On Estranged Labour by Marx

Here is one explanation of how/why our economic system leaves such a large majority of the population scrambling to live.
This explanation helped some things “click” in my head after hearing all the statistics on how minimum wage barely allows people to subsist even working over 40 hrs/week and after hearing Susan Kask speak about the economy and supply/demand. I thought some of you might like to hear it as well.
*Keep in mind this is just my understanding from the reading and the discussion in my class plus my own views of the situation and some background from other readings/authors. So feel free to add comments, corrections, and questions. Also if you economic students want to add some of the pertinent knowledge you are getting (either connected to this post or in another post) I would love/appreciate that. *

From the discussion of Marx’ “Estranged Labour”:
As humans naturally exist in the physical world they must work to live a.k.a. turn raw resources into food, shelter, medicine, etc. In this situation an individual makes something which is hers/his to use to live.
However in a capitalistic society a change takes place. Instead of
an individual making something she/he needs > to live,
the individual makes something > to get money > to live.
This middle-man, money, is introduced. An abstraction, which while having a practical function, Marx says leads to some not so great things:
The worker is estranged from his labor her/his product (Marx says some things about the product then having and external/alien existence which confronts the worker- I don’t fully understand the implications of this).
But basically labor becomes a commodity, the worker becomes a commodity to be bought and sold (and what’s even worse is that the worker is the one selling themselves, putting themselves in this situation).
Think about what Susan was talking to us about while you are reading this. -In this system there is competition; businesses are competing to get customers by trying to offer the lowest price.
Businesses have two basic costs: resources and labor
All the businesses will be paying essentially the same for the resources so the way to cut prices is by paying less for labor.
-If you think through the cycle wages would just keep dropping. But at some point, you might say, wouldn’t the workers stop being willing to work for less pay?
-So another element in this system is expendability: there are always more people waiting to fill your place and probably at a lower pay.
So then wages can continue to fall.
*unless: the government steps in and says ‘whoa you have to pay people at least this amount which is an amount they can live on!’ > minimum wage<


Marx is saying this is all happening because as a wage earner the worker is not a human but a commodity.

Also, from the information we’ve been looking at it seems that most people get sucked into this and don’t have much of a choice, why is that?
Marx says that once a worker becomes a wage earner she/he no longer create what she/he directly needs to subsist but rather the means to get that- “life itself appears as only a means to life”. The means (the $) is dependent on the employer. Because of this “labour is therefore not voluntary but coerced, it is forced labor”
Workers (that’s us) may feel we are free. But if our work (the products we make) does not belong to us and our pay is dependent on someone else (so we can’t just decide to do something different at work, whether it be creative/positive or purposefully vengeful, because your employer might fire you or not give you the raise that, as a single mother of three dependent children working for minimum wage, you might really need) are we really free?

So we need to either a) make sure the government is making sure workers are treated as the human beings they are and given a pay truly suitable to live on or b) as Marx insists, create a new/different system.

We are working on “a”, with the living wage campaign, however Marx would say that the negative effects of the system with continue; workers will continue to be exploited because the two classes, “the property owners and the property-less workers”, still exists so a master-slave relationship is still in place, the property owners benefiting from the relationship at the cost of the workers.
*keep that in mind*

Also here are my teacher's notes(Jessica Mayock) pertaining just to that essay.

I hope all this is helpful and/or sparks some thoughts…

there are three basic levels to the estrangement of labor:

(1) Estrangement between worker and his product: the worker uses his own life-activity, energy, and time to create the product and, whatever the product may be, it is essentially his life-energy put into an object. The product is a physical manifestation of his own life-energy. It is like a part of him now lives in this object, since he has conferred life on it through his work. When he is working for someone else (i.e. for wages and a boss), this product belongs to someone else, so the worker is never able to experience it as his own-- this means that something that is really a part of him, made with his own life energy, "confronts him as something hostile and alien" (as Marx says). The product of labor is the externalization of his life-energy; any life that this object has was given to it by the worker, only now this part of him seems like it only exists outside, like it never came from within him.
(2) Self-estrangement: this means that the whole process of alienation described above happens through the worker's own activity-- it is not only that someone is "doing this to him" but that he is being forced to do this to himself (this is why Marx makes such a point to show that labor is coerced, rather than voluntary).
(3) Estrangement on the level of species-being: human beings naturally work. Our free, conscious, life-activity is labor-- this is how we use natural resources to support our lives. Humans are also naturally social, and work together to do this. This working situation, brought about by competition, capitalism, and private property, creates a situation where human beings no longer feel themselves when doing their work, which is their natural activity, after all. Instead, they only feel themselves in "animal functions", like eating, sleeping, procreating, etcetera. This alienates human beings from one another, and most of all, from their true nature as free, conscious, working beings.

