African Americans, Unions, and Manufacturing
Manufacturing jobs, and especially unionized manufacturing jobs, were an important route into the middle class for African American families in the half century following World War II. This is no longer the case today, as manufacturing has shrunk and the share of the workforce represented by unions has declined. The decline in union representation was especially steep in manufacturing, which now has a slightly lower union representation rate than the economy as a whole. Union jobs in manufacturing now account for just 1 percent of total employment.
These trends have hit African American workers especially hard. African American workers were 50 percent more likely to be represented by a union than whites 25 years ago. Today, they are only 30 percent more likely. And African Americans are actually slightly less likely to be employed in manufacturing today than whites.
The bottom line here is that an important source of entry to the middle class for African Americans is being closed off.
There are many reasons for this development. Hostility by employers to unions, which often includes breaking the law to defeat organizing drives, is a big factor in the decline in union membership. The strong dollar and recent trade agreements are important factors explaining the loss of manufacturing jobs.
You can get the whole story in a new report written by my colleagues at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, John Schmitt and Ben Zipperer.
Are we in a situation where good paying union jobs in the private sector; manufacturing and service, etc. are waning, with a corresponding decrease in wages and benefits, while union membership in government jobs is on the increase?
Do we have a situation where unionized government employees who are paid by the private sector have better pay and benefits than those who pay the taxes that support them?
If this is the situation, we're in deep doo doo as it will get harder and harder for the private sector to pay for the government sector.
No, I'm not anti union, my questions have no hidden message, they're just out there to see what people think.
February 26, 2008 9:06 AM | Reply | Permalink
Isn't there a lot of evidence that illegal immigration and the about-to-be-established cycle of periodically legalizing the illegals is also a big drag on African-American employment and unionization?
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I don't know whether blacks were much employed by Midwestern meatpacking plants, but 30 years ago, these were a significant source of good, clean, high-paying unionized jobs. Today, the jobs are a horror that pay very little, largely due to the availability of cheap illegal labor. Please read chapters 6 and 7 of "Fast Food Nation" to get an idea of what I'm talking about.
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The consolidating meatpacking industry in the '70s broke the unions in fairly short order, but they were able to do so only because they managed to bring in thousands of illegals from Central America and Mexico. And this is just one industry. Again, I don't know the black employment concentration in meatpacking, but what happened in this industry is a good example of one major factor in what's happening throughout American manufacturing. And if it's happening across the board, it's happening to African-Americans, isn't it?
February 26, 2008 9:48 AM | Reply | Permalink
It always bothers me when "experts" talk about manufacturing as though nobody works in manufacturing anymore. That's simply untrue. Millions continue to be employed in manufacturing around the nation, it just isn't as dominant now as in the past. As far as manufacturing being an entry into the middle class for African Americans there's simply no denying this is true, but to act as though this is not also the case for all citizens who are looking for a way up and out of the lower income existence they are in is to overlook the broader picture.
For most thinkers and prognosticators over the past 20 years or so, the whole disintegration of American industrial production along with the infrastructure and jobs that go with it has been, in large part, a ho hum affair. They were focused on the "new" economy and the jobs of the future which, we now know, generally don't pay as well and are fewer than we need. For the people who have lost the good manufacturing jobs or clung to them for lower wages and less benefits, etc... this situation has been on the front burner the entire time.
Few of our political leaders say or do anything about this erosion of our economic base beyond recommending job training and more education, but the fact is our economy increasingly does not provide enough jobs that pay well enough to continue to maintain the middle class in this country. We've essentially given away the farm and it's all been done on the if-come and it appears likely now that the if-come ain't a comin like they said.
After the disasterous era of the Bush regime and the grotesque trade imbalance it has created particularly with the Chinese (whose citizens now perform many of the manufacturing jobs our citizens performed in the past) our nation is looking at bleak prospects for the forseeable future. African Americans will get hit harder and faster than the white population as usual, but there will be plenty of misery to go around in the coming economic disaster that took Bush 8 years to set the table for. We have only begun to see the tip of the iceberg and there's no avoiding it now.
Complicating matters of course is that the looting of the US Treasury by Bush makes it impossible for the government to spend much in order to encourage continued job creation and investment. Hold on tight people, when the real downturn begins it's gonna be a long, rough ride.
February 26, 2008 11:11 AM | Reply | Permalink
"Manufacturing jobs, and especially unionized manufacturing jobs, were an important route into the middle class for African American families in the half century following World War II."
OK, that sounds reasonable... but what's your point? The world doesn't stand still, and neither can we. High-paying unionized manufacturing jobs are not coming back to America, whatever we may wish were the case. So unless you have an economic solution to offer,... I really don't understand the point of your post.
Note that I WOULD be very interested in a 21st Century economic plan that makes rational sense, if you'd care to offer one. I'm not trying to just flame you (or anyone).
February 26, 2008 2:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
percentages can be misleading:
The chance that anyone is represented by an union has gone down throughout the population. There is certainly greater leeway for the percentages among African Americans represented by unions than others.
February 26, 2008 3:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
I agree that manufacturing jobs aren't coming back--unless we actually do something to bring them back. Look, virtually all the world's great economic powers developed themselves under protection of high tariffs and other trade barriers. Only AFTER these countries developed huge economic advantages did "protectionism" suddenly become a dirty word.
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Why not simply go back to the notion of making rational decisions, on a case-by-case basis, on whether specific types of trade with specific countries benefit the overall US economy, with the health, well-being and prosperity of American workers--as opposed to American consumers (since you have to have an income before you can consume anything) the No. 1 criterion? Some trade relationships we'll want, others we won't.
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February 27, 2008 10:13 AM | Reply | Permalink