Transcript Document

Youth Brigade
 Welcome
– Solidarity Bingo
 A “Snapshot” of America
– Wealth and Income
 Unions and Inequality
– Present Challenges
To start…intros…Stuart Eimer
 Raised in Sayreville, NJ
– Working class union family…IBEW Local 3 in NYC
 Rutgers University
– Union scholarship…first to go to college
 Graduate School @ University of Wisconsin
– Shop Steward & Delegate to AFL-CIO Central Labor Council
 Teach classes on social class, poverty, unions…
– Research focuses on labor politics, labor history, central labor councils and
SEIU (including the YB)
 Now live near Philly & teach Sociology at Widener
University in Chester, PA
Who are you…Interviews
 Name and where you are from
 Is your parent in a union? If yes, which
union?
 Why you decided to spend your summer
working in the organizing department of a
a union…not your typical summer job
 Is there anything in particular you’d like
to learn about the labor movement or our
economy?
Solidarity Bingo…
 Go around the room and
find someone who knows
the answer to one of the
questions. If they know
the answer, have them
print their name in the box
that they can answer.
Each person may only
sign one of your boxes.
You may sign your own
name in one box. If you
get bingo down, across, or
diagonally, yell BINGO!
and you’ll win a prize.
Reflecting on History &
Society…
 The role that unions and other social movements
played in shaping our nation is often invisible in
our schools, media and society at large…
 Much of what is taught in the schools or reported in
the media does not critically examine the way our
economy or political system has developed or how
it works now
Who gets what and why in
America…
 “The arguments are fiercest where the facts
are fewest.”
– William James…famous dead psychologist and
philosopher
Look at two types of inequality:
Wealth and Income
 Income-money, wages, and payments that
are periodically received from investments
– For most people a paycheck
Income Distribution in America
 So how is income distributed among our
society’s population…
– How do we divide the economic pie?
Dividing the Income…
 Income…
 10 Volunteers Up Front…
On Pay Day…The richest 10% of
American Families takes 50% of the pay
 The rest
of us
split
what’s
left!
 Trends?
Income Distribution Over Time: The
“Great Compression”…Interesting.
Another way to look at recent trends…
 Can Anyone Interpret this Slide?
Trickle Up Economics…
 The rich got richer…and everyone else gets
poorer
– In 2002 the richest 13,000 families had almost
as much income as the 20 million poorest…
Huge and Growing Pay Gap
Between U.S. CEOs and Workers
• By 2005, CEO pay had
• In 1980, CEO pay
grown to 411 times the
equaled 42 times the average worker’s pay
average blue collar
worker’s pay.
Sources: Business Week; New York Times; U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
14
Business Week, Fall 2004
CEO Pay Compared….
 We’re number 1…
While CEO pay has tracked
up…wages have tracked down…
Inequality is High in the US…
 Ratio of Top 10% to Bottom 10%
Income buys Wealth
 Wealth-assets, particularly those that are
income producing.
– For most people their home…for many people,
nothing…
– But for some people a second home on the
Chesapeake bay or in the Virgin Islands, an
apartment in London, a Van Gogh painting, race
horses, shopping malls, hotels, ships, sports teams,
bonds, stocks, cash…
Wealth
 So how wealth distributed among our
society’s population…
– How do we divide the economic pie?
Dividing the Wealth…
 Wealth…
 10 Volunteers Up Front…
Fewer People Own More
Wealth
 1976: richest 10% of
the U.S. population
owns 50% of all wealth.
 2007: richest 10% of
the U.S. population owns
73% of all wealth.
Source:Edward N. Wolff, “Recent Trends in Wealth Ownership”
22
Try this with a pizza tonight…
 Top 1% of our
society controls
35% of wealth
– Gates, Trump,
Hilton
 Top 5% controls
62%
 Top 10% controls
73%
 The rest of
us split
what’s
left…
New York Magazine
 Mind the Income Gap: Manhattan has the highest
wealth disparity in the country. How does that
make you feel? By Henry Blodget (11/06)
 The richest New Yorker, David Koch, is worth an
estimated $12 billion. The poorest New Yorkers, 1.5
million people with incomes below the poverty line,
are collectively worth nothing—or less. David
Koch, in other words, is worth
$12
billion more than a fifth of the
city’s residents combined.
See a Pattern Again???
Year
Pct. Of Wealth
Held by Top 1%
1922
32
1929
36
1939
31
1949
21
1958
24
1969
20
1989
38
1998
38
2007
34
Wealth Inequality Compared
Nation
Wealth Owned by Top 10% (2000)
US
70%
France
61%
Sweden
59%
Norway
51%
Germany
44%
Present Moment…Tremendous
Economic Inequality in US
 When so much is
controlled by so few,
what impact do you
think this has on
working families and
our communities?
– Pay, Schools, Parks,
Libraries, Pools, Job
training, Health Care,
Etc.
Present Moment…Tremendous
Economic Inequality in US
 Is inequality just
part of life that we
should get used
to…or do you think
it should and can be
otherwise?
Quiz
 Inequality matters…
 Rank of the U.S. among the seventeen
leading industrial nations with the largest
percentage of their populations in poverty:
Quiz
Rank of the U.S. among the seventeen
leading industrial nations with the largest
percentage of their populations in poverty:
We’re # 1
–
(United Nations Human Development Report 1998,N.Y.C.)