Food Spending

Curious as to how this might effect donations to food programs. Will people just keep donating the stuff they dont want.




Check it out:
Consumers Cut Food Spending Sharply

American Diet Changing Out Of Economic Necessity

Notes from DSS visit with Economic Services Program Administrator Tim Rhodes

Tim Rhodes- the coordinator of public assistance programs in the Economic Services Division of the Department of Social Services.

Although we received a generous packet of information from Tim last night, he mentioned a few things worth recording on our blog.

From the DSS Economic Services Division Public Assistance Programs Flyer:

• Emergency Assistance (EA) is typically a one time payment for families in some crisis
• NC Health Choice for Children is the state affiliate of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP)

Three most funded entitlement programs (in descending order)

1. Medicaid
2. Food Assistance/Food Stamps
   
3. Work First (Cash welfare) -- is no longer entitlement
   

From Graphs

Medicaid

• Approximately 15% of the total population of Buncombe County (BC) are Medicaid recipients (32,000 receive medicaid out of the 220,000 residents of Buncombe county)
• Due to the economic crisis, companies are eliminating their health insurance programs to eliminate and/or consolidate costs, resulting in an increase in the utilization of medicaid assistance.
• Mediciad reimbursement rates have not been keeping up with inflation or assistance rates As a result, hospitals take balanced or lower numbers of medicaid patients in comparison with privately insured patients to cover the slow/lacking reimbursement rates of medicaid, in order to cover hospital costs.
  

Food Assistance

• In 2008, BC saw largest increase in number of Food Assistance (FA) recipients
• Currently, there are approximately 23,000 BC residents receiving FA
• Increases every month
• The percentage of recipients of FA relative to the total population is increasing
• There is, approximately, a 25% increase in employed persons receiving FA
• Every $1 of FA that enters into the BC economy generates another $1.73 in the services it employs (grocery stores, truckers and transportation, etc.)
  
• Congress is continually expanding food benefits, and will continue to do so through the Farm Bill, which greatly determines where the funding will come from for FA

  "The food stamp programs mirror the national economy"- Tim Rhodes
  

Work First

• The Work First cash assistance program is the third largest program in the DSS. Eligibility for the program is as follows: benefit from the program is on a sliding scale based on income, and if the monthly income falls below a certain point, you become eligible for the program support.
  
• The Work First program can only be received for a maximum of five years
• Though most receive for only a few months
• Decline in government spending likely due to rearranging of funds
• moved to other areas of need
• Reform in 1996 (under Clinton) eliminated welfare entitlement, required that all recipients must be in job training within 12 weeks of receiving first welfare check
• Due to this reform, a large amount of money that previously was supplied into an all inclusive welfare check is being relocated through the program to help pay for uniforms for jobs, cars, and other work related necessities. This spending is regulated through the program instead of by the individual.
• 720 people in BC are on Work First, and 75% of these recipients are children no longer living with their parents. Welfare is still an entitlement for children living along, despite the 1996 welfare reform.
  

General Notes

• Those leaving welfare in BC will receive, on average, $7.55 as an hourly wage
• BC pays for 50% of DSS workers, government pays for 50%
• Government payments will increase to 100% due to stimulus package
• DSS has contractual relationships with organizations like OnTrack, ABTech's ASPIRE program, etc.
• DHHS = department of health and human services
• TANF= temporary assistance for needy families. This is the term used today to describe the welfare system put in place after the 1996 welfare reform.
• Welfare recipients going to get a job usually don't join unions
• BC has the highest cost of living outside of the triangle area of Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill
• EBT cards= Electronic Benefits Transfer. Automation of food stamps. The Farm Bill will hopefully expand pilot programs to offer fresh food for recipients, allowing for use of EBT cards at farmer's markets and community gardens
  

Responses
--Unfamiliar with NC Justice stats and vaguely familiar with Just Economics
--Impressed with our group and what we're doing.
--We could use charts to figure out how much each individual was receiving to paint more of a picture of how an individual is trying to live. Filling the gaps will be very important. How "safe" is this safety net?
--Stigmas. EBT cards. How much should the government help? What is the majority opinion of Americans today? Government vs. Employer.

