I'm thrilled at the response to my previous blog post on America's need for 401(k) reform. The bad news is that big business has already developed a strategy to kill reform -- by intimidating the rank and file into lobbying against it. And it's perfectly legal.
While President Obama justifiably criticized the Supreme Court's Citizen United ruling that pretty much removes the limits from campaign spending in advertising, the real scandal on Capitol Hill isn't bankrolling corrupt candidates but creating a "fake citizens lobby" that convinces elected officials to vote the wrong way. It's perfectly legal for big business to pressure employees to lobby against reform that would help employees -- presumably employing the "spin" that reform is a job killer.
The group that's behind this tactic is one you've probably never heard of, BIPAC, a coalition of business owners and associations. When it comes to corporate skulduggery, you can't get much more lowlife than the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), one of BIPAC's leading members. NAM has fought against regulating derivatives because doing so "could hinder job creation for manufacturing" -- gee, which factories manufacture derivatives? NAM has also demanded the overhaul of the Family and Medical Leave Act because employees abuse it, and argued that employees who suffer from repetitive stress injuries such as carpal tunnel syndrome aren't really disabled.
There's a good chance that a "fake grass-roots effort" orchestrated by NAM helped convince members of Congress to drop their support for the Employee Free Choice Act, which lets workers opt for unionization simply by signing cards rather than through secret ballot elections. When I went to the page on a website that BIPAC created displaying sample campaigns, I saw a link where employees of NAM's member companies are encouraged to "Tell Members of Congress to Oppose the 'Employee FORCED Choice Act." Technically speaking, businesses can't punish employees who refuse to go along with this effort but in these tough economic times, I wouldn't be surprised if employees are likely to do what they're told rather than risk their job security.
Not surprisingly, NAM is a member of an employer group whose purpose is to fight any reform of 401(k) plans called The Coalition on Employee Retirement Benefits (CERB). Remember Enron? One of its most despicable practices was matching employees 401(k) contributions with company stock, which turns into "play money" if the company goes under. It's very likely that CERB's lobbying efforts watered down the Pension Security Act, which merely allows workers to sell company stock within three years of receiving it rather than limiting it in 401(k) accounts or prohibiting it altogether. As I pointed out in my book, "America, Welcome to the Poorhouse," in a letter to members of the Senate Finance Committee, CERB hints that if Congress is too hard on employers they might stop making 401(k) contributions altogether: " employers are not allowed to meet the legitimate business of encouraging employee ownership...they are likely to reduce or eliminate matching contributions."
How do we get members of Congress to work for the taxpayers who pay their salaries, as opposed to the business lobby? My thinking is that the chance of passing genuine campaign reform legislation is slim -- especially since Congress would have to vote for it. Instead we should create a citizens lobby, comprised of blue and white collar Americans who are watching their American dream turn into a nightmare, whether we're talking about higher medical co-pays, or unaffordable mortgages. Even when it comes to job shortages, most of us are "all in this financial stress together" -- whether we're affected by blue-collar factory jobs that have been outsourced to China or radiology/engineering jobs that have been off-shored to India.
As former SEIU President Andy Stern told me, "Team USA is in trouble. We don't have a plan. Let's grow up, people. This is a global economic war. We need to shake off complacency and get out of our self-analytical malaise." Forget about this Tea Party nonsense, we need a genuine new American revolution against the business lobby and those in Washington who do its bidding.
Or maybe you did mean, "Fuck the UAW." If so, let me give you a little fucking lesson (a lesson I happen to know because my fucking uncle was in the sit-down strike that founded the fucking UAW.)
Before there were unions, there was no middle class. Working people didn't get to send their kids to college, few were able to own their own fucking home, nobody could take a fucking day off for a funeral or a sick day or they might lose their fucking job.
Then working people organized themselves into unions. The bosses and the companies fucking hated that. In fact, they were often overheard to say, "Fuck the UAW!!!" That's because the UAW had beaten one of the world's biggest industrial corporations when they won their battle on February 11, 1937, 44 days after they'd taken over the GM factories in Flint. Inspired by their victory, workers struck almost every other fucking industry, and union after union was born. Had World War II not begun and had FDR not died, there would have been an economic revolution that would have given everyone—everyone—a fucking decent life.
Nonetheless, labor unions did create a middle class for the majority (even companies that didn't have unions were forced to pay at or near union wages in order to attract a workforce), and that middle class built a great country and a good life. You see, Rahm, when people earn a fucking good wage, they spend it on stuff, which then creates more good-paying jobs, and then the middle class grows fucking big. Did you know that back when I was a kid if you had a parent making a union wage, only one parent had to work?! And they were home by 3 or 4 p.m., 5:30 at the latest! We had dinner together! Dad had four weeks paid vacation. We all had free health and dental care. And anyone with decent grades went to college and it didn't fucking bankrupt them. (And if you ever used the F-word, the nuns would straighten you out in ways that even you couldn't bear to hear about.)
Then a Republican fired all the air-traffic controllers, a Democrat gave us NAFTA, and millions of jobs were moved overseas. (Hey, didn't you work in that White House, too? "Fuck the UAW, baby!") Unions got scared and beaten down, a frat boy became president and, like a drunk out of control, spent all our fucking money and our children's money, too. Fuck.
You see, Rahm, when people earn a good wage, they spend it on stuff, which then creates more good-paying jobs.
And now your assistant's grandma has to work at fucking McDonald's. Ask her for pictures of what the middle-class life used to look like. It was effing cool! I'll bet grandma doesn't say "Fuck the UAW!"
Hey, don't get me wrong, Rahm. I fucking like you. You single-handedly got the House returned to the Dems in 2006. But you and your boss better do something fucking quick to put people back to work. How 'bout making it a crime to take an American job and move it out of the country? In other words, treat it as if it were a fucking national treasure like you would if someone stole the Declaration of Independence out of the National Archives or some poacher stole eggs out of the nest of an American bald eagle.
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