"The defining challenge of our time is flat or falling wages for the vast majority of workers, which is a root cause of many of the problems facing the U.S. economy,” said the AFL-CIO Executive Council in a statement approved today at its summer meeting at the AFL-CIO headquarters in Washington, D.C.
Our most urgent economic priority is increasing wages and incomes for everyone, not just for some….If we really want to increase economic opportunity, we need to restore broad-based wage growth. Rising inequality in recent decades has given more and more Americans a sense that the rules of the game are rigged and we do not all have an equal chance to get ahead.
The statement said that recent experience shows U.S. economic policy no longer can focus exclusively on growth in the expectation that the benefits of growth will trickle down to working people, since virtually all the gains from growth have been flowing to the wealthiest Americans. From 2009 to 2013, real wages fell for the entire bottom 90% of the wage distribution, while almost all (95%) of the income gains during this period went to the richest 1% of Americans.
Recent studies show that policies that focus explicitly on higher pay for the vast majority of workers would have no negative impact on growth, meaning they would raise living standards significantly for the vast majority of workers in America.
In fact, a growing body of evidence points to an even more profound conclusion: economic policies focusing explicitly on increasing pay for the vast majority of workers are actually necessary to generate robust economic growth.
Read the full statement here.
The Executive Council also urged President Obama to us his executive authority “to protect our American work standards” by granting temporary relief and work authorization to all those who would qualify for citizenship under the bipartisan Senate immigration bill that House Republicans refuse to act upon.
In a statement, the council said that when employers can hire undocumented workers with a wink and a nod and then fire them when they seek to organize a union or complain about unpaid wages or unsafe working conditions, it is not just undocumented workers who are hurt, but all workers.
Employers must no longer be able to use the threat of deportation as a weapon to keep workers from asserting their rights or enforcing standards on the job. In addition to broad affirmative relief, the administration should create a process through which workers engaged in protected activity, such as forming or joining a union or filing a health and safety violation, would be safe from retaliation based on their legal status. Such executive action would create considerable new economic opportunities for working people.
Read the full statement here.
In a statement concerning the Central American child refugee crisis, the council said:
The growing number of families and children fleeing violence in Central America and turning themselves in to U.S. Border Patrol agents at the Southern border has become a pressing humanitarian concern at the international, national and local levels. There is clear evidence that violence and the desire to find safety is the impetus for these children’s journeys to the United States.
The Executive Council said the U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act grants the administration the authority to designate these children as “refugees,” and urged:
President Obama to ensure all children who have survived trauma or persecution are afforded this designation and have their needs met through the established procedures of the Office of Refugee Resettlement. The AFL-CIO rejects any proposed changes to current procedures and law that would limit due process for vulnerable populations at the border or run counter to established U.S. and international norms regarding the detainment of children and refugees. In particular, the essential protections in the Trafficking Victims Protection Act either should be strengthened or maintained, but under no circumstances should be rolled back.
Read the full statement here.
The council also issued a statement endorsing California’s Proposition 47: Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act of 2014. The act would reallocate incarceration funds and reclassify lower-level petty crimes from felonies to misdemeanors, which would provide an opportunity for thousands of people to obtain jobs and reintegrate into society.
The impact of mass incarceration can be felt on neighborhoods, families and individuals across the nation. As a result, many already impoverished neighborhoods have lost thousands of working-age men and women whose lives are forever affected by mass incarceration. The state of California is advancing a solution to the over-incarceration in our communities.\
Mike Hall
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