Shared Prosperity, Good Jobs, Wages in Convention Spotlight
Delegates focused on shared prosperity, good jobs and raising wages, as the AFL-CIO 2013 Convention entered its third day in Los Angeles.
The three working family economics resolutions that won approval this morning center on the labor movement’s vision of shared prosperity here and around the globe, the steps needed to create good jobs, economic security and tax fairness and three dozen specific actions to raise wages and put more money into workers’ pockets.
The platform of shared prosperity is held up by many pillars, including:
- A secure job that pays a living wage in a safe workplace that allows time for vital family needs;
- A voice at work—through our unions and through collective bargaining with our employers;
- Affordable, accessible and quality health care for all;
- Retirement security so workers may age with dignity, peace of mind and quality of life;
- Equal access to high-quality public education for our children and the opportunity for all to pursue advanced education without sinking into lifelong debt.
To achieve shared prosperity, democracy and solidarity in the workplace is key. On the job, that means through the right to collective bargaining, and in public life, through strong voting rights and the end of voter intimidation and suppression and reining in the unlimited corporate campaign advantage.
There are roadblocks to shared prosperity.
We cannot have shared prosperity so long as we give publicly financed handouts to companies that lay off Americans to accelerate profits. We cannot have shared prosperity when we do our duty and pay taxes, when we buy and sell our houses and cars, but speculators buy and sell trillions in financial assets every day without paying a penny in taxes.
Just as corporate influence and the agenda of the financial elites are global, the labor movement’s vision of shared prosperity extends beyond America’s borders.
Throughout the world, the values of shared prosperity are locked in conflict with the agenda of financial elites and global corporations. But in the end this conflict is self-defeating. A world of radical inequality is not in anyone’s long-term interest. That is why we seek a global economy where worker rights and the environment are protected, an economy where global finance is regulated and put to work to increase shared prosperity. We want global trade rules that allow countries to protect workers and the environment, that do not trade food and product safety for market access.
Be sure to read the entire Shared Prosperity convention resolution that outlines a powerful and detailed vision of an economy that works for all, at home and around the world.
Good Jobs
As we’ve seen in the budget battles on Capitol Hill, Wall Street and the wealthiest Americans’ vision of the economy includes dodging their fair share of taxes, which leads to high unemployment, bad jobs, low wages and economic insecurity. On top of that, they call for cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security benefits to pay for lower taxes.
But delegates approved a different vision this morning:
Working people have a very different vision for America’s future. We are demanding: (1) good jobs, full employment and investments in infrastructure and public services to build pathways to the middle class; (2) economic security; and (3) tax fairness to make these things possible.
Making the right budget choices in Washington is a vital element to meeting those goals, including the end of “short-sighted budget austerity.” In the area of good jobs, the AFL-CIO will:
- Demand repeal—rather than replacement—of sequestration. Across-the-board budget cuts will hold back economic growth for the next decade, while repealing these cuts would boost employment and growth. There is no economic need to replace these cuts with other harmful cuts.
- Demand jobs legislation. Congress must pass jobs legislation that invests in infrastructure, education, manufacturing and energy and helps state and local governments avoid layoffs of educators, first responders and other public service employees.
- Demand higher levels of public investment. These productive investments will not only put people to work but also lay the foundations for long-term economic growth.
- Demand that rebuilding U.S. manufacturing and the industrial base be made a national priority, and that Buy American laws be strengthened and fully enforced.
Economic Security
Health care, retirement security, an unemployment safety net and adequate public services are vital building blocks of economic security. Yet all are under attack.
The AFL-CIO commits to opposing any cuts to Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid benefits, “no matter what form they take or who proposes them.” It also calls for increased benefits in all three programs, including a higher cost of living allowance. The resolution also calls for raising the Social Security tax cap so the wealthy pay their fair share the same as working families do.
The AFL-CIO also will fight against attacks on workers’ pensions under the guise of deficit reduction; oppose cuts in unemployment benefits either by weeks or amounts; back improvements to training and career counseling; and fight attempts to turn public services over to for-profit companies.
Tax Fairness
If Wall Street and the wealthy paid their fair share in taxes, that revenue would:
Generate large amounts of new revenues that could be used to make necessary investments in infrastructure, education, manufacturing and the transition to a clean energy economy.
Some of the proposals include:
- Higher tax rates on income greater than $1 million;
- Reducing or eliminating the tax preference for capital gains and dividends;
- Restoring a robust estate tax;
- Establishing a minimum 30% tax rate for millionaires; and
- Ending the “carried interest” tax loophole for Wall Street investment managers.
The AFL-CIO also calls for a financial transaction tax on Wall Street; an end to tax breaks for companies that send jobs overseas; and tax reform to encourage U.S. manufacturing. The AFL-CIO also opposes any so-called tax reform that taxes middle-class health benefits or eliminates middle-class tax deductions.
Read the full Good Jobs, Economic Security and Tax Fairness convention resolution .
Raising Wages
Wage stagnation and the lack of middle-class buying power is at the heart of our weak economy. Four years after the end of the Great Recession, unemployment remains unacceptably high.
Workers’ wages remain static or have shrunk as a result of a continuing 30-year “low-wage economic strategy” that includes, among other elements, a sustained war on workers' freedom to bargain collectively; an erosion of labor standards and employment protections and Wall Street’s takeover of the economy.
A high-wage strategy for shared prosperity must include: (1) restoring workers’ ability to bargain collectively; (2) strengthening labor standards and employment protections for all workers; (3) making full employment the central objective of U.S. fiscal and monetary policy; (4) forging a new model of engagement with the global economy so that we make things in America again and eliminate the U.S. trade deficit; and (5) shrinking our bloated financial sector and making it serve the real economy.
The AFL-CIO also commits to developing and implementing a “Raising Wages Campaign” on the national, state and local level. The resolution outlines three dozen specific legislative, regulatory and grassroots/community action issues to build a new “high-wage economic strategy.”
Some of those steps include:
- Strengthening the freedom to form a union;
- Comprehensive immigration reform with a road map to citizenship;
- Raising the minimum wage and protecting it against inflation;
- End of employee misclassification as independent contractors;
- Equal pay for equal work;
- Fair compensation for federal employees, including an end to pay and benefit cuts;
- Paid sick days;
- Minimum wage and overtime protection for home care workers;
- Prevailing wage and project labor agreements;
- New rules against “wage theft”;
- Campaigns against “right to work” for less laws;
- Minimum wage, overtime and other labor protections for farm workers and domestic workers; and
- Living wage campaigns.
Read the full Raising Wages Is the Answer convention resolution .
