Black trade unionists meet in Chicago
As the black hip-hop journal “Thug Life Army” (one of our favorite publications) reports, on May 25th, the Chicago Black Trade Unionists met at the prestigious Hyatt Regency to discuss the dismal state of union workers, especially black ones, in the U.S. “We will not be made expendable,” thundered Black Agenda Report executive editor Glen Ford. “Those of us who are here are the lucky ones,” added CBTU President William Lucy, alluding to the fact that most blacks are either unemployed or working at low-paid, non-unionized jobs.
We have to admit: he has a point. As everyone knows, the pool of well-paid, unionized jobs that formed the backbone of American middle-class prosperity in the 1950s and 1960s is drying up. Yes, there is a much smaller pool of well-paid jobs in fields like information technology and international trade that is expanding; and though Mr. Lucy probably won’t say so publicly, he doubtlessly knows that few of his fellow blacks qualify for such positions. So the black community is losing out.
What no one at the convention dared to say, however, is that blacks (who on average have much lower skill levels than whites) stand to lose much more as competition for low-end jobs grows ever more fierce, and that this is an ongoing process because of the mass influx of cheap labor, both legal and illegal, from Mexico and other Third World countries.
There was much rhetoric at the convention about the need for more jobs and better wages, and plenty of finger pointing at those who further the agenda of the rich and powerful at the expense of poor blacks. Fair enough. But what about the fact that open borders sit at the top of that agenda? Not a peep from anyone.
Instead, Linda Chavez-Thompson, executive VP of the AFL-CIO, merely noted that “guest worker programs…create two classes of workers,” implying that armies of cheap laborers are no problemo if they are only put on an equal footing with those whose families have lived here for generations.
“There are more than enough jobs to go around,” Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi declared, “people just don’t want to PAY!” If somebody has an old Econ 101 textbook, maybe they can donate it to Mr. Thompson, who apparently believes that wage levels are a function of generosity—”wanting to pay”—rather than market forces like supply and demand; and who doesn’t understand that if there were “more than enough jobs to go around,” employers would start bidding up wages as they compete against one another to fill them.
Of course, also unspoken (because never acknowledged) is the huge benefit blacks receive by having white liberals in positions of power. Blacks and Hispanics are currently having a field day in Chicago at the expense of working-class whites because of the presence of Mayor Richard Daley. If and when his “sanctuary city” policies create a Hispanic majority in Chicago, they’ll elect one of their own, and he and his kind will be out on their ear. Will Hispanic leaders and their cronies bear a huge “legacy of guilt” over slavery, and gladly betray their own to further the black agenda? Few if any blacks are asking this question so crucial to black interests. Will the blacks ever wise up? We shall see…