Oct. 27 2011–United Food and Commercial Workers Local 400 President Tom McNutt today issued the following statement on the Occupy Wall Street movement:
“The Occupy Wall Street movement is performing a heroic public service by focusing the nation’s attention on the class warfare that is being waged by big money and big business against America’s working families. The protestors’ rightful exercise of their constitutionally-protected freedom of speech and assembly must not be violated by what appear to be increasingly aggressive efforts by elected officials to arrest and silence them.
“Just this week, the Congressional Budget Office confirmed what the labor movement, Occupy Wall Street and serious economists have been pointing out for some time: inequality in our nation is at its highest levels since just before the Great Depression. It found that between 1979 and 2007, incomes for the top 1 percent shot up by 275 percent, while incomes for those in the middle increased by just 40 percent and those in the bottom fifth of the population rose by only 18 percent. The CBO noted that over that time, changes in tax rates and federal benefit payments made them less able to counterbalance economic trends favoring the rich.
“In the wake of the Great Recession, inequality has surely grown worse and the middle class is becoming an endangered species. In the last year alone, the typical worker’s paycheck declined by 1.2 percent. Of course, it’s even worse for the 17 percent of Americans who have no jobs, have given up looking for work, or are stuck in part-time jobs when they want to work full-time. Meanwhile, corporate profits and CEO pay are at all-time highs.
“As a result, there are 92 countries — including Egypt, India and Iran — that have less income inequality than the United States. This puts our nation to shame.
“The only way to get the economy back on track is by increasing consumer spending. That will only happen when more workers get jobs and they start receiving their fair share of the wealth their productivity generates. That, in turn, will only happen when the percentage of workers empowered through union representation increases.
“I urge policy makers to take action now to create good jobs, increase living standards, expand workers’ rights and fight for the middle class. All they have to do is take the lessons of the labor movement and the Occupy Wall Street movement to heart.”
