Chapter 7 - Social Problems

Child Labor

-Child labor involves a child performing work that is hazardous; that interferes with a child's education; or that harms a child's health or physical, mental, social, or moral development. Even though virtually every country in the world has laws that prohibit or limit the extent to which children can be employed, child labor persists throughout the world. More than half of the 168 million children who are engaged in child labor are involved in hazardous work (ILO 2015a). Some of the worst forms of child labor are forced labor, drug trafficking, sexual exploitation, and armed conflict. -Child labor is involved in many of the products we buy, wear, use, and eat. Child laborers work in factories, workshops, construction sites, mines, quarries, fields, and on fishing boats. Child laborers make bricks, shoes, soccer balls, fireworks and matches, furniture, toys, rugs, and clothing. They work in the manufacturing of brass, leather goods, and glass. They tend livestock and pick crops. Child laborers work long hours with few (or no) breaks or days off, often in unsafe conditions where they are exposed to toxic chemicals and/or excessive heat, and they endure beatings and other forms of mistreatment from their employers, all for as little as a dollar a day. A former textile worker in Bangladesh described conditions at a company called Harvest Rich, where clothing is sewn for U.S. firms including Walmart and J.C. Penney. She testified that hundreds of children, some as young as 11 years old, were illegally working at Harvest Rich, sometimes for up to 20 hours a day: "Before clothing shipments had to leave for the United States, there are often mandatory 19 to 20-hour shifts from 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 or 4:00 a.m.... The workers would sleep on the factory floor for a few hours before getting up for their next shift in the morning. If they did anything wrong, they were beaten every day." Workers had two days off a month and were paid $3.20 a week (Tate 2007). At another garment factory that made fleece jackets for Walmart, 14- or 15-year-old kids worked 18- or 20-hour shifts, from 8:00 a.m. to midnight or 4:00 a.m., seven days a week. When they passed out, rulers struck them to wake them up. Some of the girls were raped by management (Tate 2007). -Child labor also exists in the United States in restaurants, grocery stores, meatpacking plants, garment factories, and agriculture. Several hundred thousand children work on U.S. commercial farms (Human Rights Watch 2014). Child farmworkers are typically children of immigrants; many are U.S. citizens. Farmworkers—both adults and children—are exposed to chemicals, sun, and temperature extremes; they work with sharp tools and heavy machinery, climb tall ladders, and carry heavy buckets and sacks. They frequently work 12-hour days without adequate access to drinking water, toilets, or hand-washing facilities. Although children are not legally permitted to purchase tobacco products, they are allowed to work on tobacco farms where they are vulnerable to "green tobacco sickness," a poisoning that occurs when workers absorb nicotine through the skin while handling tobacco plants. -In most jobs, U.S. law requires children to be at least 16 years old to work, with a few exceptions, such as that 14- and 15-year-olds can work as cashiers, grocery baggers, and car washers. But in agricultural jobs, U.S. law allows children of any age to work on small farms as long as they have a parent's permission. Children ages 12 and older may be hired on any farm with their parent's consent or if they work on the same farm with their parents. U.S. law allows children at age 14 to work on any farm, even without parental permission.

Understanding Work and Unemployment

-On December 10, 1948, the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted and proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Among the articles of that declaration are the following: Article 23. Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment. Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work. Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection. Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests. Article 24. Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay. More than a half century later, workers around the world are still fighting for these basic rights as proclaimed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. -To understand the social problems associated with work and unemployment, we must first recognize that corporatocracy—the ties between government and corporations—serves the interests of corporations over the needs of workers. Although some people argue that the growth of multinational corporations brings economic growth, jobs, lower prices, and quality products to consumers throughout the world, others view global corporations as exploiting workers, harming the environment, dominating public policy, and degrading cultural values. -Decisions made by U.S. corporations about what and where to invest influence the quantity and quality of jobs available in the United States. As conflict theorists argue, such investment decisions are motivated by profit, which is part of a capitalist system. Profit is also a driving factor in deciding how and when technological devices will be used to replace workers and increase productivity. If goods and services are produced too efficiently, however, workers are laid off and high unemployment results. When people have no money to buy products, sales slump, recession ensues, and social welfare programs are needed to support the unemployed. When the government increases spending to pay for its social programs, it expands the deficit and increases the national debt. Deficit spending and a large national debt make it difficult to recover from the recession, and the cycle continues. -What can be done to break the cycle? Those adhering to the classic view of capitalism argue for limited government intervention on the premise that business will regulate itself by means of an "invisible hand" or "market forces." But Americans are growing increasingly skeptical of the notion that big business, which has caused many of the economic problems in our country and throughout the world, can solve the very problems it creates. New models of business, such as the workplace cooperative or workers' self-directed enterprises, offer visions of what the workplace could look like. The Occupy Wall Street social movement (see also Chapter 6) is part of a growing consciousness that job insecurity, worker exploitation, and extreme levels of wage inequality are not consistent with the American dream; there must be a better way. Participants in the Occupy Wall Street protests include students, the unemployed, union members, professionals, and others who are fed up with corporate greed and the widening gap between the rich and the poor. They are frustrated by high unemployment and the erosion of workers' salaries, benefits, and rights. Although this growing movement has not formulated any specific demands, what is certain is that Americans want change in the economy and in the workplace. Many of us spend much of our time at our jobs, working. And how we spend our time is how we spend our lives.

