[Iowa-dx] State of Labor in the Global Economy Forum

[GreenParty Ron]

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From: GreenDiscussionGroup@yahoogroups.com"
To: Ronald Kinum"
CC:
Subject: [GreenDiscussionGroup] State of Labor in the Global
Economy Forum In Iowa City
Date: Wed, 21 Nov 2007 22:19:07 -0000

On Novemeber 19, 2007, I attended a forum presented by The
Obermann Center for Advanced Studies at University of Iowa,
titled "State of Labor in the Global Economy," in Meeting
Room A of the Iowa City Public Library. The forum was
presented as a part of the Obermann Center's Cmiel
Collaborative Research Seminar, Global Perspectives on
Under-Regulated Labor, funded by the Obermann Endowment, the
UofI office of the Vice President for Research, and the UofI
Office of the Provost.

The forum featuree a panel of three internationally known
academics who offered their insights and/or opinions about
the lack of labor regulation and its impact on societies,
individuals and communities. They made statements on the
economic, social and legal implications resulting from the
massive movements of people both as undocumented and legal
immigrants, and the shift of industrial production out of
our nation worldwide. It was very interesting and
intellectual, although I did not agree with everything.

The speakers included:

Nancy Folbre, professor of economics, University of
Massachusetts and a MacArthur Genius Fellow;
Ruth Milkman, professor of sociology, the University of
California, Los Angeles (UCLA); and
Craig Becker, legal counsel with SEIU and the AFL-CIO.

NANCY FOLBRE: She gave a feminist economist's view of the
global economy, a perspective that referenced that "labor"
is usually referred to as a "paid job". But there is also
a lot of work that is unpaid, such as taking care of the
children and the household, which is a legitimate major part
of the global economy.

Time Use Surveys record what a person or family does from
"wake-up" to what you do and after that what you do through
the day, which shows that about half of the work done in
our United States of America is OUTSIDE of the paid labor
market. Researchers have created the criteria known as the
Replacement Cost of Non-Paid Labor Work to analyze the
contributions of mates and others outside of the employment
sphere, and equated the value of that unpaid contribution to
being 40% of our Gross Domestic Product (GDP). It may not
seem to be a factor in our overall economy, but it is
important in considering the growth of the economy, for it is
a part of the strategy and purpose of earning a living.

Before Global warming, we took a lot of things for granted
that were free, like clean water. Once you mess things up,
it is surprising how the costs for things rises. There is a
term little used: "Global Chilling" refers to the reduction
in the value of our social lives as the result of
over-exploitation of our natural resources and the resulting
loss of consumer goods and services that will inhibit our
lives.

Globalization has made it possible to buy MORE of the things
we want cheaper, but we've suffered a big loss of our
manufacturing jobs, which has changed the way our society
relates to the economy. Where it was the blue collar labor
force who had to face the changes brought on by
globalization, it is now the college educated workers who
are now going to suffer due to offshore relocation of jobs.
No one is immune to the effects of globalization.

But we have an obsession with undocumented workers that is
unfair and unrealistic, and it is interfering with our
adjustments to globalization and to the real cause of our
decline in our standard of living. The truth about
immigrants is that we have saved a lot of money with them,
and the effects of undocumented workers is very over-done:
the REAL ISSUE IS THE FLOW OF U.S. BUSINESS INVESTMENTS
OFFSHORE (capitalization and emphasis is mine, Libris
Fidelis) which has more of an impact on employment than
undocumented workers.

In essence, undocumented workers represent a group of people
that our nation never had to pay for their education to do
the work they do. We need to develop a better safety net
and have health insurance, and to eliminate the insecurity
and anxiety factors we have in the tremendous economic
inequality that exists between the upper class and middle
and lower classes.
______________________________________________________
NOTE: I agree and disagree on many of her points, in
particular about health insurance which is a scam to make
the insurance companies wealthy because with insurance, all
annual premiums are confiscated to the benefit of the
insurance companies, and then the pool of premium-payers
continue in this extortion sham. I also disagree on the
effect of immigration on more than a half dozen points which
I will not elaborate here.
_____________________________________________________

RUTH MILKMAN: She said she wanted to provide a historical
perspective on labor and globalization.

