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AlterNet reports
When Republicans in Congress passed a big, fat tax break bill in December, they insisted it meant American workers would be singing "Happy Days Are Here Again" all the way to the bank. The payoff from the tax cut would be raises totaling $4,000 to $9,000, the President's Council of Economic Advisers assured workers. But something bad happened to workers on their way to the repository. They never got that money.
In fact, their real wages declined because of higher inflation. At the same time, the amount workers had to pay in interest on loans for cars and credit cards increased. And, to top it off, Republicans threatened to make workers pay for the tax break with cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. So now, workers across America are wondering, "Where's that raise?". It's nowhere to be found.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported this week that wages for production and nonsupervisory workers decreased by 0.1 percent from May 2017 to May 2018 when inflation is factored in. The compensation for all workers together, including supervisors, rose an underwhelming 0.1 percent from April 2018 to May 2018.
That's not what congressional Republicans promised workers. They said corporations, which got the biggest, fattest tax cuts of all, would use that extra money to increase wages. Some workers got one-time bonuses and an even smaller number received raises. But not many. The group Americans for Tax Fairness estimates it's 4.3 percent of all U.S. workers.
The New York Times story about this record breaker describes the phenomena this way: "Companies buy back their shares when they believe they have nothing better to do with their money than to return capital to shareholders." So despite promises from the GOP and the President's Council of Economic Advisers, corporations believed further enriching their own executives and shareholders was a much better way to use the money than increasing workers' wages--wages that have been stagnant for decades.
(Score: 2) by deimtee on Friday June 22 2018, @07:47AM (2 children)
Why don't you ask your union representative? If you didn't get the raise, and you don't have a union rep, then that is your answer right there.
There may be a lot of bad things about unions (and apparently US unions are the worst in the world) but they are the only thing that puts some bargaining chips on the workers' side of the table.
If you cough while drinking cheap red wine it really cleans out your sinuses.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 22 2018, @01:11PM (1 child)
wswswswsws has been documenting how the latter part of that statement is no longer true. Look at the UAW scandal. Look at what the teacher's unions did earlier this year to contain and shut down the strikes while forcing through "deals" that were nowhere close to what the teachers were demanding. The unions are in bed with management.
Unions have become worse than useless. They are just more bureaucratic parasites feeding off the excess production of the working class.
The working class must form rank and file committees, as wsws often writes. Socialism must be democratic. All concentrations power are corruptible, and they will be corrupted.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 23 2018, @06:20AM
Some union leaders may be in bed with management. Union rank and file need to vote them out. You are never going to get meaningful change in any system where you keep re-electing those already milking the system.
Start repeating the mantra, "If you don't like the system, don't vote for the incumbent".
And don't claim that 'your guy' is an exception. If he is already in there and you are still getting fucked over then he is either complicit or incompetent.
Vote the bastard out and a new bastard in. At the very least you can impair their machine by making them rebuild it every election.