Employment
Return to Common Sense
July 16, 2010
Section:
Domestic – Employment
“Increase union accountability
and effectiveness by requiring re-certification elections every five years to
ensure unions continue to meet member needs and unions continue to represent their
members.”
“Government's role
should be only to keep the playing field level, and to work hand in hand with
business on issues such as employment. But beyond this, to as great an extent
as possible, it should get the hell out of the way.”
Jesse Ventura.
Philosophy
(Background, Issues, Objectives):
Department of Labor
is a U.S. Cabinet level department responsible for:
- Occupational safety.
- Wage and hour standards.
- Unemployment insurance benefits.
- Re-employment services.
- Some economic statistics.
Americans work more, enjoy their work
more, and are happier than any other country.
- General Social
Survey (GSS) found 89% of workers are very satisfied or satisfied with
their jobs.
o
No difference in satisfaction found between those
with above or below average incomes.
o
Two thirds of working people would continue to
work, even after having money to stop working.
- For most
Americans work is a rock-solid source of life happiness.
o
Happy people work more hours per week than unhappy
people.
o
Happy people work more in their free time as well.
o
People with more hours per week to relax outside
their jobs are not happier.
- 2002
International Social Survey Programme found US
happier than other 34 countries.
Organized labor was successful in the
1930s long after many workplace conditions were implemented already, based on
company best interests and employee retention.
·
In 1911, Henry Ford implemented a shorter workday,
and the daily wage.
o
An eight hour day meant the plants could run three
shifts, 24 hours a day, speeding production and reducing costs.
o
In 1922, Ford shortened the workweek from the
industrial standard of 50 hours, including half a day on Saturday, to a
five-day, 40-hour week.
o
With overtime, Ford could run full shifts on the
weekend and keep his plants busy 24/7/365.
·
In 1913, Ford Motor Co. started an embryonic
employee health plan, with company clinics for on the job injuries, employees,
and their families.
·
The company health department also placed the many
handicapped workers Ford hired in suitable positions and in some cases
monitored their health.
·
DuPont had a gunpowder mill that faced difficulties
attracting and keeping workers, so employees were given life insurance, if they
were killed on the job.
·
DuPont also trained their employees to be very, very
safe, with “safety first”
becoming part of the DuPont corporate culture.
·
The Davis-Bacon Act requires employers to pay the
“prevailing” local wage
(union pay rate) on federally funded projects.
o
“Prevailing wages," as determined by the
federal government, were in error 100% of the time.
o
Davis-Bacon wage rates are on average 22% higher
than the standard wage rate in an area.
Union membership continues to decline,
except in the public sector, and is at an overall low.
- Private sector union membership continues to decline.
o
In 2009 7.26% of private sector workers are union
members..
o Corruption
(pension fund abuse) continues to plague union leadership.
o Unions
have begun to merge internationally as a way to increase membership and power.
o Public
“card check” agreements are misrepresented and misused to recognize
unions.
o Misuse
of member funds for political activism, instead of member support, is
undermining support.
- Public sector union membership is the only growing sector.
o
Executive Order 10988 in 1962 allowed
unionization of the federal work force.
o
In 2009 37.4% of public-sector workers are union
members, including:
§
Service Employees International Union (SEIU);
§
American Federation of State, County, and Municipal
Employees (AFSCME); and
§
American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE).
o
44% of all union members are in the public sector
– federal, state, or local.
o
Federal employment pay gap between public and
private sector employment is increasing at breakneck speed.
o
Public employees are earning an average $13.38 per
hour in benefits, while private sector workers earn only $7.98.
o
Government benefits rose
three times more than those in the private sector.
o
Congress has exempted itself from laws
allowing staff to unionize.
Right
to work generally refers to section 14b of the 1947 Taft-Hartley Act,
which allows states to bar union shop collective bargaining agreements in which
paying union dues is required for many jobs.
·
In
non-right to work states, workers can be forced to join a union or pay dues as
a condition of employment.
·
22
states have adopted right to work laws since 1947, mostly in the South and
West.
·
Since
1970 the population of right to work states has more than doubled
·
Since
1970 the population of closed shop states has increased by only 25.7%.
·
Census
data show that 4.7 million Americans moved from closed shop states to right to
work states between April 1, 2000, and July 1, 2008.
·
Dues
go not only toward representational expense, but also toward lavish
compensation for union officials and political donations to causes and
candidates that individual union members individually might not support.
·
On
average, right to work states have fared better than their closed shop
neighbors.