Requested Union Info: CIW, Change to Win, IWW

http://www.ciw-online.org/

http://www.changetowin.org/

http://www.iww.org/

City Council Info & Schedule

Meeting Schedule

Asheville City Council meets on the second and fourth Tuesday of the month at 5 p.m. in the Council Chamber located on the second floor of City Hall. Council worksessions are held the third Tuesday of the month at 3 p.m. in the Council Chamber. The meeting/worksession agenda is posted at 3 p.m. the Friday before the meeting date. Meetings are televised live on the Asheville Channel, Charter Cable channel 11, and rebroadcast on Wednesdays and Fridays at 6 p.m. and Saturdays and Sundays at 9 a.m.

Asheville City Council has the authority to:

* Determine policy in the fields of planning, traffic, law and order, public works, finance, and recreation;
* Appoint and remove the city manager;
* Adopt the budget, levy taxes, collect revenues, and make appropriations;
* Appoint and remove the city attorney and city clerk;
* Authorize the issuance of bonds by a bond ordinance;
* Establish administrative departments, offices and agencies;
* Appoint members of the city boards, commissions and committees;
* Inquire into the conduct of any office, department, or agency of the city and make investigations into municipal affairs;
* Provide for an independent audit; and
* Provide for the number, titles, qualifications, powers, duties, and compensation of all officers and employees of the city.

PS: This pretty much rules out Gideon. Meetings are the same time as Caucus. Gideon will have to be present in spirit if we decide to go.

Stats from Just Economics Site Visit

CEOs earn 431x the earnings of what an average worker does in the U.S. today, compared to 41x in 1960.

If the minimum wage increased at the same rate as the increase of CEO pay, it would be over $30/hour currently.

The richest 1% holds over 1/3 of the total wealth in the U.S. That means the other 99% share less than 2/3 of the nation’s wealth.

If the minimum wage increased at the rate of increase of average productivity since 1968, the minimum wage in the U.S. today would be approximately $19/hour (about three times that of the current federal minimum wage).

As of 2005, the average real wage in the U.S. was $16.11, 12% below the peak levels attained 32 years earlier in 1972-1973. Meanwhile, the average productivity between 1973 and 2005 rose by 79%.

The median household incomes of Blacks and Latinos are $38,269 and $40,000, respectively, while the median household income of whites is $61,280.

People of color are disproportionately poor in the United States. Blacks and Latinos have poverty rates of 24% and 21% respectively, compared to a 10% poverty rate for whites.

Half of North Carolina families can’t make ends meet.

1 in 5 workers in the U.S. is part of the “working poor.”

Notes from Guest Speaker Susan Kask, WWC Economics Professor

Alright, so we got a whole bunch of facts about what works make in Buncombe county and all that, someone else can post those. My goal is to attempt to recap the econ part.

Alrighty: How are wages determined?
In theory wages are determined by supply and demand. Demand (the curve that goes down, "demand goes down") is determined by the effectiveness of one additional worker. This is called the marginal product. So long as that additional worker is effective the firm would hire more labor as each additional person would be bringing in a profit to the firm. Lets look at this from a living wage standpoint ($11.35).

The cost to a firm, lets say, Early Girl Eatery is the hourly wage time the number of hours (sorry Ella, here comes some math, but its simple!). So, we'll assume that this new employee is working an 8 hour shift. 8 X 11.35=$90.80 this is the cost to the company and referred to as the price of labor(PL). This is one half the demand equation.

The other half is the Marginal Product of Labor (MPL) the is how effective each additional worker is. So, lets say that our new worker is able to serve 10 more dinners, in theory so long as each dinner cost more than $9.08 EGE would hire the worker as they would be bringing in more than they were costing the firm.

Now, the total demand for labor(DL)=(PL) X (MPL) and would generate a curve that looked something like this:



Thanks to sparknotes for this graph.

