First Published: The Call, Vol. 7, No. 34, September 4, 1978.
Transcription, Editing and Markup: Paul Saba
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One thing that can be said about the labor movement today – it’s under serious attack from the bosses.
The situation is such that even some of the top trade union bureaucrats are balking at big business’ anti-labor offensive. These officials are responding to mass rank-and-file demands to fight back. And there’s plenty for the rank and file to be angry about.
All the evidence points to the fact that the working class is suffering a severe drop in its living standards, while the bosses are raking in more money than ever before.
Take the question of income. The Labor Department’s own reports show that, contrary to the propaganda which claims workers’ wages are “rising too fast” and “causing inflation,“ the real standard of living for the average worker is falling.
Here’s a quote from U.S. Labor Department Report No. 78-668, released on July 28, 1978:
“Real spendable earnings, as calculated ’in this release, decreased 2.3 percent” in just one year. This report further shows that real earnings have suffered a sharp drop since 1972.
The term “real spendable earnings” refers to the actual income of a worker after inflation and taxes have eaten away at his paycheck.
Thus, while your paycheck may be getting a little bigger, it’s not even keeping pace with sky-rocketing inflation and taxes. And that means only one thing – a pay cut!
Expressed in constant 1967 dollars, a married worker with three dependents averaged real spendable earnings of $92.69 a week in June 1978. This is a drop of almost $3 a week in one year, and is even lower still than the $96.16 weekly average of 1972.
Pay cuts for the workers, however, mean big bucks for the capitalists. All measures of corporate profits, such as return on investment. profit on sales, cash flow and return to investors are at especially high levels.
A Business Week magazine survey of 1,200 corporations revealed these industry profit gains from 1976 to 1977: airlines – 93%; real estate – 50%; rubber industry – 40%; and building materials, appliances and auto makers all posted 20% or higher profit increases.
The margin of profit for every dollar of sales for all corporations rose from 5% in 1970 to 7.7% in 1977 – a 54% increase overall.
Such fantastic profit readings were not the case for much of industry a few years ago. In fact, the monopolists have, to a large extent, “recovered” from the cyclical crisis that struck a few years ago, and their profits reflect this recovery.
The steel industry is a prime example of the change. First-half-of-the-year profits for Bethlehem Steel in 1977 were $9.5 million. For the first six months of ’78, the figure is almost $86 million – an incredible 795% increase. Overall, for the steel industry, profits in this period jumped 47%!
The steel barons accomplished such “growth” by laying off 65,000 workers, speeding up the rest, and stepping up over-work and forced overtime in all the mills. This is called “rationalization“ – beefing up an industry’s profits out of the increased exploitation of the working class.
Clearly, then, the working class is losing ground while the capitalists are enjoying more billions in profits (which they never worked a day for) than ever before.
Despite this state of affairs, the top bureaucrats running the labor movement have so far refused to mount a fight back movement against the bosses and their wage-cutting, anti-worker policies.
For the first half of 1978 according to the Labor Department, most major indicators of strike activity were down. The number of strikes in effect during the first six months of the year – 2,538 walkouts – is the lowest number recorded in any January-to-June period since 1967. Similarly, not since 1964 have so few workers – 715,000 – been out on strike in the first two quarters of the year.
These statistics don’t mean that the working class hasn’t been fighting back against the big business offensive. It only shows the extent to which the misleaders’ stranglehold over the labor movement has kept this fightback on a relatively small level.
On the other hand, indicators show the rank and file is fighting harder than ever. The Labor Department admits, for instance, that strikes are now lasting longer than at any time in the last 32 years! In the first half of 1978, the average strike duration was 22.2 days, much longer than the 11.7-day average of just one year ago. The 109-day miners’ strike was the best example of this trend.
This trend of longer strikes has cost the bosses some 21.1million days of “idleness,” according to the Labor Department. That’s 21.1 million days that the workers refused to make profits for the bosses.
The labor scene today presents a picture of rapidly growing discontent among the rank and file. In some places, workers have been able to break through the no-strike climate fostered by the bureaucrats and wage militant struggles. The recent public employee strike battles are examples of this trend.
Today the bureaucrats are under tremendous pressure from the workers to fight back against the capitalists, and some have even spoken out against the bosses’ attacks. But if the mis-leaders keep refusing to back up their words with action the workers will surely sweep them aside.