USW Blog

  • What’s scaring the bejeezus out of billionaires?
    There’s a new political army on the march in America: Tromp-tromp-tromp they came, it’s the Billionaire Brigade! It’s actually a very small army – only 749 Americans rank as billionaires. But they have a lot of firepower – collectively, they’ve amassed some $4-trillion in personal wealth and are now grabbing nearly all of the new wealth that our economy generates. In response to the extreme inequality their greed has created, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and other Democratic leaders are proposing a widely-popular wealth tax on the opulence of this tiny group. And oh, what wails of anguish this has generated in the lairs of billionaires! They’re indignant that fortunes above $50-million would be assessed a teeny surtax to help fund education, health care, infrastructure, and America’s other essential needs. So, with a rallying cry of Save the Poor Rich, the Billionaire’s Brigade seeks your pity: Mark Zuckerberg laments that taxing his gabillions would hurt charities; Michael Bloomberg suggests that the tax could turn America into Venezuela; and Wall Street baron Leon Cooperman actually teared up while wailing that a wealth tax would harm his family. As one money manager said, “These tax proposals are scaring the bejeezus out of people who have accumulated a lot of wealth.” I don’t think there’s much Jesus in these people! The Biblical Jesus would bless Sanders, Warren, and the majority of Americans who favor a wealth tax to benefit the Common Good. No need to cry for the few hundred haughty families whose love of money would be only slightly dinged by this tax – every one of them would still be fabulously rich. Plus, they’ll be privileged to live in a country that’s a little more closely aligned with its people’s egalitarian values. And that’s priceless. *** Reposted from Hightower Lowdown — Dec 13
  • Valuing Working-Class Life: Recent Memoirs by Working-Class Women
    With the UK general election looming, there has been renewed interest in the effects of years of austerity measures on poor and working-class people. It seems clear that inequality has increased and more and more people rely on food banks and charities to provide the basics. Many children live in poverty, and households cannot heat their homes in winter. Homelessness has been on the rise. Special features in publications such as the Guardian  and documentaries like Growing up Poor have made all of this visible. Yet even though these articles and documentaries include the stories of those affected, they seem to be created for the middle-class reader and viewer, people who are much less likely to have experienced poverty. They view working-class lives from a distance. But two new memoirs written by working-class women offer insights into poverty and hardship from a more intimate perspective. Kerry Hudson’s Lowborn tells her story of growing up in poverty in the 1980s and 1990s, and Cash Carraway’s Skint Estate relays her more recent experience of living hand-to-mouth as a working-class single parent. These first-person narratives seem to be written for working-class readers, who know how easy is it to slip from getting by to not affording the rent or bills. Such readers will find plenty in these books to recognise, empathise with and get angry about. Lowborn jumps between Hudson’s early life moving around with her mother from Scotland to the south of England, back to the north, and then ending up in the east of England. She experienced huge disruption to her schooling and a dysfunctional family life. There is a sense throughout the book that Hudson, now a successful author who lives a mostly middle-class life, comes to terms with her childhood poverty. She returns to her childhood homes to recall in detail the experience and effects of poverty and to reconcile with her past. This is not a romantic journey. Her mother did not cope, and at times, Hudson was taken into care by the state. Their relationship was difficult, and they remain estranged, but through the process of writing the book, Hudson finds commonalties and closeness with some of her extended family. What is striking when reading this book are the small details that working-class readers will recognise: the mad dash from her council flat down to the ice-creak van with a few pence in hand to buy the cheapest treat available, trips across the country on National Express coaches (rail travel was a real luxury), and the sheer delight of occasional fancy foods such as pop and mini-sausage rolls. While the more extreme experiences of being homeless, living in B&Bs, surviving neglect and abuse might not be as common, the working-class reader is likely to have lived in close proximity to families like Hudson’s. The book also reveals how Hudson and her mother were let down by various institutions and individuals (especially the men in her mother’s life) and how the effects of being left behind accumulate and wear people down. The book includes stories of substance abuse and self-harm, which seem to be symptoms of poverty and life-long disadvantage. Ultimately, Hudson reclaims her working-class origins, but she also shows how the stigma of growing up poor can harm. — Dec 12
  • Human Service Workers at Persad Center Vote to Join the USW
    From the USW Workers at Persad Center, a human service organization that serves the LGBTQ+ and HIV/AIDS communities of the Pittsburgh area, voted last week to join the United Steelworkers (USW) union. The unit of 24 workers, ranging from therapists and program coordinators to case managers and administrative staff, announced their union campaign as the Persad Staff Union last month and filed for an election with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). “We care about our work and the communities we serve,” said Johanna Smith, Persad’s Development, Communications, and Events Associate. “We strongly believe this work and our connections to our clients will only improve now that we will be represented by a union.” The Persad workers join the growing number of white-collar professionals organizing with the USW, especially in the Pittsburgh region. Their membership is also in line with the recent work the Steelworkers have been doing to engage LGBTQ+ members and improve contract language regarding issues that affect their lives. “Workplaces are changing and evolving, and the labor movement is changing and evolving along with that,” said USW Vice President Fred Redmond, who oversees the union’s LGBTQ+ Advisory Committee as well as the USW Health Care Workers Council. “This campaign gives us an opportunity to diversify our great union while uplifting and empowering a group of workers who give their all for others.” *** — Dec 11
  • Bipartisan Bill Aims to Make Sure Drinking Water Infrastructure is Made in America
    We’ve been so lost in the hustle and bustle of the holiday season that we didn’t get a chance to talk about an important bipartisan bill introduced last month that aims to improve a key piece of America’s infrastructure — and create good-paying jobs, too. Reps. Cheri Bustos (D-Ill.) and David McKinley (R-W. Va.) put forth the “Buy America for Drinking Water Extension Act” on Nov. 20. The legislation would permanently ensure that all iron and steel products used for projects in the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund are “made entirely in the United States.” The revolving fund is a federal-state partnership that is used to finance projects to improve drinking water systems nationwide. Between 1997 and 2018, the fund has given more than $38.2 billion in low-interest loans to more than 14,500 projects, helping provide safe drinking water to millions of Americans. Still, more needs to be done. Like most of America’s infrastructure, our nation’s drinking water infrastructure is in terrible shape. The American Society of Civil Engineers gave it a “D” rating in 2017, noting that the 1 million miles of pipes that deliver water to our homes in businesses were laid in the early-to-mid 20th century. Given that these pipes have a lifespan of 75 to 100 years, it’s time to get to work modernizing these systems. And when we do, it’s important to also make sure our tax dollars are reinvested back into our communities, creating jobs and boosting the local economy, which is the goal of the new legislation. Although they might at first seem like separate issues, jobs and infrastructure are closely linked. It’s no secret, after all, that the places that were hit hardest by manufacturing job loss and industrial flight in the late 20th century also watched their infrastructure crumble. Perhaps the most famous example of this is Flint, Michigan. — Dec 11
  • The Robots are Coming, But There's No Need to Fear Them
    Watch the video » — Dec 10