So, before we look at policy we need to figure out supply. The supply curve is best thought of as: how much would I need to pay you to work an hour at Early Girl after you were done at Wilson with all of your homework and regular work. For some, this may be fairly low, for others this would be pretty high. This is called your willingness to accept and is basically your wage. If we were thinking about a living wage, the FIRST amount we would offer to try and get people to go to work would be 11.35 an hour. I probably wouldnt do it because I'm a fairly busy guy, some of you might if you have more free time.

*Both the Supply and Demand curves aggregate everyone's individual preferences and is basically a line of best fit. So, this would mean that at $11.35 LOTS of people would probably want work*

A supply curve looks like this:


One of the things Susan briefly touched on that Rachel F and I both oggled at was when the supply curve doubled back on itself. For our purposes this only happens in the labor market. This is basically people saying that at a certain price, less people will begin to work in the market. Thing about it in marginal terms (one additional unit). If I'm paying you $1oo to work an 80 hour work week your working a lot. However, when I start to pay you, say, $110 a week, your going to think, well, wait a minute, if Gideon is paying me more, than perhaps I dont need to work as much. Anyway, not important.

Susan then went on to discuss a whole bunch about policy shifts, but I'd really need to draw these graphs out to explain them. I dont have the energy at the moment, but some day I will. So instead I'm going to double back and talk about what Susans survey was trying to help with (thing about the Demand curve again).


Total demand for labor(DL)=(PL) X (MPL)

Remeber what all that means?

So, for a living wage the Price of Labor(PL) is equal to $11.35. Her survey was attempting to find the price in the price X output equation (remember, (MPL)=additional output X $)

Lets try and apply this. Early Girl Eatery currently has, say, 10 people working a night and there's tip sharing and everyone gets paid the same: $10.00. Currently the place serves 250 meals every 4 hours for an average price of, say 15.00. So:
Every 4 hours EGE makes: $15.00 X 250=$3,750
Every 4 horus EGE pays its workers: $10.00 X 8 X 4 = $320.

Now, lets say that for every 4 hours supplies, rent, maintenance and other operational costs equal $3,000, leaving $750 left over for the owners. Now, the owners are pretty reasonable people and think that, because of everything they do for the community and the risks they assume by owning and running the eatery that this profit margin is correct, and regardless this should stay the same.

So here we come and inform them that they should actually be paying everyone $11.35 and hour, a full $1.35 more than they do now. Without changing anything, operating costs would still remain the same ($3,000), income would still remain the same ($3,750) but wages would go up ($11.35 X 8 X 4) to $363.20. Now, theres a bit of the problem because the owners are making less than they were before and are thus able to do less for the community and live less comfortably themselves, and well, generally thing this is a bad idea.

What Susan's survey is trying to do is show that consumers will pay more for that dinner (say, $16.00) if they know that the employees of the store are being paid a "living wage".


I'm not sure if this helped at all, honestly, its hard to explain when not in person, so if anyone wants to sit down with me for a bit and hear me talk a lot I'm up for it. I'll try and scan in some more graphs relating to unemployment, what happens when migrants come in and what happens when the minimum wage is set too low, but, I make now promises.
Hope this helped somewhat...

Reflections from meeting with Susan Kask

Last night was a lot to receive. I wanted to let all of us have the opportunity to reflect on what we learned and ask some questions we might have. This seemed to be the first policy meeting that required a lot from us. Hopefully we can get some notes up here that people took and continue to discuss what we learned on the blog and when we have our group meetings. If you want to continue discussing this on the blog, post responses as regular entries, not comments.

Obama Names Outside Economic Advisory Board

Just taking notes.. Lots of CEOs?

Board members include:

William H. Donaldson, who served as SEC chairman from 2003 to 2005
Roger W. Ferguson, Jr., president and CEO of the TIAA-CREF retirement fund
Robert Wolf, chairman and CEO of the financial services firm UBS Group Americas
David F. Swensen, CIO of Yale University
Mark T. Gallogly, founder and managing partner of the investment advisory firm Centerbridge Partners LP
Penny Pritzker, chairman and founder of Pritzker Realty Group
Jeffrey R. Immelt, CEO of General Electric
John Doerr, a partner with the venture capital firm Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers
Jim Owens, chairman and CEO of the heavy equipment manufacturer Caterpillar Inc.
Monica C. Lozano, publisher and CEO of the Spanish-language newspaper La Opinion
Charles E. Phillips Jr., president of the computer software maker Oracle Corp.
Anna Burger, secretary-treasurer of the Service Employees International Union and chairwoman of the labor coalition Change to Win
Richard L. Trumka, secretary-treasurer of the labor organization AFL-CIO
Laura D'Andrea Tyson, who served as a key economic adviser to President Bill Clinton and is dean of the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley
Martin Feldstein, George F. Baker Professor of Economics at Harvard University

Recession redefines gender roles?