The world of work has changed dramatically in the last two
decades since the 1970s. It is not really the whole story
to focus on offshore movement of business and competition
and on migrant undocumented workers.


The industries that cannot leave our country HAVE CHANGED
JUST AS DRAMATICALLY as the businesses that compete with the
international markets and with the international labor pool
-- construction, transportation, hotels all have made the
same major changes: changes in real wages have gone down,
pensions are almost unheard of outside of the public sector.

She identifies The Three D's of Transforming Our Economy:
DE-industrialization
DE-regulation (as in trucking) where there has been a big
rise in smaller businesses and a decline in large national
companies
DE-unionization, wherein union workers were well over 20% of
the workforce in the private sector in the 1970s, but now is
only 7-point-4 percent (.074) of the labor force.

How it came about is that this is PRIMARILY AN EMPLOYER
INITIATED PROCESS~! But these changes were not caused only
in international trade corporations:

RISE OF THE INDEPENDENT CONTRACTOR is where RISK is
transferred from the firm TO THE WORKER!

SUB-CONTRACTING increases that transfer of risk to the
workers. When there is less success and no work, the worker
simply is not called and does not earn anything.

SEQUENCE OF CHANGE:
1) Employers systematically undertook to eliminate the work
rules -- dismantling the union, entice their employee
workers who wanted greener pastures to leave their jobs and
that opened the way for undocumented workers to fill the
vacancies at cheaper wages, but they then were as much
victims of this as were the native-born workers!
______________________________________________________
NOTE: I agree with a whole lot of her points, and
unfortunately, I did not copy down a lot of what she said.
I saw a lot of what she said myself, returning from the
Army in 1974 and watching the transition during the early
1980s wherein our three-story Los Angeles Division main
terminal hump-yard office at West Colton, California went
from 22 clerks to about 12 clerks in three shifts every day,
and then down to 9. Then the railroad reduced we locomotive
engineers from about 450 to about 250 engineers and
eliminated one brakeman and almost all cabooses. I will not
elaborate more.
_____________________________________________________

CRAIG BECKER was by far the most interesting speaker. He
asked, What rules should govern this global economy? CAN
rules exist, when globalization goes over national borders?
Most fundamental is that in globalization talks, EVERYONE
should be "at the table" to discuss these changes and what
rules should implemented for world trade.

But the only representitive for the working class is the
trade union, and unionized workers have diminished from 33%
in the 1970s to 12% and now down to 7%!

We need someone who DOES NOT ADVOCATE FOR THE CORPORATIONS
but who advocates FOR the working people, because no one is
speaking out for people, and that only speaker for the
working people is the trade union. One-third to one-half of
non-union workers say that they would like to be unionized,
and 90% of unionized workers are glad they are union members.

He mentioned the counterproductive points of unionization:

1) The government-mandated legal provisions for the elections
function in the work-place turns Democracy on its head: in
national political elections it is not "Do I want
representation?" it is WHO do I want to represent me? In
labor elections it is only DO I WANT to be represented and no
mention of who will do the representing. And, the labor
organizations cannot even solicit for membership on the
property, they are required to remain off-property where
they can only hand out leaflets to the few drivers who will
stop to get a leaflet.

2) The voters in a political election are a matter of public
record. The voters' names are registered and you can tell
their party affiliation, and can be accessed for mailing
addresses.

The workers in a labor election is information that is held
secretly by the corporation and is not available to the
union. The employer only gives a complete list of employees
but not their addresses to the union 20 days before the
representation question election.

3) Access to workers: the employer can campaign about how
bad unionization is throughout the work place, and use
intimidating supervisors to communicate the company message,
but a union is a trespasser if it campaigns on the property
and is subject to arrest for distributing pro-union
materials on private property.

4) In labor, there is one party available to the voter only
-- and that is the union. Employers can require all
employees to attend an anti-union employee meeting, and it
is legal to fire any employee who refuses to attend a
contra-union meeting or who speaks out in favor of
unionization at such a meeting. The union cannot hold a
similar meeting on the property to explain its views and
purposes.