Child Poverty, March 2005
Poverty in America
Social Mobility
 O.K…immense inequality…and a lot of
poverty…but if people in the bottom 90% don’t
like it, they can always work harder and join the
top 10%…
– Work hard and you’ll get ahead…Rags to riches..
 Of the poorest 20 percent of Americans in 1989,
what percent were still in the poorest 20 percent
in 1998?
Mobility and Race
 2/3 of the Black children born in the bottom
25% will remain in the bottom 25%
 Reactions to this?
So…
 Growing levels of inequality in the United
States…
 Research suggests that most people in lower
economic classes are not likely to move out
of those classes
– Some will…but most will not…
 And then we have the “AMBITION PILL”
problem…the “structural problem”
Ambition, talent and hard work are not
enough…Society needs GOOD JOBS…
Occupations Adding
ProjectedOccupations
increase
Weekly Pay
Weekly
Paythe Most
forJobsthe Ten
That
1) Systems Analysts
577,000
$1,008
Will
Add
the
Most
Jobs
Through
2010
2) Retail Salespersons
563,000
$329
Median
3)U.S.
Cashiers
Weekly Wages in 2000
4) General
Managers
1. Food
preparation &
serving (includes fast food).
5) Truck2.Drivers
Customer service
representatives.
6) Office Clerks
$261
$473
8. Security guards.
9. Computer
12) Nursing
Aides andsoftware
Orderlies
engineers, applications.
$321
$278
$406
$280
551,000
$797
$336
==4-person
family
poverty line
$336
4-person
family
493,000
$299 poverty line
463,000
$862
3. Registered
7) Registered
Nurses nurses.
8) Computer
Specialists
4. RetailSupport
salespersons.
5. Computer support
9) Personal Care and Home Health Aides
specialists.
10) Teaching Assistants
6. Cashiers (except gaming).
11) Janitors, Cleaners and Maids
7. Office clerks, general.
556,000
$419
451,000
$750
439,000
$983
333,000
$701
$321
375,000
$315
365,000
$324
325,000
$322
$338
Source:
1999
BLS data; $257
10. Waiters and
waitresses.
the 1999 poverty line
for a $500
$0
$1,000
$1,500
family
of four is
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Based on hourly earnings and a 40-hour week.
$327/week.
$1,901
$2,000
7
So…
 Questions emerge…
– If we know that most people will not experience
individual mobility into a higher class…
– And we know that no matter what, someone will have
to work as bakers, teachers, truck drivers, janitors,
security guards, gardeners, etc…
– Are there strategies and actions that groups of
people can use to improve their lives?
Among other things...People can form
unions to redistribute the pie…
Anyone see a relationship…
Inequality over Time
Year
1922
1929
1939
1949
1958
1969
Pct.Wealth
Held by Top
1% of
Households
31.6
36.3
30.6
20.8
23.8
20.1
Union Density over Time
 What has happened to
percentage of workers
who are in unions over
the last 40 years?
Percent of Workers Who
Belong to Unions Has Decreased
35%
30%
25%
20%
2006
15%
10%
5%
0%
2006
1935
1945
1955
1965
1975
1985
1995
2000
1930
1940
1950
1960
1970
1980
1990
Source: Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Handbook of Labor Statistics, 1980.
Also, Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, January various years.
Union Density by State - 1983
0% to 9%
10% to 20%
Source: Union Members in 1983, Bureau of Labor Statistics
21% & over
Union Density by State - 2006
0% to 9%
10% to 20%
Source: Union Members In 2006, Bureau of Labor Statistics
21% & over
At Present, Almost Nobody in
America is in a union…
87%
of workers
not in unions
And the absence of unions means working
families have less…less power, less income,
less wealth, less retirement security…
Anyone see a relationship…
Inequality over Time
Year
1922
1929
1939
1949
1958
1969
1989
1995
Pct.Wealth
Held by Top
1% of
Households
31.6
36.3
30.6
20.8
23.8
20.1
38.3
38.5
Union Density over Time
Unions & Modern Society…
 Currently 17.8 million
unionized workers in US
– 13.7% of all workers, down
from 35% in 1950s
– US labor movement is
smaller & weaker than in
most other advanced
industrial capitalist
societies
Lunch…
 I hope this has sparked your interest in
unions and society…
– We’ll explore the rise and fall of unions more
in the coming weeks
 Right now…one hour for lunch…
 Then a video and a walking tour of some
NYC labor history.
A Historical Context for the here and
now…
 Take a look around this workplace…exit
signs, sprinkler systems, stairways…
 Do you think building owners and
employers voluntarily put them in place?
 Why do workplaces have these things?
Workers in New York City Change
America…
 Video Clip sets stage for our walk
A Historical Context for the here and
now…
 How many of you
knew about the
Triangle Shirtwaist
Factory prior to today?
– How many of your
friends and family
members do you think
know about this event?
 Why?
A Historical Context for the here and
now…
 Ordinary people organized
unions and used their
collective power to shape the
society we live in
– Marches, strikes, lobbying,
voting…
 But interestingly, as a society
we don’t make much of an
effort to remember this part of
our history…
 Let’s walk…