Bloomberg Businessweek July 6, 2020 pp18-27. “How the American Worker Got Fleeced” “For decades, bosses have held down wages, cut benefits and stomped on employees’ rights. Call it what it is: A heist” by Josh Eidelson.
Summary
Part of BBW’s Heist Issue, this report summarizes the past and evolving plight of the American worker. Going back to 1973 union workers accounted for about 13% of the workforce. The number of union workers has fallen since then and now account for only about 7% of the workforce.
As it turns out, federal law provides little protection for workers and often when abuses are pursued courts typically side with business rather than workers. In an effort to further maximize control and minimize worker protection, businesses and organizations have systematically bucketed as many job classes into the least protected classifications as possible. Most recently, the rise of “contract workers” within most traditional companies and “internet” companies has increased unfair employment practices. This practice called “fissuring” creates multiple layers between the worker and the company for which they provide services. Contracted staff have even less protection under existing laws and struggle to resolve what may be legitimate disputes in the workplace when having to dialog through a staffing agency. Complaining workers, workers trying to organize and workers that call out safety and ethical concerns are easily dismissed for minor work-rule violations or targeted reductions in force. Besides better control over the workforce, companies using contracted labor improve the appearance of their financials by showing fewer employees and seemingly raising the average wage of their non-contracted workforce.
Despite rising cost-of-living, all these manuevers have had the overall effect of suppressing wages and needed benefits like paid sick-leave, healthcare and retirement. Efforts to fight back have not been effective but recent push-back relating to working conditions and sick-leave during the COVID-19 pandemic have had some effect. There’s some hope combining this with a change in federal and state administrations might advance worker’s compensation, benefits and protection from retaliation.
Facts and Quotes From the Report
From 1998-2018 % change U.S. Inflation-Adjusted (All Approximate) : housing +120%, healthcare +70%, public college +70%, private college +50%, Wages-Food Service etc. +10%, Wages-Transportation, Warehousing +3%, Wages-Retail -3%, Federal Minimum Wage -20%, Union Membership -20%, pension coverage -30%.
"U.S. labor law requires labor relations consultants to disclose some names of companies that hire them for anti-union persuasion efforts or intel during labor disputes". Top 10 corporate spenders 2000-2018: Conway Freight, Laboratory Corporation of America, DaVita, Mission Foods, Fortuna Enterprises, Genco, United Natural Foods, MGM Mirage, Saginaw Chippewa Tribe of Michigan, Sutter Health. Total spending recorded for all companies was nearly $30M in 2015. Top spenders in 2017 were LabCorp $3.5M, Mission Foods $2.4M and Quest Diagnostics $0.859M.
“After a co-worker tested positive for Covid-19, Gloria Machuca says she was told “McDonald’s doesn’t pay sick days” [She works 60 hours at two McDonalds for $9.25 and $8.25 but was required a two-week quarantine without sick leave. McDonald’s responded “We’re confident the vast majority of restaurant employees impacted by Covid-19 are getting paid sick leave,…”]
A worker a Boeing, South Carolina, “are afraid to raise safety issues lest they be laid off”.
Dollar General fired market analyst after he “sent emails to managers and executives urging them to implement better safety measures and hazard pay for essential workers…”
“After Phillippe Boucher and his fellow Microsoft bug testers unionized, the staffing firm that technically employed them laid off the whole team”.
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