5) Outcome Peculiar in Labor Elections: in a political
election, one party wins and goes to office, and the other
party loses and goes away. In the unionization
representation election, if the employees elect the union
representation, the employer still runs the employees'
workplace to influence them that unionization is wrong and
unapproved of. Retaliation is also still a concept that has
been implemented, as well.

We need to reform our labor laws so the labor unions can
represent their members and advocate for workers' rights in
the work place.

Employer Free Choice Act is a reform proposed for:
1) new mechanisms for employees to have an election or to
sign labor representation cards that mandate the employer
must bargain with the chosen union;
2) increases remedies for enforcing the law, requiring that
the government must enforce the labor laws
3) we need a truly Democratic process in the workplace.
_______________________________________________________

Information from Questions:
NOTE: I again was the first person at the microphone and
again I referred to Green Party in posing my question, which
quite pleasantly, Craig Becker repeatedly picked up the
reference and remarked several times in reference to Green
Party! And to think I forgot my Green Party hat this night!

One speaker who said in flawless English that he is an
illegal immigrant: The Internal Revenue (dis)Service
(inflection mine!!) took in $6.9 BILLION in undocumented
worker withholdings -- for workers with fake documents --
but they cannot claim retirement or SS benefits.

Answer to a question to Nancy Folbre about domestic worker
unionization: Unionizing home care workers who do not even
know each other because they work in the home is extremely
difficult, it is difficult in building mobilization when
there is no communication between the individual workers,
let alone by a unionization effort.

Craig again stated that the difference between a labor union
and a consumer union is that there is a legal framework for
the unionization of workers, but there is no legal framework
for organizing consumers, consumers' unions are merely
advocates, not membership unions. States can not, under
"states rights", make federal laws be better for workers,
states can ONLY make federal labor laws be much worse with
additional state laws, such as they did with the "right to
work" laws.

I wish John Deeth had been here, because his impeccable
transcription of events is really very accurate.

Ronald Kinum
a.k.a. Libris Fidelis

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mail.com shopping at  http://mail.shopping.com/?linkin_id=3D8033174


