Taking Back Our Economy

What Do They Really Mean?

We already know that Corporate America and their allies in government are setting the rules these days. When we watch the news or maybe even sit down at the bargaining table, we hear terms like "labor market flexibility," "globalization," "small government" and "economic stability."
When these issues come up, they are usually code for something that will benefit corporate interests and leave workers and America's middle class behind.
The next few weeks we'll take a look at these terms and what they really mean, starting with "labor market flexibility" today.

Corporate Agenda Term #1: Labor Market Flexibility

Labor market flexibility is often code for union-busting and breaking commitments to workers. What they say and what they mean are usually two different things.

What they say:
"We need labor market flexibility to run a profitable business."

What they really mean:
- We want to use temporary employees instead of permanent employees; we want to contract the work out to other companies.
- We don't want to pay overtime.
- We want to schedule employees at the last minute and on irregular shifts. And, we want to mandate overtime.
- We don't want to pay health care or provide defined benefit pension plans.
- In short, we don't want any binding commitments to our employees. We want to use them as we want, when we want and pay them what we want.
- And, most importantly, we don't want a union or the government interfering with our doing so.

Info Source: USW Rapid Response www.uswrr.org