Juravich: Bigger emphasis needed on better jobs; not simply more jobs

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.laborradio.org/node/12848

Submitted by Jesse Russell on January 31, 2010 - 1:26pm
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Numbers on Friday suggest the economy is growing, but the picture still doesn’t look rosy for U.S. workers. Wages and benefits paid to workers only grew by 1.5 percent over the entirety of 2009 - the weakest growth on record. Tom Juravich, author of the new book “At the Altar of the Bottom Line,” said that a bigger focus needs to be put on creating better jobs and not just more jobs.

: We need to remember that the core of this recession goes back to the massive inequality that occurred in our society between people who worked on Wall Street and people who worked on Main Street. As long as that inequality exists we are not going to get this country back on solid foundation.

Juravich told the Workers Independent News that unless the inequality between Wall Street and Main Street is addressed the United States won’t be able to move forward.

: Unless we get this country back on track we aren't going to have a real recovery.

[Hannah Bell]

1. Juravich is right, obviously. And he's a good musician too. I love his song "Borderlines".

Borderlines
Gail Gingrich and Valerie De Priest

# 8 at:

http://www.rounder.com/artist/music/default.aspx?pid=63765&aid=97581


I'm hearing how business is tough in America
And how the union's out of hand
I heard on the news today ‘bout the latest threat to my pay
There's one thing I just don't understand
They say they can't afford our wages
And turn their greedy eyes to distant shores

While patrols guard the borderlines
I'm standing on a picket line
While corporate boardroom plans are formed
To move my job to Salvador
Where for 50 cents a day
A women sweats her life away
Then they tell me she's my enemy

At first I didn't have the time
To bother with the words
It seemed so very far away
But now I'm in a worried mood
Cause hands need work and kids need food
And I just got laid off today
They say it just makes good business
While their profit swells up like some disease

While patrols guard the borderline
I'm standing on an unemployment line
While somewhere in the Philippines
A mind grows numb from stitching seams
Guatemalan hills are cash,
A coffee picker's skull is smashed
And then they tell me he's my enemy

I think I'm finally putting it all together
Borderlines don't hold their loyalty
They don't care who is the drone
White, red, yellow, black or brown
Profit is their only deity
As corporate arms spread all around the world
They'll strangle any weak neck they can find

From the mines in South Africa
To the fields of El Salvador
From the sweatshops down in Mexico
To the wire slots in Tokyo
Sweat is sweat and blood is blood
And one day soon the time will come
We'll stand and face our common enemy
Sweat is sweat and blood is blood
And one day soon the time will come
We'll stand and face our common enemy.


"Between the wars" also excellent.