No one left to protect the American worker

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By Dave Fuller, Davenport | Monday, September 1, 2008 5:59 PM CDT | () comments

“The test of our progress is . . . not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have too much, it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.“

—-President Franklin Roosevelt

For the past 30 years, economic elites and their politicians have designed policy to produce this current low-wage economy. In the 1980s the Reagan Administration and the business community decimated workers’ rights and the right to organize and collectively bargain.

The American worker today is more educated, more flexible, more computer-literate, and willing to relocate. However, most good jobs have left this country in pursuit of cheaper labor. Global corporations have strategies for success in the global economy, but the U.S. has no plans to help the American worker to remain in the middle-class society.

If we are going to avoid recession or worse, we should look at ways to improve the financial security for middle-class Americans. As wages continue to decline, we will use fewer goods and services, which will result in more layoffs and higher unemployment.

Wall Street continues to dictate policy to corporate America, which includes cutting labor costs, improving the bottom-line, and rewarding investors. Corporate America believes the American worker is too costly and will hurt their profitability. Corporate America continues to transfer American jobs to cheap-labor countries. American workers are told they can re-train themselves but what good paying jobs are left for them?

If we proceed to have only low-paying jobs in this country, how do we buy goods and services that the American worker cannot afford to purchase? Who can afford a house, health care, college education, or transportation when your job pays poverty-level wages? Who will be paying the property taxes, income taxes, and Social Security taxes that support our current infrastructure? Inequality in America is now the worst it has been in 80 years.

When I was growing up, a friend once told me, “you’ll never get rich working for somebody else“. Today, I would recommend to do something you love to do, and the money will follow.

You still might not get rich, but you will probably be happier. Start your own business, work for yourself, not for corporate America. They do not value American labor. They only view labor as a very expensive liability.

We can no longer look to corporate America to show compassion for American labor. The American worker cannot compete with China or other low-wage countries. American labor must look at jobs that cannot be moved, such as healthcare, education, home improvement, city services, and trades that need local workers.

Forget fairness and economic justice. Forget who designed and built our country and make investors wealthy to begin with. Today’s workers have no protection at all from government. Who does our federal government protect? They protect wealthy investors and their bank accounts, at the expense of all who work.

Labor Union membership in 1970 was about 30 percent. Today that number is down to 8-9 percent. The largest “union” (network) today is Wall Street.

Collective bargaining was the worker’s only source of power. Today, workers have very little leverage, if any at all. Many workers today are working two and three jobs. Why? Because they have no choice. Many have no healthcare or pension. The average family has credit card debt of about $15,000.

It is all about money and power (i.e., control). Currently, Wall Street and our government are focused only on a global economy and the cheapest labor, at the demise of the American worker. If we continue on this path, the American Worker will not be the only one hurting. Wall Street will tumble, and the government will not be able to bail them out either. American labor made this country what it is. “Made in China” will not save us.

Happy Labor Day to all of you who helped build this great country.

Dave Fuller is a life long resident of Davenport who retired from Deere & Co., in 2007 after 31 years of service.