Effects of Unemployment on Individuals, Families, and Societies

-One study found that poor-quality jobs—those with high demands, low control over decision making, high job insecurity, and low pay—had more negative effects on mental health than having no job at all (Butterworth et al. 2011). Nevertheless, unemployment has been linked to depression, low-self esteem, and increased mortality rates (Turner and Irons 2009). One study found that, among workers with no preexisting health conditions, losing a job because of a business closure increased the risk for a new health problem by 85 percent, with the most common health problems including hypertension, heart disease, and arthritis (Strully 2009). Unemployment is also a risk factor for homelessness, substance abuse, and crime, as some unemployed individuals turn to illegitimate, criminal sources of income, such as theft, drug dealing, and prostitution. -Long-term unemployment—which is considered as being unemployed for 27 weeks or longer—can have lasting effects, such as increased debt, diminished retirement and savings accounts (which are depleted to meet living expenses), home foreclosure, and/or relocation from secure housing and communities to unfamiliar places to find a job. But, even when individuals who are laid off find another job in one or two weeks, they still suffer damage to their self-esteem from having been told they are no longer wanted or needed at their workplace. And being fired affects worker trust and loyalty in future jobs. Employees who are not fired during a mass layoff are also affected, as they worry that "their job could be next" (Uchitelle 2006). -In families, unemployment is also a risk factor for child and spousal abuse and marital instability. When an adult is unemployed, other family members are often compelled to work more hours to keep the family afloat. And unemployed noncustodial parents, usually fathers, fall behind on their child support payments. -Plant closings and large-scale layoffs affect communities by lowering property values and depressing community living standards. High numbers of unemployed adults create a drain on societies that provide support to those without jobs. Job displacement of the nonelderly is linked to lower rates of social participation in church groups, charitable organizations, youth and community groups, and civic and neighborhood groups (Brand and Burgard 2008). Globally, the high numbers of young adults without jobs create a risk for crime, violence, and political conflict (United Nations 2005). -Unemployment creates a vicious cycle: The unemployed (as well as those who fear job loss) cut back on spending, which hurts businesses that then must cut jobs to stay afloat. During times of economic stress or uncertainty, have you cut back on everyday spending?

Job Stress

-A Gallup Poll found that 28 percent of U.S. workers are completely or somewhat dissatisfied with the amount of stress in their jobs, making job stress workers' most common complaint (dissatisfaction with the amount of money they make is workers' second most common complaint) (Jones and Saad 2014). Prolonged job stress, also known as job burnout, can cause or contribute to physical and mental health problems, such as high blood pressure, ulcers, headaches, anxiety, and depression. A U.S. study of 10 common job stressors (see Table 7.1) found that more than 120,000 people die each year from physical and mental health problems associated with workplace-related stress (Goh et al. 2015). Taking time off to heal and "recharge one's batteries" is not an option for many workers who do not have paid sick leave or paid vacation. The United States is the only advanced nation that does not mandate a minimum number of vacation days; in the European Union countries, employers are required to give workers at least four weeks of vacation each year (some countries mandate five or six weeks of vacation) (Greenhouse 2008). And, even when workers are on vacation, they are often still connected to their jobs by their smartphones and laptops.

Work/Life Conflict

-A major source of stress for U.S. workers is work/life conflict—the day-to-day struggle to simultaneously meet the demands of work and other life responsibilities and goals, including family, education, exercise, and recreation. Employed spouses strategize ways to coordinate their work schedules to have vacation time together, or simply to have meals together. Among dual-income spouses with children, 56 percent of moms and 50 percent of dads report that it is very or somewhat difficult to juggle work and family life (Parker and Wang 2013). Employed parents with young children must find and manage arrangements for child care and negotiate with their employers about taking time off to care for a sick child or to attend a child's school event or extracurricular activity. Some employers post their workers' weekly schedules only a few days in advance, making it difficult to arrange child care. In some two-parent households, spouses or partners work different shifts so that one adult can be home with the children. However, working different shifts strains marriage relationships, because the partners rarely have time off together. Some employed parents who cannot find or afford child care leave their children with no adult supervision. -Employees with elderly and/or ill parents worry about how they will provide care for their parents, or arrange for and monitor their care, while putting in a 40-hour (or more) workweek. Full-time workers who are caregivers to an older adult typically spend 16 hours a week providing hands-on elder care, including housework, meal preparation, physical care, and transportation (Matos 2014). -Balancing the responsibilities of a job with the demands of school is also a challenge for many adults. Millions of college students, both traditional age (18 to 24) and over age 25, work either part-time or full-time jobs while pursuing their college degree.