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<DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV>From: GreenDiscussionGroup@yahoogroups.com" <BR>To: Ronald Kinum" <GRE=
ENPARTYRON@ACTIVIST.COM><BR>CC: <BR>Subject: [GreenDiscussionGroup] State o=
f Labor in the Global <BR>Economy Forum In Iowa City <BR>Date: Wed, 21 Nov =
2007 22:19:07 -0000 <BR><BR>On Novemeber 19, 2007, I attended a forum prese=
nted by The <BR>Obermann Center for Advanced Studies at University of Iowa,=
 <BR>titled "State of Labor in the Global Economy," in Meeting <BR>Room A o=
f the Iowa City Public Library. The forum was <BR>presented as a part of th=
e Obermann Center's Cmiel <BR>Collaborative Research Seminar, Global Perspe=
ctives on <BR>Under-Regulated Labor, funded by the Obermann Endowment, the =
<BR>UofI office of the Vice President for Research, and the UofI <BR>Office=
 of the Provost. <BR><BR>The forum featuree a panel of three internationall=
y known <BR>academics who offered their insights and/or opinions about <BR>=
the lack of labor regulation and its impact on societies, <BR>individuals a=
nd communities. They made statements on the <BR>economic, social and legal =
implications resulting from the <BR>massive movements of people both as und=
ocumented and legal <BR>immigrants, and the shift of industrial production =
out of <BR>our nation worldwide. It was very interesting and <BR>intellectu=
al, although I did not agree with everything. <BR><BR>The speakers included=
: <BR><BR>Nancy Folbre, professor of economics, University of <BR>Massachus=
etts and a MacArthur Genius Fellow; <BR>Ruth Milkman, professor of sociolog=
y, the University of <BR>California, Los Angeles (UCLA); and <BR>Craig Beck=
er, legal counsel with SEIU and the AFL-CIO. <BR><BR>NANCY FOLBRE: She gave=
 a feminist economist's view of the <BR>global economy, a perspective that =
referenced that "labor" <BR>is usually referred to as a "paid job". But the=
re is also <BR>a lot of work that is unpaid, such as taking care of the <BR=
>children and the household, which is a legitimate major part <BR>of the gl=
obal economy. <BR><BR>Time Use Surveys record what a person or family does =
from <BR>"wake-up" to what you do and after that what you do through <BR>th=
e day, which shows that about half of the work done in <BR>our United State=
s of America is OUTSIDE of the paid labor <BR>market. Researchers have crea=
ted the criteria known as the <BR>Replacement Cost of Non-Paid Labor Work t=
o analyze the <BR>contributions of mates and others outside of the employme=
nt <BR>sphere, and equated the value of that unpaid contribution to <BR>bei=
ng 40% of our Gross Domestic Product (GDP). It may not <BR>seem to be a fac=
tor in our overall economy, but it is <BR>important in considering the grow=
th of the economy, for it is <BR>a part of the strategy and purpose of earn=
ing a living. <BR><BR>Before Global warming, we took a lot of things for gr=
anted <BR>that were free, like clean water. Once you mess things up, <BR>it=
 is surprising how the costs for things rises. There is a <BR>term little u=
sed: "Global Chilling" refers to the reduction <BR>in the value of our soci=
al lives as the result of <BR>over-exploitation of our natural resources an=
d the resulting <BR>loss of consumer goods and services that will inhibit o=
ur <BR>lives. <BR><BR>Globalization has made it possible to buy MORE of the=
 things <BR>we want cheaper, but we've suffered a big loss of our <BR>manuf=
acturing jobs, which has changed the way our society <BR>relates to the eco=
nomy. Where it was the blue collar labor <BR>force who had to face the chan=
ges brought on by <BR>globalization, it is now the college educated workers=
 who <BR>are now going to suffer due to offshore relocation of jobs. <BR>No=
 one is immune to the effects of globalization. <BR><BR>But we have an obse=
ssion with undocumented workers that is <BR>unfair and unrealistic, and it =
is interfering with our <BR>adjustments to globalization and to the real ca=
use of our <BR>decline in our standard of living. The truth about <BR>immig=
rants is that we have saved a lot of money with them, <BR>and the effects o=
f undocumented workers is very over-done: <BR>the REAL ISSUE IS THE FLOW OF=
 U.S. BUSINESS INVESTMENTS <BR>OFFSHORE (capitalization and emphasis is min=
e, Libris <BR>Fidelis) which has more of an impact on employment than <BR>u=
ndocumented workers. <BR><BR>In essence, undocumented workers represent a g=
roup of people <BR>that our nation never had to pay for their education to =
do <BR>the work they do. We need to develop a better safety net <BR>and hav=
e health insurance, and to eliminate the insecurity <BR>and anxiety factors=
