Unionizing low-wage workers breaks the cycle of poverty
Tuesday, May 8, 2007(New York Daily News)
Unionizing low-wage workers breaks the cycle of poverty
Lack of job benefits hurts working poor
Posted Monday, May 7th 2007, 12:00 AM
While certain segments of the city are experiencing the best of times, too many New Yorkers are mired in poverty.
The disparity between the affluent and the poor has widened, seen most vividly in joblessness among young people, blacks and Latinos; inadequate health care, and a housing market that has priced out the working poor and is now affecting the middle class.
I believe that the route to escaping poverty is through work. But it has been amply demonstrated that holding a job will not necessarily pull a working family out of poverty.
There are a number of reasons why low-wage workers find they cannot escape poverty, including the lack of health benefits, the rise in housing costs and the decline of union membership.
My organization's latest annual survey of low-income New Yorkers reveals the dismal status of the city's low-income families.
For example, in the Bronx, the survey of low-wage workers there found that only 47% get health benefits on the job; only 31% have prescription drug coverage; just 37% have a retirement plan, and 51% get paid sick leave.
Of those who do not have job-based health insurance, some 55% say that it was not offered by their employer.
A CSS report commissioned by the Service Employees International Union, Local 32BJ, on the city's security guards is a prime example of the dilemma faced by the working poor.
Almost 95% of the city's 63,000 private security guards are nonunion. Over eight in 10 are men of color - mostly black men.
The median hourly wage is only 55% of the median for all workers in the metropolitan area. Few guards receive benefits. Most labor without a single day of paid sick leave.
It does not have to be this way. There are several thousand unionized security guards in New York. They not only get higher wages. They have affordable job-based health benefits, paid vacation and sick leave.
Our security-guard research shows that unions continue to play an important role in obtaining livable wages and benefits and raising workplace standards.
More than any other workforce sector, low-wage workers need to be unionized. Employers are providing fewer benefits, especially health insurance and pensions, and this trend especially hurts low-wage employees.
There has been a notion recently that unions are irrelevant to America's future in a globalized world. But for low-wage workers, they are the only hope to hold politicians accountable, cope with ever larger corporations and provide stable employment and upward mobility.
The absence of unions leaves hardworking men and women with little protection from the often-arbitrary actions of employers and the unpredictable nature of market forces.
The contributions low-wage workers make to the economy of New York City are broad and diverse - from hotel and restaurant workers to security guards to cab drivers to health care workers.
If we value their contributions, we ought to return the favor and respect their need to support their families.
David Jones is president and chief executive officer of the Community Service Society, a 160-year-old nonprofit that conducts research, policy analysis, advocacy and service initiatives on behalf of more than 3 million New Yorkers living at or near the poverty line.