Causes of Unemployment

-A primary cause of unemployment is lack of available jobs. In December 2000, jobs were plentiful: For every job opening, the ratio of job seekers to job openings was 1 to 1, meaning there was one available job for every person seeking employment. But between 2008 and 2013, the ratio of job seekers to job openings fluctuated from 3 to 1 to more than 6 to 1 (Shierholz 2011, 2013). In early 2015, the ratio of job seekers to jobs fell below 2 to 1 (Bureau of Labor Statistics 2015c). Even when jobs are plentiful, some amount of unemployment is inevitable because it takes time for job seekers to find the right job and for employers to find the right workers. Jobs and workers may also be in different locations and may need time to find each other, during which time jobs are not filled, and workers are unemployed. This type of inevitable unemployment is known as frictional unemployment (Palley 2015). -Another cause of U.S. unemployment is job exportation, also referred to as offshoring—the relocation of jobs to other countries. Jobs most commonly offshored have been in manufacturing, but offshoring also occurs with service jobs, including information technology, human resources, finance, purchasing, and legal services. Exporting jobs enables corporations to maximize their profits by reducing their costs of raw materials and labor. By offshoring service jobs, employers cut labor costs by about 75 percent (Davidson 2012). Outsourcing, which involves a business subcontracting with a third party to provide business services, saves companies money as they pay lower salaries and no benefits to those who provide outsourced services. Many commonly outsourced jobs—including accounting, web development, information technology, telemarketing, and customer support—are outsourced to non-U.S. workers. -Automation, or the replacement of human labor with machinery and equipment, also contributes to unemployment, although automation creates new jobs too. ATMs have reduced the need for bank tellers, but at the same time, they have created jobs for workers who produce and service ATMs. A technology called 3-D printing is likely to have a profound effect on manufacturing jobs. The revolutionary 3-D printing involves downloading a digital file containing a design for a product. The printer reads the file and then shoots out the product (made of specialized plastic or other raw materials) through a heated nozzle. For example, General Electric uses 3-D printing to manufacture parts for jet engines; Nike uses it to make soccer cleats. A Bloomberg View report concluded that "3-D printing seems likely to throw a lot of people out of work in the medium term, especially in industries that depend on assembly line labor. Eventually, as with most technological breakthroughs, it will probably create new jobs in new industries. But that transition period will be hazardous, and displaced workers will need help to navigate it. (The Editors 2013, n.p.)"

Symbolic-Interactionist Perspective

-According to symbolic interactionism, the work role is a central part of a person's self-concept and social identity. When making a new social acquaintance, one of the first questions we usually ask is "What do you do?" The answer largely defines for us who that person is. An individual's occupation is one of the person's most important statuses; for many, it represents a "master status," that is, the most significant status in a person's social identity. This chapter's Social Problems Research Up Closefeature describes a study that looks at how job loss of white-collar professionals in midlife affects their self-concepts and attitudes about work and unemployment. -Symbolic interactionism emphasizes the fact that attitudes and behavior are influenced by interaction with others. The applications of symbolic interactionism in the workplace are numerous: Employers and managers use interpersonal interaction techniques to elicit the attitudes and behaviors they want from their employees; union organizers use interpersonal interaction techniques to persuade workers to unionize. And, as noted in the Social Problems Research Up Closefeature, parents teach their young adult children important lessons about work and unemployment through interaction with them. -Symbolic interaction also focuses on the importance of labels. Although the concepts of capitalism and free enterprise are theoretically similar, Americans tend to view the term capitalism more negatively than free enterprise. Thus, "politicians seeking the most positive overall reaction from voters should choose to use the term 'free enterprise' rather than 'capitalism' in describing America's prevailing economic system" (Newport 2012, n.p.).

Conflict Perspective

-According to the conflict perspective, the ruling class controls the economic system for its own benefit and exploits and oppresses the working masses. The conflict perspective is critical of ways that the government caters to the interests of big business at the expense of workers, consumers, and the public interest. This system of government that serves the interests of corporations—known as corporatocracy—involves ties between government and business. For example, in Chapter 2, we discussed how the pharmaceutical and health insurance industries influence politicians on matters related to health care. -Corporations influence government through lobbying, and donations to politicians, campaigns, and Super PACs. As we discussed in Chapter 6, in 2010, corporations gained power to influence political outcomes when the Supreme Court ruled (5 to 4) in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commissionthat corporations, as well as unions, have a First Amendment right to spend unlimited amounts of money to support or oppose candidates for elected office. That decision also freed corporations and unions to "educate" workers about elections through voter guides, get-out-the-vote activities, and other tools. So a company can legally inform its workers that if they vote for candidate A, the company will suffer and jobs will be lost. Is this education? Or is it the company intimidating or coercing the workers to vote a certain way? The line is murky (Carney 2012). -The pervasive influence of corporate power in government exists worldwide. The policies of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank pressure developing countries to open their economies to foreign corporations, promoting export production at the expense of local consumption, encouraging the exploitation of labor as a means of attracting foreign investment, and hastening the degradation of natural resources as countries sell their forests and minerals to earn money to pay back loans. In his book Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, John Perkins (2004) described his prior job as an "economic hit man"—a highly paid professional who would convince leaders of poor countries to accept huge loans (primarily from the World Bank) that were much bigger than the country could possibly repay. The loans would be used to help develop the country by paying for needed infrastructure, such as roads, electrical plants, airports, shipping ports, and industrial plants. One of the conditions of the loan was that the borrowing country had to give 90 percent of the loan back to U.S. companies (such as Halliburton or Bechtel) to build the infrastructure. The result: The wealthiest families in the country benefit from additional infrastructure, and the poor masses are stuck with a debt they cannot repay. The United States uses the debt as leverage to ask for "favors," such as land for a military base or access to natural resources such as oil. According to Perkins, large corporations want "control over the entire world and its resources, along with a military that enforces that control" (quoted by MacEnulty 2005, p. 10).

