Transcript Economic Policies Matter

Overview
• Review where we are and how we got here
• A Main Street Recovery Program
• Introduce you to the USW “Make our Future
Work” campaign
• Ask you to join us in rebuilding the American
Economy
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Economic Policies Matter
• The “New Economy”:
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Free markets and individual self-interest should drive the economy
Government policies should favor corporations and the wealthy
Free trade and deregulation make us all better off
Prosperity will trickle down
• Main Street Economics:
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The market is neither free nor perfect
The government can help overcome market imperfections
Regulation and Fair Trade are needed
Economic growth is based on the prosperity of working families
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They Had a Plan…
For nearly 30 years, conservative
economic ideas focused on the free
market have dominated Washington…
The Result…Deregulation, De-unionization,
Globalization, Privatization
There’s class warfare, all right, but it’s my
class, the rich class, that’s making war,
and we’re winning.
Warren Buffett, November 26, 2006
New York Times
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Wall Street Grows…
Main Street Shrinks
30%
25%
Manufacturing and Financial Sectors as a
Percentage of GDP
20%
15%
Manufacturing
Financial
10%
5%
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50
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02
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06
0%
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Trading Away Our Future
6%
US Trade Deficit as a Percentage of GDP 1960-2004
5%
4%
3%
China
2%
Rest of World
1%
0%
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72
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00
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04
-1%
In 1997, China produced 14% of the world’s steel; in
2007, it produced 36%.
Foreigners now hold $14 trillion of U.S. debt.
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The Bubble has Burst
Stock Market
 45%
Fastest decline since the
Great Depression
Home Prices
 17%
Largest decline ever
Consumer Confidence  45%
Largest decline ever
Wall Street Infects Main Street
– Homeowners in trouble
A quarter of homeowners have mortgages now
exceeding the value of the home
– Producers scrambling for financing
The rate at which most the average USW employer
can borrow money has gone from 8% to 22%
– Entire industries in jeopardy
Analysts project a 30% decline in new car sales in
We have been
2009 losing 67,000 jobs a month!
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Losing the Power
to Get Our Fair Share
Productivity
Wages
Unionization Rate
1947: 32%
Unionization Rate
2004: 7.9%
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The Rich Get Richer
1976
Household Wealth 1976-2005
Bottom 90%
51%
Richest 10%
49%
Bottom 90%
27%
Today, the bottom
50% have only 3%
of the wealth.
2005
Richest 10%
73%
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The Result
• Lost our power to get our fair share
• Manufacturing sector smaller than
financial sector
• Twelve thousand manufacturing jobs lost
a month since 1980; 60,000 a month since
last May
• Wealthiest 10 percent of Americans
control 75% of the wealth, up from 1976
when they controlled 50%
• Record levels of debt
What Has Been Done?
$8 trillion in Welfare for the Rich
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“This crisis is a direct result of the
greed and irresponsibility that have
dominated Washington and Wall Street
for years… It’s the result of an
economic philosophy that says we
should give more and more to those
with the most and hope that prosperity
trickles down to everyone else... This
crisis is the final verdict on this failed
philosophy – a philosophy that we
cannot afford to continue.”
President-elect Obama
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This crisis gives us an
opportunity to build a
stronger union, a stronger
country and an economy
in which prosperity is
shared by all.
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President Obama calls us to “pick ourselves up, dust
ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking
America.”
Now We Have a Plan
It’s Based on a Simple Idea…
We all do better when
we all do better.
Paul Wellstone, Minnesota Senator
1990-2002
A strong middle class is not the problem.
A strong middle class is the answer to the
economic crisis…
To Make our Future
Work…
Main Street
Recovery Program
Mortgage Relief
Re-regulate
Financial Sector
Employee Free
Choice Act
Health Care
Reform
Fair Trade
Progressive
Taxes
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First Things First
• A Main Street Recovery Plan that
keeps our tax dollars at home
• Employee Free Choice Act so that
workers can have the power to get
their fair share
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Renewing America
Job Creation
at Home
Main Street
Recovery Plan
Buy America
Main Street Recovery Plan
Commit a MINIMUM of 3% of GDP for two years $900 Billion
• Green Investment - Accelerate the development of a low
carbon economy
• Infrastructure - Repair and modernize our crumbling roads,
bridges and airports
• Investment in Education - Ensure that all Americans can
afford to go to college
• Aid to Those in Need – Those at the bottom suffer most and
we must help them
• Buy American – Make sure that the jobs that are created
stay at home.
The Plan must be Properly Designed and Implemented
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The Plan must be Properly
Designed and Implemented:
Rebuilding the
Middle Class
Job Creation
at Home
Main Street
Recovery Plan
Rebuild the
Middle Class
Buy America
Employee Free
Choice Act
The Employee Free Choice Act is about
the most fundamental American
values … democracy and choice.
It is about workers deciding how their
work lives will be governed.
It is about workers having a voice in
the rebuilding of their communities,
their workplaces and their country.
The Employee Free Choice Act
Restoring the Balance of Power
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Puts decisions about recognition in the hands of
workers
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Strengthens protections for workers:
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Workers get to choose whether recognition will be
based on card check recognition or secret ballot
Imposes real penalties for employers violating the
law
Supports negotiation of first labor-management
agreement:
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Establishes mediation and binding arbitration
when the employer and workers cannot agree on
a first contract
Rebuilding the Middle Class
$900
$833
$887
$800
$700
$717
$642
$834
$774
$758
$707
$686
$579
$600
$520
$500
$469
$400
$300
$200
$100
$0
Total
Men
Women
Union
Source: U.S. Dept. of Labor, BLS, Jan. 2007
African
American
Nonunion
Latino
Asian
American
We All Benefit When Union
Density Increases
“I regard the growth of collective bargaining as essential….”
J.M. Keynes (economist) in letter to President Roosevelt,
February 1, 1938
Corporations Deny Employees
the Freedom to Gain a Better Life
* 33%
never
agree to a
contract
* 25%
illegally fire at
least one
worker for
union activity
The Opposition
Keeping the Promise
of America
The
Promise of
America
Job Creation
at Home
Main Street
Recovery Plan
Rebuild the
Middle Class
Buy America
Employee Free
Choice Act
Why This Will Work
• Infrastructure spending immediately injects money into
the economy
• With a strong buy American program, jobs will be
created at home
• Money spent here will multiply throughout the
economy supporting all sectors
• Employee Free Choice Act will ensure that working
Americans have the right to collectively bargain for
their fair share
• Money to those at the bottom will all be spent
These investments in our infrastructure, our
communities and our people will make our entire
economy more competitive and prosperous.
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Bringing Change to Washington:
The Action Plan
"Our nettlesome task is to discover how to organize
our strength into compelling power."
-- Martin Luther King Jr.
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Mobilizing
Organizing
Lobbying
Information
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Join in the Campaign…
Questions and Comments
"Change happens because the American
people demand it—because they rise
up and insist on new ideas and new
leadership, a new politics for a new
time. America, this is one of those
moments.”
President Barack Obama