Trumka Rips Report from President’s Jobs Council
January 26, 2012
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, a member of the President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness, issued a strong dissent from the council’s report issued on Jan.18.
Trumka’s differences with corporate officials who constitute a majority of members on the 27-member council begin with the charge that the panel is not representative of the broad base of Americans who have the greatest stake in economic recovery. He goes on to criticize the report’s emphasis on lowering federal regulation of industry and lowering corporate tax rates to help create jobs. He says:
The report addresses regulatory issues as if we were not in the midst of a prolonged economic crisis whose proximate causes clearly included inadequate regulation of business, and in particular financial markets and institutions.
With respect to corporate tax reform, Trumka says:
I believe that corporations as a group pay too low a share of taxes to support the kind of infrastructure investment and education/skills upgrades that are so urgently needed at this time—and that are so essential to the success of business…
One of two representatives of organized labor on the council, Trumka agreed with the report’s emphasis on the role of a vibrant and growing manufacturing sector. But he says it does not come to terms with the challenges faced by domestic producers in today’s global economy.
The report, says Trumka, doesn’t answer why the U.S. manufacturing base has been severely eroded while competitor nations with higher taxes and more robust health, safety and environmental regulations have vibrant manufacturing sectors. He says:
Our country has become dominated by the interests of the wealthiest 1 percent at the expense of the remaining 99 percent. It turns out that a country run in the interests of the wealthiest 1 percent systematically underinvests in public goods; systematically silences, disempowers, and underinvests in its workers; and in the end is less competitive and creates fewer jobs than a country that focuses on the interests of the 99 percent.
International President Edwin D. Hill praises Trumka’s dissent. He says:
Organized labor will always insist on being at the table whenever jobs and economic competitiveness are being discussed in our nation’s capital. But, as President Trumka’s dissent makes perfectly clear, we will speak out loudly when others propose solutions that hurt workers by maintaining the economic inequality that is dragging down our national economy.
The other representative of organized labor on the council, Joe Hansen,chairman of the Change-to-Win federation, abstained from the panel’s advocacy of lower corporate taxes.
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