Lawmakers and bosses are citing a supposed lack of workers as justification for a suite of reactionary policies aimed at further squeezing the working class.
by Sarah Lazare, In These Times
A so-called “labor shortage” in the United States has quickly become a catch-all justification for policies that prevent workers from gaining too much power on the job, or collectively organizing by forming unions.
Not enough applicants for low-paid jobs packing meat, or working the cash register at Dairy Queen? Better crank up the Federal Reserve’s interest rates (a policy explicitly aimed at spurring a recession and putting people out of work), so that we have a larger reserve of the desperate unemployed. Pandemic-era social programs ever-so-slightly redistributing wealth downward? Better shut them down, lest we eliminate the supposed precarity needed to incentivize work.
The concept of a labor shortage can be used to effectively justify any anti-worker policy under the sun. From reading the financial press or listening to business elites, the shortage may seem like an economic fact — a material reality that is beyond dispute. But, in reality, the framing of a “labor shortage” is at its heart ideological. As long as we’re talking about a labor shortage, we’re not talking about a shortage of good, dignified union jobs. As long as we’re talking about how people “don’t want to work,” we’re not talking about how bosses don’t want to treat their employees with basic fairness and respect. And as long as we’re talking about how it’s bosses who are supposedly hurting, we’re not talking about what it would take to build an economy that doesn’t perpetually harm the poor and dispossessed.
Recent Posts
‘Unconstitutional. Unethical. Authoritarian.’ ICE Bars Millions Of Immigrants From Bond Hearings
Take Action Now One watchdog said the new policy “seems like a blatant attempt to stop them from exercising their right to due process.”……
Americans Are Not Nearly Alarmed Enough About Climate Change
Take Action Now Americans still don’t comprehend how imminent, dangerous, and far-reaching the threat is—and journalists are partly to blame.By…
The IRS Is Building A Vast System To Share Millions Of Taxpayers’ Data With ICE
Take Action Now ProPublica has obtained the blueprint for the Trump administration’s unprecedented plan to turn over IRS records to Homeland Security…
Israel’s Sudden Assault On Syria Is Unchecked Aggression
Take Action Now Jerusalem is bombing Damascus and threatening al-Sharaa’s rule, while Washington was hoping to help the nascent government on…