 we have in the tremendous economic <BR>inequality that exists between the =
upper class and middle <BR>and lower classes. <BR>_________________________=
_____________________________ <BR>NOTE: I agree and disagree on many of her=
 points, in <BR>particular about health insurance which is a scam to make <=
BR>the insurance companies wealthy because with insurance, all <BR>annual p=
remiums are confiscated to the benefit of the <BR>insurance companies, and =
then the pool of premium-payers <BR>continue in this extortion sham. I also=
 disagree on the <BR>effect of immigration on more than a half dozen points=
 which <BR>I will not elaborate here. <BR>_________________________________=
____________________ <BR><BR>RUTH MILKMAN: She said she wanted to provide a=
 historical <BR>perspective on labor and globalization. <BR><BR>The world o=
f work has changed dramatically in the last two <BR>decades since the 1970s=
. It is not really the whole story <BR>to focus on offshore movement of bus=
iness and competition <BR>and on migrant undocumented workers. <BR><BR><BR>=
The industries that cannot leave our country HAVE CHANGED <BR>JUST AS DRAMA=
TICALLY as the businesses that compete with the <BR>international markets a=
nd with the international labor pool <BR>-- construction, transportation, h=
otels all have made the <BR>same major changes: changes in real wages have =
gone down, <BR>pensions are almost unheard of outside of the public sector.=
 <BR><BR>She identifies The Three D's of Transforming Our Economy: <BR>DE-i=
ndustrialization <BR>DE-regulation (as in trucking) where there has been a =
big <BR>rise in smaller businesses and a decline in large national <BR>comp=
anies <BR>DE-unionization, wherein union workers were well over 20% of <BR>=
the workforce in the private sector in the 1970s, but now is <BR>only 7-poi=
nt-4 percent (.074) of the labor force. <BR><BR>How it came about is that t=
his is PRIMARILY AN EMPLOYER <BR>INITIATED PROCESS~! But these changes were=
 not caused only <BR>in international trade corporations: <BR><BR>RISE OF T=
HE INDEPENDENT CONTRACTOR is where RISK is <BR>transferred from the firm TO=
 THE WORKER! <BR><BR>SUB-CONTRACTING increases that transfer of risk to the=
 <BR>workers. When there is less success and no work, the worker <BR>simply=
 is not called and does not earn anything. <BR><BR>SEQUENCE OF CHANGE: <BR>=
1) Employers systematically undertook to eliminate the work <BR>rules -- di=
smantling the union, entice their employee <BR>workers who wanted greener p=
astures to leave their jobs and <BR>that opened the way for undocumented wo=
rkers to fill the <BR>vacancies at cheaper wages, but they then were as muc=
h <BR>victims of this as were the native-born workers! <BR>________________=
______________________________________ <BR>NOTE: I agree with a whole lot o=
f her points, and <BR>unfortunately, I did not copy down a lot of what she =
said. <BR>I saw a lot of what she said myself, returning from the <BR>Army =
in 1974 and watching the transition during the early <BR>1980s wherein our =
three-story Los Angeles Division main <BR>terminal hump-yard office at West=
 Colton, California went <BR>from 22 clerks to about 12 clerks in three shi=
fts every day, <BR>and then down to 9. Then the railroad reduced we locomot=
ive <BR>engineers from about 450 to about 250 engineers and <BR>eliminated =
one brakeman and almost all cabooses. I will not <BR>elaborate more. <BR>__=
___________________________________________________ <BR><BR>CRAIG BECKER wa=
s by far the most interesting speaker. He <BR>asked, What rules should gove=
rn this global economy? CAN <BR>rules exist, when globalization goes over n=
ational borders? <BR>Most fundamental is that in globalization talks, EVERY=
ONE <BR>should be "at the table" to discuss these changes and what <BR>rule=
s should implemented for world trade. <BR><BR>But the only representitive f=
or the working class is the <BR>trade union, and unionized workers have dim=
inished from 33% <BR>in the 1970s to 12% and now down to 7%! <BR><BR>We nee=
d someone who DOES NOT ADVOCATE FOR THE CORPORATIONS <BR>but who advocates =
FOR the working people, because no one is <BR>speaking out for people, and =
that only speaker for the <BR>working people is the trade union. One-third =
to one-half of <BR>non-union workers say that they would like to be unioniz=
ed, <BR>and 90% of unionized workers are glad they are union members. <BR><=
BR>He mentioned the counterproductive points of unionization: <BR><BR>1) Th=
e government-mandated legal provisions for the elections <BR>function in th=
e work-place turns Democracy on its head: in <BR>national political electio=
ns it is not "Do I want <BR>representation?" it is WHO do I want to represe=