Outsourcing is not a zero sum game.
- Investing in
inefficient industry elongates eventual demise.
- Manufacturing
globalization will result in lower process for commodities.
- Service
globalization will result in a lower overall cost of products and
services.
- Ultimately
globalization causes businesses to be more efficient, to grow, and to
create additional jobs.
- United States is a net importer of jobs, even of technology jobs.
o
In 2006 employment has declined near 12,000 jobs a
month in the manufacturing.
o
Employment has declined near 1,000 jobs a month in
construction.
o
Job gains have averaged 167,000 per month in the
service providing sector.
- All countries have seen a net loss of manufacturing jobs, but the
sector has recovered.
o
Between 2000 and 2003, number of workers in
manufacturing declined by 2.8 million.
§
Low skilled jobs have been automated, while higher
skilled jobs are in demand.
§
Skilled construction workers such as plumbers,
electricians, welders are in high demand.
o Overall
unemployment rate has shrunk to 4.5%.
o In
2006 manufacturing output and Return on Equity reached an all time high.
o In
2006 manufacturing revenue and profit reached an all time high.
o In
2006 value of
o
- McKinsey &
Co. study in 2003 showed return of $1.12 for every dollar of work sent
overseas.
Minimum wage is ineffective as a poverty
tool, because of inefficient targeting of the poor.
- Comparable worth is a discredited idea to circumvent the free
market value of jobs.
- Minimum wage
jobs are normally entry level positions, and include jobs that earn tips.
- Relatively few
people earn the federal minimum wage (2.5% of hourly workers/1.5% total
workers).
- Increase in
minimum wage may reduce government benefits to workers who receive them.
- When the minimum
wage is raised, salaried and hourly workers also expect raises.
- Most people who
earn minimum wage are young and in school, or older workers who have left
school.
- Majority of
people work part time and rarely stay in minimum wage jobs for more than a
year.
- Raising minimum
wage will reduce number of available jobs.
Principles:
- Off-shoring
reaffirms the economic principle of comparative advantage – the
basis for free trade.
- Off-shoring is
the next step in the generally beneficial evolution of modern capitalism.
Incent unemployed to become employed.
Unions that outlive their usefulness
should de-certify to release their members from dues.
Recommendations:
Short
Term, Decrease government control and
interference in employment practices.
De-federalize the minimum wage:
- Let the free market set the appropriate wages for each job and
industry.
- Let states set
their own minimum wage, if needed.
Reform unemployment insurance:
- Limit duration
of unemployment benefits.
- Disqualify
workers voluntarily on strike and seasonal workers.
Increase union accountability:
- Ensure federal employment is operates under Right to Work rules.
- Require union recertification elections every five years.
- Require private
ballot elections to authorize unionization vs. authorization cards.
- Union members
must vote on use of union dues for political activism.
- Remove
capability for striking workers to receive unemployment, welfare, or food
stamps.
- Require Congress
employees to conform to labor organization policies.
- Ensure continued full funding for the Office of Labor Management
Standards, the union watchdog agency.
Measure employment accurately:
- Job creation
(BLS Household and Payroll Surveys).
- Participation
rate (BLS Labor Force Participation)
- Unemployment
rate (BLS Local Area Unemployment Statistics).
Long
Term, Remove federal interference in private
sector employment.
Abolish the federal Department of Labor as not covered under enumerated powers.
Repeal the Davis-Bacon Act to allow market to set prevailing wage
rate.
Repeal Executive Order 10988
authorization for federal work force unionization.
References:
“Does
the Minimum Wage Reduce Poverty” by Richard K. Vedder
and Lowell E. Galloway dated June 2001 published by The Employment Policies
Institute on http://www.epionline.org/studies/vedder_06-2001.pdf .
“Job
Growth Description” by R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr. dated
“And
Away They Go” by Bruce Stokes dated
“Ten
Myths about Jobs and Outsourcing” by Tim Kane, Brett Schaefer, and
Alison Fraser, dated April 1, 2004, published by The Heritage Foundation on http://www.heritage.org/Research/TradeandForeignAid/wm467.cfm .
“Outsourcing
Debate Tainted by Myths, Misconceptions” by Radley
Balko dated
“The
Outsourcing Bogeyman” by Daniel W. Drezner
dated June 2004 published by Foreign Affairs on http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20040501faessay83301/daniel-w-drezner/the-outsourcing-bogeyman.html .
