Search News
For the Media
For media inquiries, call CWA Communications at 202-434-1168 or email comms@cwa-union.org. To read about CWA Members, Leadership or Industries, visit our About page.
Communications Workers President Outlines Policies Needed to Make Global Economy Work for All
Washington, D.C. -- In remarks to the annual meeting of the Council on Competitiveness, CWA President Morton Bahr stressed that our country can ensure competitiveness and create good jobs for U.S. workers, but "government must act decisively to restore balance between overseas investment and outsourcing and keeping vital industries in this country."
"Unless government intervenes, globalization will result in a declining American living standard," he warned.
Bahr, along with industry and academic leaders, was part of a panel that examined how countries can best prepare their workforces to meet the demands of the global economy.
He cited job losses in the manufacturing sector that have affected millions of American families and stressed that service and high tech jobs also were moving offshore at a rapid rate, affecting the livelihood and well-being of millions. As more manufacturing jobs were shifted overseas, American workers were told that high tech and higher level service jobs would replace the work that for decades helped build and sustain a strong middle class, Bahr said. But now, we are seeing the promise of information technology and other work move offshore as well. In fact, some executives have predicted that India could outstrip the United States in software and tech service jobs by the end of the decade, he said.
Bahr noted that the jobs of many professional and technical workers have been sent overseas, while "many in corporate America push to raise the numbers of H1-B and L1 visa holders to import more foreign labor to the United States."
This job loss affects workers in other ways as well, he said, citing a CWA member in Texas, who worked for an AT&T call center that has closed, with the work moved to India. "Clarissa Davila, a 32-year-old mother of three, is a cancer patient in remission. She now joins 43.6 million Americans without health insurance."
He outlined several policies to better balance workers' needs for quality employment and growing overseas investment and outsourcing, including:
* Providing universal health care to U.S. citizens. The current system increases the cost of labor by 30-35 percent, a cost not shared by private employers in other countries that have universal coverage. This alone makes U.S. goods not competitive with Canadian and western European goods.
* Taking strong action against dumping and other trade violations.
* Adopting tax and budget policy that encourage full employment, not policies that reward companies by expanding tax cuts for income earned abroad.
* Ending the extension of the H1-B and L1 visa program. With hundreds of thousands of unemployed high tech workers today, there is no legitimate reason to permit U.S. companies to import labor to fill these jobs.
Another key policy is to promote collective bargaining, which has been responsible for the standard of living that millions of American workers have achieved over the past decades, Bahr said. "To uphold our standard of living, it is absolutely essential that America continues to have a vibrant labor movement and the ability for workers to bargain collectively for fair wages, benefits and conditions." As the global economy expands, rules that protect and promote collective bargaining all around the world are needed as well, he said.
"Unfortunately, many U.S. corporations in recent years have engaged in low-road labor relations both here and abroad to keep unions out or get rid of existing unions," Bahr said, citing a Human Rights Watch report that noted that the number of illegal firings in union organizing drives in the United States tripled over the past 30 years.
"Such a trend, if it continues, can only bring American living standards spiraling down and lead, ultimately, to social turmoil," he said.
###
CWA represents more than 700,000 workers in telecommunications, information technology, media, printing and broadcasting, health care and public service, the airline industry and manufacturing.
The Council on Competitiveness is a non-profit, non-partisan organization of corporate, academic and labor leaders working together to set an action agenda to drive economic growth and raise the standard of living for all Americans.
"Unless government intervenes, globalization will result in a declining American living standard," he warned.
Bahr, along with industry and academic leaders, was part of a panel that examined how countries can best prepare their workforces to meet the demands of the global economy.
He cited job losses in the manufacturing sector that have affected millions of American families and stressed that service and high tech jobs also were moving offshore at a rapid rate, affecting the livelihood and well-being of millions. As more manufacturing jobs were shifted overseas, American workers were told that high tech and higher level service jobs would replace the work that for decades helped build and sustain a strong middle class, Bahr said. But now, we are seeing the promise of information technology and other work move offshore as well. In fact, some executives have predicted that India could outstrip the United States in software and tech service jobs by the end of the decade, he said.
Bahr noted that the jobs of many professional and technical workers have been sent overseas, while "many in corporate America push to raise the numbers of H1-B and L1 visa holders to import more foreign labor to the United States."
This job loss affects workers in other ways as well, he said, citing a CWA member in Texas, who worked for an AT&T call center that has closed, with the work moved to India. "Clarissa Davila, a 32-year-old mother of three, is a cancer patient in remission. She now joins 43.6 million Americans without health insurance."
He outlined several policies to better balance workers' needs for quality employment and growing overseas investment and outsourcing, including:
* Providing universal health care to U.S. citizens. The current system increases the cost of labor by 30-35 percent, a cost not shared by private employers in other countries that have universal coverage. This alone makes U.S. goods not competitive with Canadian and western European goods.
* Taking strong action against dumping and other trade violations.
* Adopting tax and budget policy that encourage full employment, not policies that reward companies by expanding tax cuts for income earned abroad.
* Ending the extension of the H1-B and L1 visa program. With hundreds of thousands of unemployed high tech workers today, there is no legitimate reason to permit U.S. companies to import labor to fill these jobs.
Another key policy is to promote collective bargaining, which has been responsible for the standard of living that millions of American workers have achieved over the past decades, Bahr said. "To uphold our standard of living, it is absolutely essential that America continues to have a vibrant labor movement and the ability for workers to bargain collectively for fair wages, benefits and conditions." As the global economy expands, rules that protect and promote collective bargaining all around the world are needed as well, he said.
"Unfortunately, many U.S. corporations in recent years have engaged in low-road labor relations both here and abroad to keep unions out or get rid of existing unions," Bahr said, citing a Human Rights Watch report that noted that the number of illegal firings in union organizing drives in the United States tripled over the past 30 years.
"Such a trend, if it continues, can only bring American living standards spiraling down and lead, ultimately, to social turmoil," he said.
###
CWA represents more than 700,000 workers in telecommunications, information technology, media, printing and broadcasting, health care and public service, the airline industry and manufacturing.
The Council on Competitiveness is a non-profit, non-partisan organization of corporate, academic and labor leaders working together to set an action agenda to drive economic growth and raise the standard of living for all Americans.