nt me? In <BR>labor elections it is only DO I WANT to be represented and no=
 <BR>mention of who will do the representing. And, the labor <BR>organizati=
ons cannot even solicit for membership on the <BR>property, they are requir=
ed to remain off-property where <BR>they can only hand out leaflets to the =
few drivers who will <BR>stop to get a leaflet. <BR><BR>2) The voters in a =
political election are a matter of public <BR>record. The voters' names are=
 registered and you can tell <BR>their party affiliation, and can be access=
ed for mailing <BR>addresses. <BR><BR>The workers in a labor election is in=
formation that is held <BR>secretly by the corporation and is not available=
 to the <BR>union. The employer only gives a complete list of employees <BR=
>but not their addresses to the union 20 days before the <BR>representation=
 question election. <BR><BR>3) Access to workers: the employer can campaign=
 about how <BR>bad unionization is throughout the work place, and use <BR>i=
ntimidating supervisors to communicate the company message, <BR>but a union=
 is a trespasser if it campaigns on the property <BR>and is subject to arre=
st for distributing pro-union <BR>materials on private property. <BR><BR>4)=
 In labor, there is one party available to the voter only <BR>-- and that i=
s the union. Employers can require all <BR>employees to attend an anti-unio=
n employee meeting, and it <BR>is legal to fire any employee who refuses to=
 attend a <BR>contra-union meeting or who speaks out in favor of <BR>unioni=
zation at such a meeting. The union cannot hold a <BR>similar meeting on th=
e property to explain its views and <BR>purposes. <BR><BR>5) Outcome Peculi=
ar in Labor Elections: in a political <BR>election, one party wins and goes=
 to office, and the other <BR>party loses and goes away. In the unionizatio=
n <BR>representation election, if the employees elect the union <BR>represe=
ntation, the employer still runs the employees' <BR>workplace to influence =
them that unionization is wrong and <BR>unapproved of. Retaliation is also =
still a concept that has <BR>been implemented, as well. <BR><BR>We need to =
reform our labor laws so the labor unions can <BR>represent their members a=
nd advocate for workers' rights in <BR>the work place. <BR><BR>Employer Fre=
e Choice Act is a reform proposed for: <BR>1) new mechanisms for employees =
to have an election or to <BR>sign labor representation cards that mandate =
the employer <BR>must bargain with the chosen union; <BR>2) increases remed=
ies for enforcing the law, requiring that <BR>the government must enforce t=
he labor laws <BR>3) we need a truly Democratic process in the workplace. <=
BR>_______________________________________________________ <BR><BR>Informat=
ion from Questions: <BR>NOTE: I again was the first person at the microphon=
e and <BR>again I referred to Green Party in posing my question, which <BR>=
quite pleasantly, Craig Becker repeatedly picked up the <BR>reference and r=
emarked several times in reference to Green <BR>Party! And to think I forgo=
t my Green Party hat this night! <BR><BR>One speaker who said in flawless E=
nglish that he is an <BR>illegal immigrant: The Internal Revenue (dis)Servi=
ce <BR>(inflection mine!!) took in $6.9 BILLION in undocumented <BR>worker =
withholdings -- for workers with fake documents -- <BR>but they cannot clai=
m retirement or SS benefits. <BR><BR>Answer to a question to Nancy Folbre a=
bout domestic worker <BR>unionization: Unionizing home care workers who do =
not even <BR>know each other because they work in the home is extremely <BR=
>difficult, it is difficult in building mobilization when <BR>there is no c=
ommunication between the individual workers, <BR>let alone by a unionizatio=
n effort. <BR><BR>Craig again stated that the difference between a labor un=
ion <BR>and a consumer union is that there is a legal framework for <BR>the=
 unionization of workers, but there is no legal framework <BR>for organizin=
g consumers, consumers' unions are merely <BR>advocates, not membership uni=
ons. States can not, under <BR>"states rights", make federal laws be better=
 for workers, <BR>states can ONLY make federal labor laws be much worse wit=
h <BR>additional state laws, such as they did with the "right to <BR>work" =
laws. <BR><BR>I wish John Deeth had been here, because his impeccable <BR>t=
ranscription of events is really very accurate. <BR><BR>Ronald Kinum <BR>a.=
k.a. Libris Fidelis<BR></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV><BR>

--=20
<div> Over 2 Million Holiday Gift Ideas -<a href=3Dhttp://mail.shopping.com=
/?linkin_id=3D8033174 target=3D"_blank"> <b>Take a Look!</b></a><br>
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--_----------=_11956852211829820--