This is a rather interesting article from today's New York Times. Due to the recession, women are surpassing men in the work force, and the reporter considers that this switch might signal something more significant than job losses.

February 6, 2009

As Layoffs Surge, Women May Pass Men in Job Force

By CATHERINE RAMPELL

With the recession on the brink of becoming the longest in the postwar era, a milestone may be at hand: Women are poised to surpass men on the nation’s payrolls, taking the majority for the first time in American history.

The reason has less to do with gender equality than with where the ax is falling.

The proportion of women who are working has changed very little since the recession started. But a full 82 percent of the job losses have befallen men, who are heavily represented in distressed industries like manufacturing and construction. Women tend to be employed in areas like education and health care, which are less sensitive to economic ups and downs, and in jobs that allow more time for child care and other domestic work.

“Given how stark and concentrated the job losses are among men, and that women represented a high proportion of the labor force in the beginning of this recession, women are now bearing the burden — or the opportunity, one could say — of being breadwinners,” says Heather Boushey, a senior economist at the Center for American Progress.

Economists have predicted before that women would one day dominate the labor force as more ventured outside the home. The number of women entering the work force slowed and even dipped during the boom years earlier this decade, though, prompting a debate about whether women truly wanted to be both breadwinners and caregivers.

Should the male-dominated layoffs of the current recession continue — and Friday’s jobs report for January may offer more insight — the debate will be moot. A deep and prolonged recession, therefore, may change not only household budgets and habits; it may also challenge longstanding gender roles.

In recessions, the percentage of families supported by women tends to rise slightly, and it is expected to do so when this year’s numbers are tallied. As of November, women held 49.1 percent of the nation’s jobs, according to nonfarm payroll data collected by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. By another measure, including farm workers and the self-employed, women constituted 47.1 percent of the work force.

Women may be safer in their jobs, but tend to find it harder to support a family. For one thing, they work fewer overall hours than men. Women are much more likely to be in part-time jobs without health insurance or unemployment insurance. Even in full-time jobs, women earn 80 cents for each dollar of their male counterparts’ income, according to the government data.

“A lot of jobs that men have lost in fields like manufacturing were good union jobs with great health care plans,” says Christine Owens, executive director of the National Employment Law Project. “The jobs women have — and are supporting their families with — are not necessarily as good.”

Nasreen Mohammed, for example, works five days a week, 51 weeks a year, without sick days or health benefits.

She runs a small day care business out of her home in Milpitas, Calif., and recently expanded her services to include after-school care. The business brings in about $30,000 annually, she says, far less than the $150,000 her husband earned in the marketing and sales job he lost over a year ago. “It’s peanuts,” she says.

She switched from being a full-time homemaker to a full-time businesswoman when her husband was laid off previously. She says she unexpectedly discovered that she loves her job, even if it is demanding.

Still, her husband, Javed, says he and their three children — who are in third grade, junior college and law school — worry about her health, and hope things can “return to the old days.”

“In terms of the financial benefit from her work, we all benefit,” he says. “But in terms of getting my wife’s attention, from the youngest daughter to our oldest, we can’t wait for the day that my job is secure and she doesn’t have to do day care anymore.”

Women like Ms. Mohammed find themselves at the head of once-separate spheres: work and household. While women appear to be sole breadwinners in greater numbers, they are likely to remain responsible for most domestic responsibilities at home.

On average, employed women devote much more time to child care and housework than employed men do, according to recent data from the government’s American Time Use Survey analyzed by two economists, Alan B. Krueger and Andreas Mueller.

When women are unemployed and looking for a job, the time they spend daily taking care of children nearly doubles. Unemployed men’s child care duties, by contrast, are virtually identical to those of their working counterparts, and they instead spend more time sleeping, watching TV and looking for a job, along with other domestic activities.

Many of the unemployed men interviewed say they have tried to help out with cooking, veterinarian appointments and other chores, but they have not had time to do more because job-hunting consumes their days.