Structural-Functionalist Perspective

-According to the structural-functionalist perspective, the economic institution is one of the most important of all social institutions, as it functions to provide the basic necessities common to all human societies, including food, clothing, and shelter and thus contributes to social stability. After the basic survival needs of a society are met, surplus materials and wealth may be allocated to other social uses, such as maintaining military protection from enemies, supporting political and religious leaders, providing formal education, supporting an expanding population, and providing entertainment and recreational activities. Societal development is dependent on an economic surplus in a society (Lenski and Lenski 1987). -As noted in Chapter 6, structural-functionalist theorists Davis and Moore (1945) argued that jobs differ in their pay so that workers will be motivated to achieve higher levels of education and training, and that jobs that offer higher rewards are those that are more important and difficult. This argument falls apart when one considers that many very important jobs have low pay. As discussed in Chapter 6, the inequality associated with salaries and wages is often considered dysfunctional, rather than functional, for society. The economic institution can also be dysfunctional when it fails to provide members with jobs and the goods and services they need; when the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services depletes and pollutes the environment; when participation in the labor force leads to alienation and work/life conflict (discussed later in this chapter); and when it includes practices that violate basic human rights, such as slavery and unsafe working conditions (also discussed later in this chapter). -The structural-functionalist perspective also focuses on how the economy affects and is affected by changes in society. For example, as societies become more economically developed, infant and child death rates drop, women have fewer children, and life expectancy increases, which leads to the aging of the world's population. Population aging affects the economy because as the proportion of older people increases, there are fewer working-age adults to fill jobs and to support the elderly population (see also Chapter 12).

Transnational Corporations

-Although free trade agreements have increased business competition around the world, resulting in lower prices for consumers for some goods, they have also opened markets to monopolies (and higher prices) because they have facilitated the development of large-scale transnational corporations. Transnational corporations, also known as multinational corporations, are corporations that have their home base in one country and branches, or affiliates, in other countries. -Transnational corporations provide jobs for U.S. managers, secure profits for U.S. investors, and help the United States compete in the global economy. Transnational corporations benefit from increased access to raw materials, cheap foreign labor, and the avoidance of government regulations. They can also avoid or reduce tax liabilities by moving their headquarters to a "tax haven." But the savings that transnational companies reap from cheap labor and reduced taxes are not passed on to consumers. "Corporations do not outsource to far-off regions so that U.S. consumers can save money. They outsource in order to increase their margin of profit" (Parenti 2007). For example, shoes made by Indonesian children working 12-hour days for 13 cents an hour cost only $2.60 but are still sold for $100 or more in the United States. -Transnational corporations contribute to the trade deficit in that more goods are produced and exported from outside the United States than from within. Transnational corporations also contribute to the budget deficit, because the United States does not get tax income from U.S. corporations abroad, yet transnational corporations pressure the government to protect their foreign interests; as a result, military spending increases. Transnational corporations contribute to U.S. unemployment by letting workers in other countries perform labor that U.S. employees could perform. Finally, transnational corporations are implicated in an array of other social problems, such as poverty resulting from fewer jobs, urban decline resulting from factories moving away, and racial and ethnic tensions resulting from competition for jobs.

Health and Safety

-Although many workplaces are safer today than in generations past, fatal and disabling occupational injuries and illnesses still occur in troubling numbers. In 2013, 4,585 U.S. workers—most of whom were men—died of fatal work-related injuries (Bureau of Labor Statistics 2015a). The most common type of job-related fatality involves transportation accidents (see Figure 7.1). -Nonfatal occupational injuries and illnesses in U.S. workplaces include sprains, strains, and cuts. Workers who do repeated motions such as typing or assembly line work are prone to repetitive strain injuries (see this chapter's The Human Side feature). -The incidence of occupational injury and illnesses is probably much higher than the reported statistics show. Government data on workplace illness and injury exclude many categories of workers including self-employed workers, federal government agency employees, farms with fewer than 11 workers, and private household workers (AFL-CIO 2015). Long-term illnesses caused by, for example, exposure to carcinogens often are difficult to relate to the workplace and are not adequately recognized and reported. And employees don't always report workplace injuries or illnesses for fear of being disciplined, losing their jobs, or in the case of undocumented immigrants, fear of being deported. Employers discourage reporting of injuries by offering financial rewards to workers and departments when no injuries are reported for a specified period of time. Even when workers report their injuries, employers don't always keep accurate records because they fear increased workers' compensation costs, increased scrutiny from government workplace inspectors, and fines for possible violations of health and safety regulations. -Workplace inspections reveal that many workplace injuries, illnesses, and deaths are due to employers' willful violations of health and safety regulations. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), created in 1970, develops, monitors, and enforces health and safety regulations in the workplace. But inadequate funding leaves OSHA unable to hire enough workplace inspectors to do the job effectively. The International Labour Organization recommends one inspector per 10,000 workers; in 2015, there was one federal or state OSHA inspector for every 71,695 workers. At current staffing levels, it would take federal OSHA inspectors, on average, 140 years to inspect each workplace just once (AFL-CIO 2015).

