Unions Offer No Practical Solutions
To Mounting Layoffs and Outsourcing

Workers have good reason to feel angry and frustrated by what’s happening to the American economy and their lives. They’re being laid off by the thousands through no fault of their own. Many have lost their homes through the manipulation of mortgage lenders. They’ve fallen into debt because their stagnant wages are not enough to pay for the outrageous price of gas and oil and other necessities. They are sucked into paying outrageous interest rates on their credit cards. And millions of them can’t afford health insurance for their families. It’s not a pretty picture.

Their outlook for the future is hardly rosier. In his new book, “The Big Squeeze: Tough Times for the American Worker,” Steven Greenhouse, a veteran New York Times labor reporter, presents some alarming figures about the outsourcing of well-paying U.S. manufacturing and white-collar high-tech jobs that are being transferred to countries like India and China.

Greenhouse quotes a Times’ story that begins: “Even as it proceeds with layoffs of up to 13,000 in Europe and the United States, IBM plans to increase its payroll in India this year by more than 14,000 workers.”

Forester Research, a consulting firm, estimates that 3.4 million white collar jobs will be sent offshore between 2003 and 2015. The estimate of the .exodus will include 542,000 computer jobs, 259,000 management jobs, 191,000 architectural jobs, 79,000 legal jobs, and 1.6 million back-of-office jobs.

Outsourcing can also have a negative effect on the workers who remain in the U.S. A study by three Harvard economists estimates that for every 1 percent that employment falls in a manufacturing industry because of moving overseas, wages fall by five-tenths of 1 percent for workers who remain.

Sweeney Talks About Need for ‘Aggressive Action’

Commenting on the current situation, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said: “It is a new indicator of a long-brewing problem that is toxic when combined with falling incomes, the mortgage crisis and out of-control everyday costs. It is high time we recognized the problem with aggressive action.” There is no evidence that Sweeney is planning to organize such a campaign, so that labor’s protests will reverberate in Washington.

Although outsourcing of jobs has gone on for many years, the practice has not been challenged by unions. Labor leaders have not figured out how to stop or slow down the exodus of American jobs. Many accept it as an inevitable development of globalization. Must our surrender be complete?

Most unions exhibit a similar passive reaction to corporate layoffs, which are accepted as the prerogative of the employer in determining his work force. There are only rare challenges about layoffs, mainly about the size of the cuts and the severance pay.

So what kind of help can workers expect from their unions as they face a series of depressing problems in a sick economy?

Visit our web site at www.laboreducator.org