“The main priority is finding a job and putting in the time to do that,” says John Baruch, in Arlington Heights, Ill., who estimates he spends 35 to 45 hours a week looking for work since being laid off in January 2008.

While he has helped care for his wife’s aging parents, the couple still sometimes butt heads over who does things like walking the dog, now that he is out of work. He puts it this way: “As one of the people who runs one of the career centers I’ve been to told me: ‘You’re out of a job, but it’s not your time to paint the house and fix the car. Your job is about finding the next job.’ ”

Many women say they expect their family roles to remain the same, even if economic circumstances have changed for now.

“I don’t know if I’d really call myself a ‘breadwinner,’ since I earn practically nothing,” says Linda Saxby, who assists the librarian at the Cypress, Tex., high school her two daughters attend. Her husband, whose executive-level position was eliminated last May, had been earning $225,000, and the family is now primarily living off savings.

Historically, the way couples divide household jobs has been fairly resistant to change, says Heidi Hartmann, president and chief economist at the Institute for Women’s Policy Research.

“Over a long, 20-year period, married men have stepped up to the plate a little bit, but not as much as married women have dropped off in the time they spend on household chores,” Ms. Hartmann says. This suggests some domestic duties have been outsourced, as when takeout substitutes for cooking, for example. And as declining incomes force families to cut back on these outlays, she says, “women will most likely pick up the slack.”

A severe recession could put pressure on these roles.

“It has definitely put a strain” on my marriage, says Debbie Harlan, an executive assistant at a hospital system in Sarasota, Fla. Four months ago, her husband closed his 10-year-old independent car sales business, and the couple have been asking their children to help with bills. “So far we’ve worked through it, but there have been times when I wasn’t sure we could.”

The Mohammeds say things are not as stressful as they were the last time Mr. Mohammed lost his job. He has been helping out with the cooking and with paperwork for his wife’s business, and she says she works to prop up family morale.

“Things are not happy in the house if I blame him all the time, so I don’t do any of that anymore,” Ms. Mohammed says. “I know he is doing his best.”

Airline Union Drive Fails

Here is a brief article from the New York Times regarding a failed attempt by the JetBlue Pilots Association to form a union.

February 4, 2009

JetBlue Pilots Vote Down Union

By MICHELINE MAYNARD

JetBlue Airways said Tuesday that its pilots did not cast enough votes to form a union, in the most significant organizing drive at the 10-year-old airline.

The airline said that 33 percent of its pilots voted in favor of the organizing drive led by the JetBlue Pilots Association, according to results received from the National Mediation Board.

The union needed 50 percent plus one vote among eligible pilots for the drive to succeed.

About 1,937 of the airline’s 2,000 pilots were eligible to vote. Of the eligible pilots, 646 voted for union representation, most of those for the association, according to figures from JetBlue. The remaining 1,291 pilots did not vote, which was the equivalent of a no vote.

President Obama's Labor Pick

Here is a link to a New York Times page profiling Obama's nominee for labor secretary.

http://projects.nytimes.com/44th_president/new_team/show/hilda-solis

Once (if) confirmed, Ms. Solis will start choosing her cabinet members.

Keep scanning the news to see how this unfolds.

Welcome

While Rachel R. and Jourdi have already posted notes from the meeting with Jeff Israel and Alan Jones (thank you, by the way) I thought I might want to formally welcome everyone to the new "Wages of Poverty" Issue Workshop blog. Though we will be posting notes from every meeting we have, pictures, news articles, random thoughts, etc., are all recommended. As I will be bringing my Digital Voice Recorder to meetings too I may post a good nugget-of-a quote in audio format on the blog as well. So, "Welcome!" everyone.

Monday meeting notes with USW

My notes say that USW is the largest industrial union in N. America, but I remember in discussion someone said it was the second largest, so I'm not sure.

It has 850,000 members.

Acronyms:

UAW=United AutoWorkers

USW=United Steel Workers

UFCW= Union of Food and Commercial Workers

NLRB= National Labor Relations Board, a federal board focused on labor and union issues. Appointees are made by President, with a 5 yr term. Obama named Wilman Leidman the Head of the NLRB

ESOP= Employee Stock Ownership Program

EFCA= Employee Free Choice Act, passed the House of Reps in March, and is legislation that will make it easier for those workers who want a union to get a union

FMCS= Federal Mediation Communication (or Conciliation?) Services

• a group of neutral bargainers that work for the federal government to help settle labor disputes through collective bargaining

• in settling labor disputes, FMCS provides a panel of mediators. The company and union can both strike names from the panel in choosing a mediator, and can even strike the whole panel if they are not satisfied with their options. They eventually agree on a mediator, and arbitration begins.