Employer-Based Work/Life Policies

-Aside from government-mandated work-family policies, some corporations and employers have "family-friendly" work policies and programs, including unpaid or paid family and medical leave, child care assistance, assistance with elderly parent care, and flexible work options such as allowing workers to control when they start and end their workday (see Table 7.3). -Full pay for maternity leave - 5% -Private space for breast-feeding - 74% -Some paid time off for spouses/partners of women who give birth - 14% -Health insurance for unmarried partners - 43% -Allow some employees to periodically change their arrival and departure time - 81% -Provide information about elder care services - 43% -Child care at or near work site - 7% -Dependent Care Assistance Programs that help employees pay for child care with pretax dollars - 61%

Labor Unions and the Struggle for Workers' Rights

-Having a job is no guarantee of having favorable working conditions and receiving decent pay and benefits. Labor unions are worker advocacy organizations that developed to protect workers and represent them at negotiations between management and labor.

Labor Union Struggles Around the World

-In 1949, the International Labour Office established the Convention on the Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining. About half of the world's workforce lives in countries that have not ratified this convention, including China, India, Mexico, Canada, and the United States. According to the International Trade Union Confederation (2014), 87 countries exclude certain workers from the right to strike and at least 37 countries impose fines or prison sentences for workers who go on strike. In at least 9 countries, murder or disappearance of workers is a common practice used to intimidate workers.

The Global Jobs Pact

-In 2009, the International Labour Organization adopted a Global Jobs Pact designed to guide national and international policies aimed at stimulating the economy, creating jobs, and providing protection to workers and their families. The Global Jobs Pact calls for a wide range of measures to retain workers, sustain businesses, create jobs, and provide social protections to workers and the unemployed. The pact also calls for more stringent supervision and regulation of the financial industry so that it better serves the economy and protects individuals' savings and pensions. The pact urges a number of measures, including a shift to a low-carbon, environmentally friendly economy that will help create new jobs, investments in public infrastructure, and increases in social protection and minimum wages (to reduce poverty, increase demand for goods, and stimulate the economy). -The Global Jobs Pact provides a vision for a healthier economy that meets the needs of workers and consumers. The hard work of translating the Global Jobs Pact into reality falls to employers, trade unions, and especially governments.

Unemployment

-In 2014, more than 200 million people worldwide—nearly 6 percent of the global labor force—were unemployed. In some countries in Africa and the Middle East, up to 30 percent of the workforce was unemployed. The unemployment rate for youths (aged 15 to 24) was nearly three times higher than for adults (International Labour Organization [ILO] 2015b). -In the United States, the official unemployment rate includes individuals who are currently unemployed, are available for employment, and have looked for work in the past 4 weeks. The U.S. unemployment rate dipped to a 31-year low of 4 percent in 2000, but it rose to 10 percent in 2009 as a result of the economic recession that began in 2007 as companies went out of business and plants closed. A recession refers to a significant decline in economic activity spread across the economy and lasting for at least six months. In communities hardest hit by the recession, unemployment rates rose to over 20 percent. By 2015 (March), U.S. unemployment had dropped to 5.5 percent (Bureau of Labor Statistics 2015b). Rates of unemployment are higher among certain groups, including racial and ethnic minorities (see also Chapter 9) and among those with lower levels of education. -The official unemployment rate does not include people who are "marginally attached" to the labor force—individuals who want a job, have searched for work in the past 12 months, but have not looked for a job in the past 4 weeks. These "marginally attached" persons have not looked for a job in the past 4 works because they are discouraged over job prospects or because they have family responsibilities, school or job training commitments, or ill health or disability. The official unemployment rate also does not include involuntary part-time workers—those who want to work full-time but who settle for a part-time job, nor does it include highly skilled and highly educated individuals who are working in low skill, low-paying jobs. Because the official unemployment rate does not include these marginally attached and involuntary part-time workers, it grossly undercounts the percentage of people whose employment needs are not being met.

