Report Says 3.2 Million U.S. Manufacturing Jobs Lost

The AP put out a story yesterday, April 20, 2007, about the loss of manufacturing jobs in America. The story points out that 84 percent of Americans in the labor force are employed in service jobs, up from 81 percent in 2000. This loss of manufacturing jobs has put "16 percent of the nation's 379 metropolitan areas are in recession, reflecting primarily the troubles in manufacturing. There have been heavy job losses in a variety of industries from textiles and apparel to paper and furniture."

Most of these manufacturing job losses can be explained by two words: China and Mexico. That is where the jobs are going. These job losses are caused by cheaper labor rates and by the Chinese government keeping its currency artificially low compared to the currency of the United States.

Currently the job losses are being seen in manufacturing, but according to one expert quoted in the article, job losses will soon spread to service jobs. This is from the article: "Princeton economist Alan Blinder, who was vice chairman of the Federal Reserve during the Clinton administration, says the number of jobs at risk of being shipped out of the country could reach 40 million over the next 10 to 20 years. That would be one out of every three service sector jobs that could be at risk."

When you start looking at Democratic candidates for our party's 2008 nomination ask yourself which ones will fight for American workers and which ones won't.

Union Membership in US Drops to 12% of Workforce

This is disappointing news for Americans workers and for all of us who want a viable American middle class. Union membership is down to 12% of America's workforce. In the 1950s, with a much smaller population, union members accounted about 33% of America's workforce belonged to an union. Twenty years ago, the figure was over 20%.

The reason why this is bad for American workers is that unions drive up wages for all workers, not just those in the unions. When non-union employers have to compete for workers with unionized workers, they have to offer more money and more benefits. When there isn't such competition, then there isn't that incentive to improve wage and benefits packages.

This country was built on increasing the standard of living for the middle class, and especially for workers did not have a college degree. Those workers are now seeing their standard of living eroding. It will continue to erode as long as workers are not able to effectively bargain with employers for better wages.

Hopefully the new Democratic controlled Congress will pass legislation to make it easier to join an union. It is almost a certainity that such legislation would be vetoed by Bush, but it would set the stage for getting it passed and signed during the upcoming Democratic presidency.
________________________________________________________________________________________
You can read the whole article by clicking on the link in this entry's title.