When I was growing up there were many working-class jobs, mostly in unionized industries, which enabled a single wage earner to support a family. But then came “globalization” and the outsourcing of these jobs to low-wage economies with minimal safety and environmental standards.
In the 1970s I was an assembly-line worker and shop steward (an elected shop floor union representative) in the largest car factory in the UK. We went through a sustained management assault on wages and working conditions. Over a period of four years the company broke the union through multiple violations of long-standing agreements and extended lock outs.
I emigrated to the U.S. in 1978 to take up a job as an oilfield mechanic and electrician in the Gulf of Mexico. Margaret Thatcher was elected prime minister in the UK in 1979 and Ronald Reagan president in the U.S. in 1980. Both embarked on a program of government-led union busting, Reagan most notably with the air traffic controllers strike in 1981. Nationwide, numerous states adopted anti-union so-called “right to work” laws.
In the 40 years since then, working-class wages have lagged inflation. Today, it takes two wage earners to support a family and even so many are struggling to keep up with the rising costs of rent, food, and fuel. Meanwhile, globalization has shifted trillions of dollars to billionaires who commonly pay a smaller percentage of income in taxes than most workers.
The recent UAW victory recovers many of the losses that autoworkers have suffered since 2008. It provides a glimmer of light at the end of this decades-long dark tunnel. The overwhelming unionization vote at the VW plant in “right to work” Tennessee tells us the sands are shifting. And then we have Biden, the first president in U.S. history to join a picket line, providing a very visible demonstration in support of fair wages.
Inflation continues to hammer family finances, and there is a huge amount of ground to be made up before pay rates recover to the point where a single wage earner can support a family, but there is movement. The Biden administration is pumping billions of dollars, through both large and small investments, into rebuilding well paid jobs in the U.S. This week alone, Maine received $62 million for residential solar to reduce utility bills for low-income households, and Scarborough, Lewiston, and Brunswick received additional grants for other projects.
If passed, the Biden budget will begin to ensure billionaires pay their fair share in taxes.
I am hopeful the pendulum that has swung steadily towards the ultra-wealthy for the past 40 years, powered by “free trade” agreements, government and state led union busting, and tax cuts for the wealthy, is about to start swinging back in the other direction. It is long overdue.
Nigel Calder
Newcastle
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