“Shrinking
Union Labels” by John Carlisle dated
“Hard
at Work: Why the Unemployment Rate Accurately Reflects the Strength of the
Labor Market” by James Sherk dated
“Raising
Minimum Wage Would Hurt
“Minimum
Wage Workers’ Incomes Rise When the Minimum Wage Does Not” by
James Sherk dated
“Who
Earns Minimum Wage – Single Parents or Suburban Teenagers” by
Rea S. Hederman Jr. and James Sherk
dated
“Low
Income Workers May be Worse Off if Congress Increases the Minimum Wage”
by Rea S. Hederman Jr. and Sam Hyman dated August 3,
2006 published by The Heritage Foundation on http://www.heritage.org/Research/Economy/wm1187.cfm .
“
“Statistical
Politics” by Alan Reynolds dated
“Unions
Labor Against Free Choice” by Mark Mix dated
“Wishful Thinking on the Minimum Wage”
by Steve Chapman dated
“Card
Check Undermines Workplace Democracy” by James Sherk
dated
“Minimum
Wage Hikes Hurt Unskilled and Disadvantaged Workers’ Job Prospects”
by James Sherk dated
“Easing
the Pain: Let States Opt Out of a Minimum Wage Hike” by James Sherk dated
“Restore
workers’ constitutional rights” dated
“Tough
times at the UAW” by George Will dated
“Labor
Unions Team With Liberals for Ambitious Agenda” by Mike Franc dated
“Steve
Jobs Has Guts” by Jay Greene dated
“Big
Labor’s Desperate Power Grab” by Phil Kerpen
dated
“Job
Corps: A Consistent Record of Failure” by David B. Muhlhausen dated
“Top 10
Labor Union Power Grabs” dated
“In
Defense of Income Inequality” by Peter Schwartz dated
“Unions
for a Global Economy” by Harold Meyerson
dated
“Curing
the Blue-Collar Blues” by John Silvia dated
“Outsourcing
Myths” dated
“Happy
for the Work” by Arthur C. Brooks dated
“Not
Worth Saving” dated
“Liberals
Target Labor-Union Watchdog” by Robert B. Bluey
dated
“The
State of the American Worker 2007: Attitudes About Work in
“Thriving
in a Global Economy” by Daniel Ikenson
dated
“Upwards
Leisure Mobility: Americans Work Less and Have More Leisure Time Than Ever
Before” by James Sherk dated
“Americans
Are World’s Most Productive Workers, UN Report Finds” dated
“Joel Kotkin Debunks the Myth of Deindustrialization”
by Bill Steigerwald dated
“Trading
Up – How Expanded Trade Has Delivered Better Jobs and Higher Living
Standards for American Workers” by Daniel Griswold dated October 25,
2007 published by CATO Institute at http://www.freetrade.org/node/782 .
“Equal
Rights Nonsense” by Roger Clegg dated
“The
Coming Crackdown with Public Labor” by Lewis M. Andrews dated
“Extended
Unemployment Insurance – No Economic Stimulus” by James Sherk and Karen A. Campbell dated
“Myths
of Organized Labor” by Ronnie Schreiber dated December 16, 2008
published by Front Page Magazine at http://www.frontpagemagazine.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=F740D12D-DB5D-46AF-9D28-53E7FFF08C74 .
“From
civil servants to the new nobility” by Harry Eisenberg dated February
15, 2009 published by World Net Daily at http://wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=88886 .
“Taxpayers
on the Hook for New Government Benefit?” by Darrell Issa dated June 4, 2009 published by Human Events at http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=32141 .
“Time
for Congress to Work Under the Same Rules as the Private Sector” by
James Sherk and ryan
McDonnell dated October 13, 2009 published by The Heritage Foundation at http://www.heritage.org/Research/Labor/bg2326.cfm .
“Beyond
Card Check” by Kevin Mooney dated December 1, 2009 published by The
American Spectator at http://spectator.org/archives/2009/12/01/beyond-card-check .
“Public-sector
Unions Bleed Taxpayers to Help Dems” by
Michael Barone dated February 8, 2010 published by
Town Hall at http://townhall.com/columnists/MichaelBarone/2010/02/08/public-sector_unions_bleed_taxpayers_to_help_dems
.
“How to
Save $11.4 Billion This Year” by Steve King dated March 4, 2010
published by The American Spectator at http://spectator.org/archives/2010/03/04/how-to-save-114-billion-this-y
.
“Michigan
a Right to Work State?” by F. Vincent Vernuccio
dated July 16, 2010 published by The American Spectator at http://spectator.org/archives/2010/07/16/michigan-a-right-to-work-state
.
