In part 1 of this series, I discussed the possibility of creating state economic recovery bonds that the Federal government could buy to lend its ability to deficit-spend in recessions to the state governments to counter-act their natural pro-cyclical tendencies. In part 2, I expanded on how we could adapt state governments to Keynesian economic policies by passing anti-recession budget reform initiatives allowing limited deficits during times of economic recession, establishing state banks to provide borrowing capacity for state governments, and establishing state job insurance programs.
So what remains to be done for Keynesian economic policy to be brought to the benefit of state government?
This is a more thorough examination of the job insurance concept, done on a national level, but you can easily scale it to California or any other state.
Introduction:
In my previous posts about unemployment insurance reform and 50-state Keynesianism, I made brief reference to something called “job insurance.” Several people requested a fuller explanation, which is only fair considering that I had rather tacked on the idea without fully developing what I meant.
So here is a blueprint for how job insurance is supposed to work, as a major solution to the problem of declining job growth and increasing economic insecurity. To start with, let me explain what job insurance is not – it is not the temporary “transition trade assistance” (inadequate and ill-conceived at the best of times) referred to by most workers as “burial insurance.” It’s not the “wage insurance” that semi-penitent neoliberals have dreamed up to compensate for the fact that the new jobs being created by their post-industrial economic order pay less than the blue collar factory jobs of the past.
What job insurance is, in reality, is the missing link in our Social Security system.
"Unemployment compensation, as we conceive it, is a front line of defense, especially valuable for those who are ordinarily steadily employed, but very beneficial also in maintaining purchasing power. While it will not directly benefit those now unemployed until they are reabsorbed in industry, it should be instituted at the earliest possible date to increase the security of all who are employed..." - Report to the President, Committee on Economic Security (1935)
In a previous post, I discussed the need to improve the payroll tax, and noted that one of the reasons we need to do this is to fix the unemployment insurance (UI). Our current UI system is fundamentally broken. As I wrote on the 12th, "at a time when nearly one in ten American workers are unemployed, only half of them qualify for Unemployment Insurance, to the extent that the program no longer adequately functions either as a safety net or an “automatic stabilizer.”"
If I didn't have the time and the space to say it at the time, let me say it now. The fact that a majority of workers are no longer protected, nearly seventy-five years after the passage of an act that was meant to protect every worker from" one of many misfortunes" of economic life, is a moral failure of the highest order. The idea that governors in America would reject stimulus funds in the middle of a recession because those funds would make it easier for temporary or part time workers to gain access to UI suggests the total moral bankruptcy of the American conservative movement. Not for nothing did FDR say:
"Governments can err, presidents do make mistakes, but the immortal Dante tells us that divine justice weighs the sins of the cold-blooded and the sins of the warm-hearted on different scales. Better the occasional faults of a government that lives in a spirit of charity than the consistent omissions of a government frozen in the ice of its own indifference."
In the spirit of the best 4th of July speeches, which like Frederick Douglass' peerless effort seek not to satiate with platitudes but rather to challenge and provoke, today I offer a reflection on America's past and its future.
At the end of "Resurrecting Henry George," I argued that a national housing assistance program would "help to make one more of FDR’s Second Bill of Rights, "the right of every family to a decent home," a legal reality. I would argue, and I will argue in future posts, that the longer-term mission of the progressive movement in America is (and has unconsciously been) the realization of the Second Bill of Rights." So today I intend to explain what I meant.
Here's a little something so you can head into the weekend informed.
• The SEIU put together a rally of over 1,000 members in Sacramento today, demanding a budget solution. More are expected in Sacramento, San Francisco and Fresno tomorrow. Given the desperation, I see nothing wrong with taking it to the streets. You can also contribute to their letter-writing campaign to the Governor here.
• Here are a couple of real victories for organized labor and working people. First, UNITE-Here's workers won a court decision that will expand the Living Wage ordinance in Southern California and gives 550 laundry workers a better chance to sue Cintas for back wages. Speaking of back pay, TV networks settled two class-action lawsuits with reality-show workers for $4 million dollars. These workers were made to falsify time cards and work up to 20-hour days without overtime or meal breaks. I have some friends in the industry who were parties to these lawsuits and I'm very happy they reached a good conclusion. The fight continues.
• The Senate GOP is slow-walking the confirmation of Hilda Solis as Labor Secretary, which is annoying. She is more than qualified and her views on the Employee Free Choice Act, which is a legislative fight, are hardly germane as well as well-known. She deserves a vote and not this nonsense. America needs a friend to labor at the Labor Department again.
• I have no idea why Rocky Delgadillo is running for Attorney General again. Rocky has been a real hero in fighting insurance industry malfeasance like rescission, but his recent troubles over his wife running his city-owned SUV into a pole (and she didn't have a license) and paying for it with city money is a 30-second ad waiting to happen. Maybe he should wait out a cycle?