Responses to Workplace Health and Safety Concerns

-In 2014, the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) issued new standards to reduce coal miners' exposure to coal dust that causes "black lung disease." But many other efforts to improve worker health and safety have stalled. The Protecting America's Workers Act (PAWA), introduced in Congress in 2009 and 2013, proposed to strengthen OSHA by extending coverage to uncovered workers, including state and local public employees; enhance whistle-blower protections so that workers who report workplace safety violations would have job protection; and increase penalties for serious and willful violations and in cases of worker death. The bill did not pass through Congress. Other proposed legislation would lower the acceptable level of worker exposure to silica dust; strengthen OSHA's authority to shut down operations that pose an imminent danger to workers; prohibit employer policies and practices that discourage injury reporting or retaliate against workers who report injuries; and improve reporting and tracking of workplace injuries and illnesses (AFL-CIO 2015). These and other initiatives to strengthen workplace health and safety are opposed by industry groups, and politicians who argue that excessive regulation is burdensome to business, hampers investment, and hurts job creation. -In developing countries, governments fear that strict enforcement of workplace regulations will discourage foreign investment. Investment in workplace safety in developing countries, whether by domestic firms or foreign multinationals, is far below that in the rich countries. Unless global standards of worker safety are implemented and enforced in all countries, millions of workers throughout the world will continue to suffer under hazardous work conditions. Low unionization rates and workers' fears of losing their jobs—or their lives—if they demand health and safety protections leave most workers powerless to improve their working conditions.

Job Creation and Preservation

-In a national poll, one in four Americans said that the best way to create more U.S. jobs is to keep manufacturing jobs in the United States and stop sending work overseas (Newport 2011). Although both Democrat and Republican respondents cited keeping manufacturing jobs in the United States as the best way of creating jobs, Republicans also favored job creation strategies that involve reducing taxes and limiting government involvement in regulating business, whereas Democrats were more likely to favor using government to create jobs through infrastructure projects. -The 2010 Small Business Jobs Act provides tax breaks and better access to credit for small businesses so that small businesses can create new jobs. The 2010 Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment (HIRE) Act provided tax incentives to companies that hired employees who had been looking for work for 60 days or more.

Efforts to End Slavery, Child Labor, and Sweatshop Labor

-In at least 25 countries, slave trafficking is actively prosecuted and treated as a serious crime. However, slave traffickers often avoid punishment because, as a former official of the U.S. Agency for International Development explained, "government officials in dozens of countries assist, overlook, or actively collude with traffickers" (quoted in Cockburn 2003, p. 16). In many countries, the justice system is more likely to jail or expel sex slaves than to punish traffickers ("Sex Trade Enslaves Millions of Women, Youth" 2003). In the United States, the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act, passed by Congress in 2000, protects slaves against deportation if they testify against their former owners. Convicted slave traffickers in the United States are subject to prison sentences. -In 1989, the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which asserts the right that children should not be engaged in work deemed to be "hazardous or to interfere with the child's education, or to be harmful to the child's health." The International Labour Office has taken a leading role in enforcing these rights, leading efforts to prevent and eliminate child labor. Although almost every country has laws prohibiting the employment of children below a certain age, some countries exempt certain sectors—often the very sectors where the highest numbers of child laborers are found. Efforts to prevent child labor also focus on increasing penalties for violating child labor laws, which are often weak and poorly enforced. -Promoting Education for All—a global movement advocating that every child has access to free, basic education (primary school plus two or three years of secondary school)—is critical in the effort to reduce child labor because children with no access to education have little choice but to enter the labor market. In most countries, primary education is not free and parents must pay for costs such as uniforms and books. Parents who cannot afford these fees are also likely to view their children's labor as a necessary source of income to the household. -In the United States, the Children's Act for Responsible Employment (CARE Act) is a bill that proposes to raise the minimum age of farmworkers from 12 to 14 (except for children working on their parents' farm). The bill also contains provisions to protect young farmworkers from hazardous work and exposure to pesticides. As of this writing, the CARE Act has not passed. -Combating sweatshop labor conditions requires inspections and monitoring of factories and other workplaces to ensure compliance with labor standards. Favorable inspections, however, are not always accurate, given that employers sometimes know in advance that an inspector is coming. Corruption is also a problem, with some factory managers giving money to inspectors in exchange for a favorable report (Human Rights Watch 2015b). But inspecting and monitoring factories has resulted in exposing sweatshop conditions and the major companies that have contracts with these factories, leading to some improvements in working conditions. The Fair Labor Association (FLA) works to promote adherence to international labor standards and improve working conditions worldwide. More than 40 leading companies that sell brand-name apparel, footwear, and other goods voluntarily participate in FLA's factory monitoring system, which requires factories to meet minimum labor standards, such as not requiring workers to work more than 60 hours a week. In addition, nearly 200 colleges and universities require their collegiate licensees (companies that manufacture logo-carrying goods for colleges and universities) to participate in FLA's monitoring system.

