Obama Clamps a Two-Year Pay Freeze
On Two Million Government Employees

President Obama, who singled out two million government employees for a two-year freeze on their pay, said this was their shared contribution to reducing the federal deficit. No such harsh demands have been made by the Obama administration on bankers, financiers, corporate executives and other wealthy Wall Streeters.

AFL –CIO President Richard Trumka quickly rejected the wage-freeze idea and the assumptions on which it was based. “The President talked about the need for shared sacrifice, but there is nothing shared about Wall Street and CEOs making record profits and bonuses while working people bear the brunt,” Trumka said.

John Gage, president of the 600,000-member American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) denounced the wage-freeze in blunt terms. “The proposal is a superficial panic reaction to the draconian cuts his deficits commission will recommend. A federal pay freeze saves peanuts at best, and while he may mean it as just a public relations gesture, this is no time for political scapegoating.”

Gage says the two-year freeze barely makes a dent in the federal budget but will be devastating to the “VA nursing assistant making $28,000 a year or a border patrol agent earning $34,000 per year.”

More than 800,000 people, who have been unemployed for 27 weeks or longer, were denied an extension of their unemployment insurance benefits in a House vote of 258 to 154 that upheld the Nov. 30 UI extension deadline. Another one million a month will lose their UI benefits by January 2011, unless Congress throws the jobless a lifeline.

The Difference: Democrats Talk About Jobs; Republicans Don’t

It is amazing how the Republicans have framed the debate in Congress to preserving the Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthy one percent, and proposing to reduce the budget deficit by cutting Medicare, Medicaid , Social Security and tax provisions that benefit the middle class.

The Democrats, who have had a majority in both chambers of Congress and in control of the White House the past two years, have remained on the defensive, while the Republicans, especially in the Senate, have been the dominant party.

A growing number of Democrats (the “Blue Dogs”) are in tune with aspects of the Republican agenda. The situation will be worse when the Republicans take over the House and increase their vote in the Senate by six members.

So what is organized labor to do? Can it depend on its long-term alliance with the Democrats in the new political landscape that has resulted from the midterm elections? Can we envision a realignment in both parties that will produce a new coalition, with the labor movement playing a principal role?

Both political parties will have to confront economic problems that neither has been able to solve. They will need to make adjustments in leadership and policies The situation is bound to be fluid for at least six months or more.

There will be opportunities, where the AFL-CIO’s 12.2 million members in cities and towns across the country, can be an active player in shaping the economic future of the country.

In the 1930s, workers changed the face of America, making it a better and healthier country to live in. Let’s see if we, in the 21st century, can continue the legacy.—Harry Kelber

LaborTalk will be posted here on December 3, 2010 and on our two web sites: (www.laboreducator.org) and (www.laborsvoiceforchange.org).