Restoring the Balance

Today, the media have finally caught on to the jobs crisis. Every day in America, over 85,000 people lose their jobs. Some 14 million are jobless, underemployed or have given up looking for work. Over 43 million have no health insurance. And nearly 7 million are working but live below the poverty level.

I wish those who sit in their high rises on Wall Street and assure us that the economy is doing just fine could walk through the neighborhoods where people are struggling to keep it together. The kinds of jobs that sustain large, stable middle class families are disappearing. And some of the old rules about work hard, get an education, be loyal have all been thrown back in our faces.

There is a direct connection between the weakening of the trade union movement and the undermining of the middle class in this country. The "loss of clout" is not and never has been about union leaders like meit is about the lost power of working people over their daily lives.

With those lost opportunities goes the tax base of the vast middle class and their employers who provided the revenue to build the interstate highways, support school systems and maintain military strength. The job crisis and the undermining of the middle class are not new in America. Our base has been eroding for yearsunder Democratic and Republican administrations. Part of it is due to factors beyond anyones control and part of it we have let happen.

Two of the factors are the incredible explosion of technology and the rapid emergence of a global economy and community. From just-in-time inventory to the transmission of capital, the Internet has put communicationand with it efficiency and productivityin permanent fast-forward. The digital revolution made much more output possible with fewer hands. Technology reduced the dependence on raw materials and led to the awakening of the two most populous nations of the worldChina and India. That has transformed the globe; you cannot ignore a work force of several billion-plus.

We know we cannot outlaw reality or wish away unpleasant facts. Those of us in the people business, which includes labor unions, have to confront reality, adapt to irreversible change and attempt to stay ahead of the curve. Its like part of the oft-cited prayer that asks God for the serenity to accept things we cannot change.

But there is another part to that same prayerthat asks God for the courage to change things that can be changed. That remains the primary goal of the trade union movementa goal that should be shared by all who want to live in a just and decent society. Instead, some of the factors that are cutting the legs from under the middle class have been created and accelerated by conscious decisions by political and corporate leaders.

Let me give you one example. Twelve years ago, Congress passed an Energy Policy Act, which started the process of deregulating and restructuring the electric utility industry. The theory was that more companies in power generation and/or distribution would mean competition to the industry, lower prices and one big economic boon to everybody.

Leading this charge were a new breed of energy marketing companieslittle more than speculators reallyone of which went by the name Enron. Enrons biggest con was convincing California to open up the state to outside power brokers.

From the very beginning, our union questioned the exorbitant claims of the deregulation advocates. Why was no one else looking out for the public interest in all of this? Where was the common sense on the part of the business and political communities to ask tough questions and demand clear answers before jumping off this cliff? And, incredibly, the concepts of deregulating and restructuring utilities are not dead now. We are once again fighting to keep misguided ideas out of national energy legislation.

Now lets consider the issue of tradeor at least what passes for trade these days. Most people think they grasp the concept of trade, some of us from the playground, perhaps from trading baseball cards, trade where each party gets something of value.

It used to work that way among nations. And in those days, unions were pretty strong on the free trade side of the argument, in the days when the world was hungry for our goods. In the 1950s, it was kind of cute when Japan was selling us the kind of trinkets you win at a carnival game. It was less cute when they starting shipping transistor radios and cheap cameras. It was not at all amusing when they took a major bite out of our automobile market. And its scary when they are selling us missile parts that are vital to our national defense.

Were not talking about trade when a company shifts its entire manufacturing process to Mexico or China and brings the finished product back in to sell on the domestic market. Thats not trade. Thats taking advantage of the ridiculously low wages paid to exploited workers and then continuing to charge top dollar on the domestic market. That is gaming the system to maximize profits and please shareholders. And any worries about the impact on a local tax base, the effect on workers and communities, and the sustaining of a market to buy the products are shunted aside. Good corporate citizenship has come to mean nothing. The effect on schools, on health care, on small businesses and on the fabric of life in cities and towns doesnt even register.

It is past time in this nation that we stopped shrugging our shoulders and saying that things are out of our control. Or that the global economy makes certain government actions or corporate behavior necessary. Issues such as bad economic policy and the victimization of entire communities are most definitely within our power to change. Thats where we need the wisdom to know the difference.

Its time for a new sense of community in America. Its time to temper the cutthroat competition that is the byproduct of todays economy and take responsibility for our future. We need to redefine success so that a youngster today doesnt dream of growing up to send his communitys jobs to China while raking in a salary that is 180 times as much as his average employee.

It is time for the leaders of the business and professional communities to stop seeing labor relations as a zero sum game where one side can only win by destroying the other. It is time for corporate leaders to consider the ripple effects of their decisions to close plants and move jobs overseas and for government to stop being a passive spectator as our economic base erodes from within. Government should be the arbiter of society, curbing excesses wherever they may occur, not merely serving as the facilitators for special interests.

People must take responsibility for their lives, their communities and their future. And I have been preaching within the IBEW, we cannot whine about what "they" are doing to "us" when we can change things by standing together. We as union members have the responsibility to work with our management counterparts to promote the kind of first class training and education programs that will give workers the skills to thrive in the modern world.

And we have the responsibility for our own work ethic, professionalism and sense of duty to our customers. Unions are not organizations that exist for their own sakeand if some have become that, then that is a tragedy. Unions are composed of membersreal live working people. And unions work best when their members are active in their affairs and committed to common goals for the betterment of society. I firmly believe that this is the best path to a stronger America, a better America, and an America that has the integrity and fortitude to withstand the challenges of the modern world.

Edwin D. Hill

International President

  Presidents Message

June 2004 IBEW Journal