Global Context: The New Global Economy

-In recent decades, innovations in communication and information technology have spawned the emergence of a global economy—an interconnected network of economic activity that transcends national borders and spans the world. The globalization of economic activity means that our jobs, the products and services we buy, and our nation's economic policies and agendas influence and are influenced by economic activities occurring around the world. -In 2007, the economic situation around the world took a downward turn, as banks faltered, credit froze, businesses closed, unemployment rates soared, and investments plummeted. This global financial crisis, which originated in the United States and spread throughout the world, illustrates the globalization of the economic institution. Some say that the cause of the global economic crisis was the lack of U.S. financial regulatory oversight that enabled financial institutions to engage in predatory and subprime lending during the housing boom in the early 2000s. As the housing boom turned to bust, and adjustable rate mortgages were reset to higher rates, millions of homeowners were unable to keep up with mortgage payments, and foreclosures skyrocketed. Homeowners lost their homes, renters lost their leases, and banks suffered because the foreclosed homes they now owned were often worth less than the mortgages owed on them. As banks lost revenue, they had less money to lend, so credit froze, consumer spending plummeted, businesses went bust, and stockholders watched their investments and retirement accounts take a nosedive. The whole banking system was faltering—some got bailed out; others (e.g., Bear Stearns) went bust. All this happened in the United States, but in this new global economy, what happens in Vegas does not stay in Vegas—the crisis spread around the world. This is because those risky subprime and adjustable rate mortgages were packaged and resold as "mortgage-backed securities" to financial institutions around the world. -The U.S. economic crisis that began in 2007 also triggered a huge drop in world trade. When the United States went into recession and consumer spending declined, all the countries that depended on U.S. consumers to buy their goods and services lost a major source of revenue. -The global economic crisis reignited debate between those who view U.S. capitalism as the cause of economic problems in the world, and those who hail capitalism as "the greatest engine of economic progress and prosperity known to mankind" (Ebeling 2009). After summarizing capitalism and socialism—the two main economic systems in the world—we look at the emergence of free trade agreements and transnational corporations.

Behavior-Based Safety Programs

-Instead of examining how work processes and conditions compromise health and safety on the job, behavior-based safety programs attribute workplace illnesses and injuries to workers' own carelessness and unsafe acts (Frederick and Lessin 2000). These programs focus on teaching employees and managers to identify, "discipline," and change unsafe worker behaviors that cause accidents and encourage a work culture that recognizes and rewards safe behaviors. -Critics contend that behavior-based safety programs divert attention away from the employers' failures to provide safe working conditions. They also say that the real goal of behavior-based safety programs is to discourage workers from reporting illness and injuries. Workers whose employers have implemented behavior-based safety programs describe an atmosphere of fear in the workplace, such that workers are reluctant to report injuries and illnesses for fear of being labeled "unsafe workers."

Causes of Workplace Fatalities

-Transportation accidents - 41% -Violence and injuries by other persons or animals - 17% -Contact with objects and equipment - 16% -Falls, slips, and trips - 16% -Exposure to harmful elements and substances - 7% -Fires and explosions - 3%

Capitalism and Socialism

-Under capitalism, private individuals or groups invest capital (money, technology, machines) to produce goods and services to sell for a profit in a competitive market. Capitalism is characterized by economic motivation through profit, the determination of prices and wages primarily through supply and demand, and the absence of government intervention in the economy. Socialism is an economic system in which the means of production (factories, machinery, land, stores, offices, etc.) are socially owned by the public, worker collectives, or the state. In a socialist economy, theoretically, goods and services are distributed according to the needs of the citizens, with some goods and services—such as water, education, health care, and/or child care—provided to all citizens through a socially funded system of taxation. Whereas capitalism emphasizes individualistic pursuit of profit and individual freedom, socialism emphasizes collective well-being and social equality. -Socialism is often confused with communism, and some people use the two terms interchangeably. But socialism is more accurately an economic system that most often exists with some variation of a democratic political system, whereas communism is a political system that usually takes on the form of totalitarianism—a one-party system where the state controls all aspects of public and private life, permitting no individual freedom. In communism, there is no private property (all property is commonly owned), there are no class distinctions among people (goods and services are distributed equally so that no one has more or less than anyone else), and goods and services are distributed directly to people without the use of money. Some people view communism as an extreme form of socialism. -In reality, there are no pure socialist or capitalistic economies. Rather, most countries have mixed economies, incorporating elements of both capitalism and socialism. Most developed countries, for example, have both privately owned and publicly owned enterprises, as well as a social welfare system. The U.S. economy is dominated by capitalism, but it also includes elements of socialism, such as the provision of fire and police services, public roads, education, a postal service, public assistance programs for the poor, government subsidies and low-interest loans to industry, fiscal stimulus money, and bailout money to the auto industry and banks. -Critics of socialism argue that socialism creates excessive government control, reduces work incentives and technological development, and lowers the standard of living. A national survey of U.S. adults found that 39 percent say they have a positive image of socialism, compared with 54 percent who have a negative image of socialism (Newport 2012). -Although a majority (61 percent) of Americans say they have a positive image of capitalism, nearly a third (31 percent) have a negative image of capitalism (Newport 2012). And while 70 percent of Americans agree people are better off in a free-market (i.e., capitalistic) economy, even though some people are rich and some are poor, one in four Americans disagreed (Pew Research Center 2014). Critics of capitalism point to a number of social ills linked to this economic system, including high levels of inequality; economic instability; job insecurity; pollution and depletion of natural resources; and corporate dominance of media, culture, and politics. Capitalism is also criticized as violating the principles of democracy by allowing private wealth to affect access to political power, private owners of property to make decisions that affect the public (such as when the owner of a factory decides to move the factory to another country), workplace dictatorships where workers have little say in their working conditions, thus violating the democratic principle that people should participate in collective decisions that significantly affect their lives (Wright 2013) -Wolff (2013a, 2013b) explains that major shareholders and boards of directors within corporations make key decisions about what products the corporation will produce, what technologies will be used, where production will occur, and how the revenues will be distributed—decisions that profoundly affect workers who have no say in these decisions: "The most important activity of an adult's life in this country is work. It's what we do five days out of every seven. If democracy belongs anywhere, it belongs in the workplace. Yet we accept, as if it were a given, that once we cross the threshold of our store, factory, or office, we give up all democratic rights. (Wolff, quoted in Barsamian 2012, p. 12)"