• The FDA has approved a Menlo Park-based company for a human trial for a stem cell treatment, the first ever in the US. This is not just a victory for science but could prove to make California a real leader in medical therapeutics. We need some expansion in industry here, anyway.
• Good article from Open Left about how cleaner ports can add lots of middle-class green job, as it has with the Clean Trucks program at the port of Los Angeles.
(I added a photo of Sen. Yee joining the protest at UCSF. - promoted by Brian Leubitz)
The people who cook lunches, clean classrooms, and provide medical care at the University of California live in poverty. 96% of the people who do these important, necessary jobs are eligible to receive public poverty assistance. Many people working at the UC -- one of the world's most prestigious universities -- have to work two or even three jobs just to pay rent and put food on the table for their families.
I just got back from the picket line here at UC Santa Barbara, where I'm a teacher and graduate student. The American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees Local 3299 (AFSCME), which represents the 8,500 people who cook, clean, and work in health clinics across the University, today began a five-day strike after more than a full year of demanding a better contract with fair wages . There are about 100 or so workers and supporters at the main entrance to UCSB right now, demonstrating for a fair contract. Spirits are high, because everyone knows that the University simply cannot work without them -- so they're going to win a fair contract. It's just a matter of time.
From noon to 1pm tomorrow, immigrant rights activists will be rallying in Oakland (1500 Broadway) in protest of ICE performing employee harassment and intimidation on behalf of a well-connected hotel CEO who doesn't feel like adhering to a living wage law. If you're in the area, go out and tell ICE to stop attacking workers rights. And if you can't be there in person, you can call Special Agent Charles DeMore at (510) 267-3800 and tell him that ICE shouldn't be involving itself in the enforcement (or lack thereof) of local labor laws.
A month ago, Brian wrote on Calitics about Rep. Brian Bilbray's meddling in Bay Area living wage issues. He chronicled how workers at the Woodfin hotels in Emeryville were fighting to receive the living wage assured them by Measure C, a local living wage law. The city is insisting that Woodfin pay the living wage, but unfortunately for the workers, the CEO of Woodfin hotels lives in Brian Bilbray's district and has contributed enough money to get his phone calls answered.
After all that nastynewsyesterday, we finally get some GOOD NEWS out of OC to wake up to this morning! (From OC Register)
The city is drafting a law to expand its minimum pay standard to include contract workers along with city employees who already receive at least $10 an hour plus benefits.
Irvine is the only city in the county with a living wage law, and Tuesday night voted 3-2 (with Christina Shea and Steven Choi dissenting) to have staff add to the law to pay contract workers an hourly wage to raise their annual salaries above the national poverty line.
"We ought to set a standard that anybody paid by the city is paid at least $10 an hour," said Councilman Larry Agran, who suggested the concept. "We need to join other United States cities that are not just satisfied with paying a minimum wage."
Yep, you heard me right! The Democratic majority on the Irvine City Council (Beth Krom, Larry Agran, and Suhkee Kang) voted last night to expand the living wage ordinance in Irvine to city contractors. And yes, Irvine is not only THE FIRST CITY IN ORANGE COUNTY TO ENACT ANY LIVING WAGE LAW, but now they are also ensuring that city-contracted workers earn enough money to afford living in this very expensive area! Kudos to Irvine for leading the county again in treating its workers well, and I can hardly wait to see the final living wage law that will be enacted! : )
The LA City Council released the new living wage proposal last week and it was immediately attacked by big business interests.
This is not an us vs. them issue. Economic growth should mean better quality-of-life for workers as well as CEOs. Unfortunately, that has not been happening as of late. It was something Sen. Webb addressed in his response to the State of the Union:
When one looks at the health of our economy, it's almost as if we are living in two different countries. Some say that things have never been better. The stock market is at an all-time high, and so are corporate profits. But these benefits are not being fairly shared. When I graduated from college, the average corporate CEO made 20 times what the average worker did; today, it's nearly 400 times. In other words, it takes the average worker more than a year to make the money that his or her boss makes in one day.
It's generally a good idea to invest in economic development and it's an even better idea to invest in quality education, health care and other quality-of-life issues that are the sign of a productive workforce.
If the business lobby wants to view this as some sort of quid pro quo, then I don't see what they're whining about. While we should not prejudge this plan, it looks like a significant investment in business. So, how much does the business lobby want from LA taxpayers? In exchange, all they have to do is just do the fair, smart thing by their lowest-paid workers, which is actually good business as well as good for families and LA.
Yesterday was not just a big win for workers in LAX-area hotels; it was a big win for working people throughout LA and California. So today, let's break down all of the moving pieces and give credit where it is due.
