve as a springboard for all occupations above. Fast food workers, janitors, health care assistants, waiters, Wal-Mart, Target and other entry level occupations must be elevated. The feeble efforts attempted in the past have been industry specific. While SEIU and a select few other unions have dabbled with some success these occupations are the fastest growing segment of our society and they cannot be threatened with outsourcing. McDonalds must be served by American workers and there is no pool of replacements. Until and unless these employees’ wages and benefits are elevated to serve as a foundation of acceptability, those above will be under continual attack. We must build that foundation, not from legislation but from the demand of the workers.

The low wage walkout planned for August 29 can be used as a catalyst for a nationwide movement to elevate the working class. With funding and planning, the concept can grow from fast food workers to janitors to discount retail, and on and on throughout the low wage community – depending not on volunteers engaged in social activism but the millions of workers who serve as the foundation of American society.

Every reputable survey reports that – if given the opportunity, workers would unite and join unions to make their demands. They understand that collective activity is more effective. The Chamber of Commerce has developed effective plans to prevent fair determinations to organize so to succeed labor must think outside the box. Labor organizations must create a pool of financing and provide the expertise but leave the operation of the effort to the specific workers in the respective industry. Organized labor should finance the effort with no direct connection between the newly organized workers and specific unions or the labor movement. That will come later. This effort can be financed with a one million dollar assessment on each union in the AFL-CIO to be used as capital to organize the unorganized with no obligation to join or affiliate with an established union; if the one million dollar assessment is not sufficient, up the ante. The payoff of a successful effort will be livable wages with benefits at the bottom of the wage scale. The service industry is the fastest growing sector in the economy so their elevation will serve as a floor for the skilled and educated.

The state of Texas constantly brags about its growth in employment but they fail to mention that the majority are service jobs that pay at or below minimum wage. Wage unrest at McDonalds means the sale of more hamburgers at Burger King and the increased wages are spent at Wal-Mart so they will have more to distribute. These workers can and are willing to organizer themselves. They are tired of below minimum wages and no benefits. They are tired of supervisors who rule with an iron hand, and they are tired of no future. They know that CEOs are making millions and that shareholders are making out, and they are tired.

The top down approach of sending in organizers and running the gauntlet of formal campaigns controlled by outside forces does not work. What is needed is an adequately funded program controlled by the workers with no commitment to belong to a specific union. What is needed is a new labor movement focused exclusively on those workers at the bottom. If you want to change the capitalistic system, you master the game and bring pressure where it will be most effective. Show me the money and you can save the feeble demonstrations, the political outreach, the ineffective TV ads and the moralizing about equality; organizing begins at the bottom.