UE Political Action
The Corporate
Agenda at Work

No matter what anyone says, we’re working longer and harder for less. Working people, unions, poor people and minorities are being attacked. National health care and strikers’ rights went down in flames—while big business won both NAFTA and GATT. While unemployment is relatively low, most new jobs are part time, temporary or low-wage service sector jobs. Adjusted for inflation, wages are lower than they were in 1973.

Story continues ...

The Corporate Agenda's Impact on Wages

Hourly Compensation Costs for Production Workers in Manufacturing

		Sweden  $7.18 Norway  $6.77 Netherlands  $6.58 Belgium  $6.41 United States  $6.36 Germany  $6.31 Denmark  $6.28 Switzerland  $6.09 Finland  $4.61 Austria  $4.51 Japan  $3.00 |$2 |$3 |$4 |$5 |$6 |$7
In 1975, U.S. wages were among the highest ...

... but by 1999, they had fallen to 11th place

Germany  $26.18 Norway  $23.91 Switzerland  $23.56 Denmark  $22.96 Belgium  $22.82 Austria  $21.83 Sweden  $21.58 Finland  $21.10 Netherlands  $20.94 Japan  $20.89 United States  $19.20 |$18 |$19 |$20 |$21 |$22 |$23 |$24 |$25 |$26

Source: U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, September 2000

Why is this happening?

One answer appeared in a Trade Union Advisor interview with Robert Borosage of the Campaign for New Priorities and the Institute for Policy Studies. He points out several reasons for what’s happening.

BUSINESS: HAVING ITS WAY

1. The global economy, deregulation of industry and the privatization of government jobs have freed corporations to do what they want. The pace and scale of corporate decision making and economic change is destroying communities and families. But, with business increasingly operating on a global scale, regulating its behavior is becoming increasingly difficult—even though it’s more desperately needed. Instead, corporations and their political allies are now finding it much easier to attack social protections and worker organizations.

"Increasing inequality—and increasing insecurity among working people—feeds a politics of resentment. In the United States, it finds expression in racial bitterness and right-wing populism; in countries less stable than this, fascist movements emerge, grounded in a declining and angry middle class."

2. "The lock that money has on politics is both apparent and pervasive. Corporate interests dominate politics, not only by paying for politicians, but also by paying for the media and ... defining the limits of acceptable opinion."

In this context of anger, confusion and division, it’s hardly surprising that business and corporations are having their own way whenever and wherever they want it. It’s up to us to put a stop to it: by creating unity where there is division; by promoting leadership where there is none. As working people in a union movement, we have to help reverse the direction we’re all heading in. As always, our best tool to do that is working for genuine unity and solidarity.

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