EFCA Would Help Blacks Find Economic Recovery

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.rollcall.com/news/34135-1.html

By Steven Pitts
Special to Roll Call
April 21, 2009, 2:48 p.m.

Growing up in Chicago’s South Side in the 1960s, the saying went around that when America sneezed, the black community caught a cold. Today, as our country endures what most economists expect to end up as the worst crisis since the Great Depression, black families can brace themselves for the economic equivalent of a life-threatening bout of pneumonia.

That gloomy outlook is evidenced by February jobless figures for the U.S. that show 8.2 percent of whites were officially unemployed; for blacks, the figure was 13.8 percent.

Many actions need to be taken to address this economic inequity. One very important step is the passage of the Employee Free Choice Act.

This legislation will help to increase workers’ abilities to bargain with their employers for better wages, and that’s especially important for black workers, whose economic problems started long ago.

During the 27 years after World War II, median incomes for black families rose by 131 percent after inflation, reflecting the migration of blacks away from the rural South, the gains from the Civil Rights Movement, effective public policies such as the minimum wage laws, and the presence of a strong union movement.

In contrast, between 1973 and 2007 median black family incomes rose by only 33 percent. This anemic growth rate (mirrored for workers of all races) reflected greater global economic competition, the rise to dominance of the conservative movement whose aim was to weaken pro-worker social and economic policies, and the diminished strength of unions in the face of these transformations.

But for black working families, it meant adults often were forced to work multiple jobs, high school and college-age youth were forced to sacrifice schooling opportunities in order to earn money for their families, and some household members had to find employment in the underground economy.

FULL story at link.