Local View: Don't short-circuit American jobs

[Omaha Steve]

http://journalstar.com/articles/2007/05/07/opinion/columns/doc463e4f5aae3cf476934967.txt

Local View: Don't short-circuit American jobs
By JOHN J. SWEENEY and KEN MASS
Monday, May 07, 2007 - 10:01:21 am CDT
A recent analysis of IRS data found that the top 300,000 American earners now make as much for their labors as all of the bottom 150 million of their fellow citizens combined.

The same day that study was released, electronics retailer Circuit City delivered the punch line by firing 3,400 of its highest-paid store employees on the grounds that they were making too much money. Reports show Circuit City fired workers making as little as $11.59 an hour.

This is what has become of the American dream — and it makes clear why we need to pass the Employee Free Choice Act. America is at a tipping point, and working families are about to tumble over the edge. Just ask the 3,400 workers laid off from Circuit City.
Just ask workers at Goodyear Tire & Rubber in Lincoln who have seen their jobs shipped overseas. Just ask those struggling without health care or good job prospects. Despite productivity and profit growth, wages have not kept pace with rising family costs for everything from housing to education. While the rich have gotten more so, the rest of America has been left far behind.

The Employee Free Choice Act, which passed the U.S. House of Representatives by a substantial margin and is now pending in the U.S. Senate, will go a long way toward reducing the grip of this middle-class squeeze by restoring workers’ freedom to bargain for better wages, benefits and working conditions. That right has been seriously eroded in recent years.

A union card is the straightest ticket into the middle class. Union workers earn an average of 30 percent more than workers without a union. They are far more likely to have health insurance and retirement benefits. And unlike the former workers at Circuit City, they cannot be summarily fired for the sole crime of earning a decent living.

Today, however, it is next to impossible for workers to form unions. Under current law, corporations can and do force workers into a confrontational, delay-ridden process that helps them block workers from organizing.

FULL story at link.