Ethan Trudeau
Special to In Motion
We are currently experiencing the worst inequality in our country since 1923, according to the PEW Research Center. While production created by American workers from 1979 to 2013 increased by 133 percent, wages only increased by 19 percent.
So the two questions to fixing this issue of inequality are why have American workers wages not increased with productivity? And how do we distribute corporate profits more fairly among American workers?
We must first look at what happened in 1981 when we began seeing productivity rise while American wages stagnated. Ronald Reagan was president and PATCO, the Air Traffic Control Union, was on strike for a 32-hour work week and better pay. What happened next was incredibly important to shaping the lives of the current American worker.
In the name of national security, Reagan ordered the firing of any Air Traffic Control worker that went on strike. He then appoints anti-union politicians as the heads of labor in the United States. That was the start of a dedicated union-busting campaign across America. Anti-union labor cabinet picks begin working with American corporations to create anti-union propaganda, which was successful at convincing the American public they no longer needed to collectively bargain.
Union membership rates since then have gone from 35 percent of American workers during the 70’s to 6.5 percent being unionized today. Lack of union membership in America makes it so workers cannot collectively bargain with employers for better pay and is in direct correlation with wages not having increased along with productivity and profits.
But this issue of income inequality is not something we have zero control over. If the working class stands up and demands to bring unions back, we can start down the road of fixing income inequality in the United States.
The first step is unionizing the workplace, but this is only a Band-Aid on the sore created by corporations that are not fairly paying workers for what they produce. Even with unions, working class Americans will not have control over how they are payed, treated, who their boss is, or how their labor is used in the workplace.
Which brings us to the second question: “How do we distribute corporate profits more fairly among the American workers?”
The answer is co-op run businesses. Currently traditional businesses are controlled by a single individual or a few partners. Co-op’s are controlled by the customers, customers are members of the co-op and every member is part owner of the co-op. Members share equal ownership of the business. They meet often and vote who will be the on the board of the business. The board then makes the decisions of day-to-day operations and who the managers will be.
You may be thinking this isn’t how stocks work, where people buy stock to have part control of a business. When an individual buys a majority of stock within a business they can control business decisions, including pay scales. With a co-op, all member workers and customers have equal ownership and an equal vote. The members vote on how the business is run and how people are paid.
While we are facing the worst inequality since the Great Depression, it does not have to be this way. We must stand up and demand politicians abolish laws like “right to work,” which in Florida allows employers to fire anyone they want at will and for any reason.
As stated previously, the first step is bringing unions back into the workplace. After that, we look towards the future. Let’s demand our politicians offer incentives to create co-ops by encouraging banks to offer low interest loans to workers who want to create one or to buy out small businesses they work for and turn those into co-ops.
This is not something I believe, this is something I know.
Editor’s Note: Ethan Trudeau is a member and organizer for the Daytona Beach chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, which has almost a dozen chapters in Florida.