Politics. At least since the last quarter of the 20th century, the American labor movement has been difficult to figure out. Its raison d’etre, to protect workers, has been greatly diminished by OSHA standards, offshoring, minimum wage, among other things.
American labor has also suffered from demographic reality. Unions work best when there is an oversupply of workers whose wages and safety can be compromised by those willing to work under lower standards and for less pay.
What is left has been a union for union’s sake, a circle jerk between the political class hungry for endorsement checks and leaders looking for relevance. For some, the peripheral presence of organized labor serves as a useful boogey-man when more substantive arguments require too much energy.
(Note: I was endorsed three times by the SEIU, twice by the Fraternal Order of Police and never by the firefighters).
To the extent organized labor has influence, it is in the government sector, most especially and tragically public education. School closures during the public health emergency will go down as the crime of the century and is taking with it the AFT and the NEA whose membership declines are softened only by higher dues.
At least for now, organized labor has lost its historic heroic narrative, like so many other aspects of American life. Its force is largely artificial, propped up by the scale and power of government, mostly.
Policy. Because IKYKIK, organized labor’s influence is not growing and so it must be satisfied with what it can get out of government initiatives. Although President Joe Biden has made no secret of his nostalgic attachment for unions – Congress is not organized so President Biden has not himself been a member of a union, at least not recently – there appear to be limits to his support.
The SEIU – the favored union of former President Barack Obama and President Biden – has been active in organizing the home and long-term care industries. Part of that effort has been to expand the population of workers.
Both the American Recovery Act and the Inflation Reduction Act included provisions to significantly expand the home care work force. In both cases, they were removed from the final bill.
On Friday, the Biden White House released its minimum wage standard for long-term care facilities. It was pretty benign relative to expectations – 3.0 hours of RN/Nursing care per day. Labor had argued for 4.1 hours but CMS appears to have refused, at least for now.
A significant increase in staffing would have been a problem obvious to everyone, except the unions. A higher mandate would put pressure on the available supply of labor which would likely benefit staffing agencies in the near term.
The proposal does not eliminate future increases in minimums which makes it a victory for labor at some point in the future even if they don’t know it.
Power. The sad state of labor’s affairs U.S. is increasingly a function of the increasingly and nearly absolute role government is playing in big business.
It has been a long time, but we are not without precedent. The US government, with the help of the alphabet soup of military and intelligence agencies trolled the world in the 1950s and 60s, upsetting political balance if it benefited multinationals like United Fruit, US Sugar and various oil companies.
Most governments around the world got hip to that program and now the USG has to be satisfied creating growth where it might not exist; expanding demand for electric vehicles, supply of home care services and the always present toys of the defense industry.
It seems like a short-term plan but so too does trying to protect the ouster of the Shah of Iran.
Have a great rest of your weekend.
Emily Evans
Managing Director – Health Policy
Twitter