• arbitration progresses like a court case, hearing both sides. The decision of an arbitration is final and binding, and the choice of mediator affects the outcome of the case. This part of the process is pretty corrupt, in that mediators apparently often flip a coin or choose randomly the winner of the argument, due to the fact that any consistent outcomes (always siding with the union, or always siding with the company) will result in their name getting scratched and loss of a job.

• an alternative to arbitration and collective bargaining is a process called interest based bargaining, during which all issues are on the table, everyone involved is in equal power position. This type of bargaining is often the downfall of the union involved, because this process takes away the united voice of the union, reduces everyone to individuals, and eliminates the collectivity that makes a union so strong.

a union strike is the LAST ALTERNATIVE

There are two types of union strikers:

ULP strikers=unfair labor practitioner

economic strikers= can be permanently replaced during a strike, despite the outcome of the agreement between the union and company. (policy since the Reagan era)

"VOTE YOUR JOB AND LOBBY YOUR HOBBY"

Civil servants can't strike, but instead "organize for agreement." North Carolina has the worst labor laws to protect public service workers.

workers have a 1 in 5 chance of being fired in the attempt to unionize a workplace.

Benefits of Unions: pensions, health care

Despite these benefits, only 12.1% of the workforce is unionized, down from 34% in the 1980s

notes from 1/26

About Our Speakers
Allen Jones, president of Local 507 (local union) United Steel Workers
formerly part of Iron Workers Union

Jeff Israel, chairman of Committee of Political Education of Local 507
a third generation union member

About United Steel Workers
Local 507 has organized the Canton Mill (where Allen and Jeff work) in Haywood County most heavily populated union county in NC
USW not just steel workers; also: nurses, rubber, pharmaceutical, paper,...

Some notes on unions
benefits of being in unions:
-negotiate percent of healthcare pay
-everybody gets health insurance
-determine their wages
-get retirement pensions
-get workers compensation (for injuries)
-if they do go on strike (as a last resort), they (USW specifically) have enough money saved up from dues to pay members $250

OSHA was created by unions

Collective Bargaining
Arbitration: Federal Mediation Conciliation Services (neutral party) sends a list of 7 judges to choose from.
Unions win less than 20% of arbitration cases due to legal language. Arbitration, therefore is last resort because what is decided in an arbitration case is final decision.
Discussions are less restrictive.
Interest-Based Bargaining (FMCS) all issues on the board (union & management.) All individuals can have their voice heard, but this proves to be ineffective. One voice is what gives a union power.

What scares the employer?
signs of communication to show that the employees are collectively together

For organizing:...despite great conveniences of technology, the best form of communication is one-on-one with a simple message.

Policies and Current Practices
-ESOP (Employees Stock Ownership Program)-workers purchase/have a large share of the company (sort of like Firestorm Cafe). workers have more control and know the future of the company.
-North Carolina is a right-to-work state. It is not required to join the present union at your place of employment. 22 states are right-to-work.
-Employee Free Choice Ace EFCA
most significant labor legislation in 50 years

Interesting Quotes
-Labor movement- the movement part if most important, keeping to work toward goals with the understanding that there will never be an end point
-"I am a human being. I have civil rights, I have human rights, and I am not just a robot on your line." -Allen Jones
-To survive: elect pro-labor officals, need to take labor movement globally, and nationalized health care will make businessed far more competitive
-"Vote your job, lobby your hobby" Allen Jones
-"The union has given me a lot of things I wouldn't be able to do otherwise." Allen Jones

Interesting facts:
-54% who do not have a union would vote for one if they had a choice.
-NAFTA cost 300,000 jobs nationwide, 30,000 alone in NC
-AFL-CIO spent 50 million on election & turned over thousands of workers to work on election
-1 out of 25 Americans work at Wal-mart
-Union women make exactly same as union men, same with black & white
-1 in 5 chance of being fired if attempting to join a union
-there are law-busting firms that are paid to convince workers that unions are bad
-NC has worst laws for public sector workers (such as social workers)
-12.1% of workforce is unionized