Big business lobbyists have now dropped their efforts to use a ballot initiative to overturn the landmark law that extended LA's living wage ordinance to thousands of workers at hotels near LAX. This is part of a deal reached between unions and other supporters of the living wage, Mayor Villaraigosa and members of the City Council, and business leaders. The agreement allows for the repeal of the original ordinance and passage of a new law that will raise wages for the Century Boulevard hotel workers while providing certain assurances to business leaders. That will not happen immediately. It will take a few weeks for the legislation to be crafted and voted upon.
I will have more later, but we took a step forward today towards ensuring a living wage for the LAX hotel workers. Here is the initial LAT article.
This is the main piece:
Chief among those elements would be a three-part "phase-in" of a living wage over the next year. Workers at the hotels would get a small raise upon passage of new legislation, a second raise in July that would bring them to $10.64 per hour, and finally a cost of living increase on Jan. 1, 2008.
Our poll indicates that we can do way more towards ensuring all workers earn a living wage, but this is encouraging news.
Today we released the results of a poll of likely Los Angeles voters that demonstrates wide and deep support for the limited Living Wage law enacted last year by the Los Angeles City Council and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa - and tremendous potential support for a much broader, citywide Living Wage.
The poll found wide and deep support - across income levels and political, geographic, ethnic and racial sub-groups in Los Angeles - for the existing, limited Living Wage law, which requires airport-area hotels to pay service employees at least $9.30/hour plus contribute at least $1.25/hour to their health care coverage. Business lobbyists are trying to overturn it by forcing a special election this May, at a potential cost to taxpayers of some $3 million.
(Surf Putah, which you will find in the California friends of our blogroll, is a great site for Yolo Cty. politics. - promoted by Brian Leubitz)
Well, I've made the cut, having been linked in the "Yolo Blogs" category over at Republican Yolo County Supervisor Matt Rexroad's new website (which looks quite nice, really). Along with the link (a good web resource for Yolo County in its own right), Rexroad gave this site this little introduction:
If you want to know what the people at the far end of the spectrum in Davis are doing....surf Putah. I really can't explain this stuff. Generally, if you find an opinion expressed here Matt Rexroad will be on the other side.
Since I've been identified as the far end of the spectrum, I figure that it's as good a time as any to lay out what us inexplicable far-out Davisites are thinking about Yolo County. Ironically enough, I find myself to the center, or at least in a slightly different direction, from many self-defined "progressives" here in Davis, especially on the issue of development, the axis which city politics seems, rightly or wrongly, to revolve around. Mostly, though, I find that the perpetual battle over political labels to be a fairly useless one, since it assumes a coherent binary political debate, when in fact things tend to be far more complex in real life. I believe that governments ought to balance their budgets responsibly, instead of borrowing and spending with bond measures; am I a conservative? I believe that people generally ought to mind their own business, and that government and religious beliefs are best kept separate where neither can mess the other up; am I a liberal? I believe that all people are created equal, and ought to be treated as such; am I a progressive?
So for the benefit of both Rexroad and those who might follow his link to my site I'll toss out where this inexplicable far-left blogger would like to see Yolo County headed:
I didn't have time to blog this article when it first came out, but this is too important not to go back and post on. The living wage battle in LA, centered around the workers at LAX area hotels just stepped up a notch. The big hotels have organized into the ironically named "Save LA Jobs" coalition. They appear to have more than enough signatures to place an initiative on the ballot to repeal the big living wage victory for the hotel workers.
Opponents of the city's expansion of the "living wage" ordinance to workers at LAX-area hotels have gathered twice the number of signatures required to qualify a referendum for the ballot, according to people familiar with the effort.
The foes' political committee, which is called Save LA Jobs and is backed by hotel owners and business groups, has scheduled a news conference for this morning at the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce. The group is expected to say that they will turn in more than 100,000 signatures.
That is more than double the amount they need to place it on the ballot. The City Council now has the option to rescind the law or put the initiative up for a citywide vote. May 2007 would be the earliest date for such an election.
This evening 500 hotel workers, community members and faith leaders will participate in a candlelight procession along Century Boulevard near Los Angeles International Airport, beginning at the home of Margarita Uriostegui, a Radisson hotel worker who tragically died two days after the historic September 28thcivil disobedience and in whose memory the fast is dedicated.
Eighteen hotel workers will be engaging in a seven-day water-only fast from December 6th to December 12th. These brave workers have chosen to go without food for a week to continue their struggle for a living wage and to honor the memory of Margarita Uriostegui, their late co-worker who symbolizes their struggle to earn the right to receive fair pay for their hard work.
Show them you support them by signing OUR PETITION today.