Efforts to Strengthen Labor

-Just over half of Americans (53 percent) approve of labor unions, down from 75 percent in the 1950s (Jones 2014a). The lack of widespread support for labor unions is a challenge for those who want to strengthen labor unions in order to remedy many of the problems facing workers. -In an effort to strengthen their power, some labor unions have merged with one another. Labor union mergers result in higher membership numbers, thereby increasing the unions' financial resources, which are needed to recruit new members and to withstand long strikes. Because workers must fight for labor protections within a globalized economic system, their unions must cross national boundaries to build international cooperation and solidarity. Otherwise, employers can play working and poor people in different countries against each other. -Strengthening labor unions requires combating the threats and violence against workers who attempt to organize or who join unions. One way to do this is to pressure governments to apprehend and punish the perpetrators of such violence. Another tactic is to stop doing business with countries where government-sponsored violations of free trade union rights occur.

Benefits and Disadvantages of Labor Unions to Workers

-Labor unions have played an important role in fighting for fair wages and benefits, healthy and safe work environments, and other forms of worker advocacy. Compared with nonunion workers, unionized workers tend to have higher earnings, better insurance and pension benefits, and more paid time off. Union members also have higher life satisfaction than nonunion members, which is not due to higher income, but rather to the fact that union members experience greater satisfaction with their work experiences, feel greater job security, have more opportunities for social interaction and integration, and benefit from democratic participation and citizenship within their union (Flavin and Shufeldt 2014) -One of the disadvantages of unions is that members must pay dues and other fees, and these dues have been rising in recent years. Union members resent the high salaries that many union leaders make. Another disadvantage for unionized workers is the loss of individuality. Unionized workers are members of an overall bargaining unit in which the majority rules. Decisions made by the majority may conflict with individual employees' specific employment needs.

Sweatshop Labor

-Millions of people worldwide work in sweatshops—work environments that are characterized by less than minimum wage pay, excessively long hours of work (often without overtime pay), unsafe or inhumane working conditions, abusive and discriminatory treatment of workers by employers, and/or the lack of worker organizations aimed at negotiating better working conditions. Sweatshop labor conditions occur in a wide variety of industries, including garment production, manufacturing, mining, and agriculture. -More than 97 percent of all clothing purchased in the United States is imported, often made under sweatshop conditions (Institute for Global Labour and Human Rights 2011). Garment workers at a factory in Ha-Meem, Bangladesh, work 12- to 14-hour shifts, 7 days a week, with 1 day off a month. Young women making garments for Gap, J.C. Penney, Phillips-Van Heusen (PVH), Target, and Abercrombie & Fitch make 20 to 26 cents an hour (Institute for Global Labour and Human Rights 2011). -Sweatshop conditions in overseas industries have been widely publicized. However, many Americans do not realize the extent to which sweatshops exist in the United States. For example, in 2012, the Department of Labor found widespread "sweatshop-like" labor violations in the Los Angeles garment industry (Miles 2012). Ten garment contractors, producing clothing for more than 20 retailers, were found to be paying less than minimum wage, not paying overtime, and/or falsifying time cards or failing to maintain records of employees' hours. Most garment workers in the United States are immigrant women who typically work 60 to 80 hours a week, often earning less than minimum wage with no overtime, and many face verbal and physical abuse. -Immigrant farmworkers, who process most of the fruits and vegetables grown in the United States, also work under sweatshop conditions. Many live in substandard and crowded housing provided by their employer and lack access to safe drinking water as well as bathing and sanitary toilet facilities. Farmworkers commonly suffer from heat exhaustion, back and muscle strains, injuries resulting from the use of sharp and heavy farm equipment, and illness resulting from pesticide exposure (Austin 2002). Working 12-hour days under hazardous conditions, farmworkers have the lowest annual family incomes of any U.S. wage and salary workers, and more than 60 percent of them live in poverty (Thompson 2002).

Employment Concerns of Recent College Grads

-Most college students seek a college degree to improve their job opportunities. But having a college degree is no guarantee of employment in a struggling economy. The unemployment rate for young college graduates (without an advanced degree and not currently enrolled in further education) tends to be more than twice the overall unemployment rate (Shierholz et al. 2014). Some college grads question whether going to college was worth the expense and the effort. In 2014, 46 percent of employed college grads under age 27 were working in jobs that did not require a college degree (Davis et al. 2015). -College grads who find employment are not receiving the same wages or benefits as they used to. Between 2000 and 2014, the inflation-adjusted wages of young college grads declined 7.7 percent, and the share of young college grads who received pension benefits from their employer dropped from 41.5 percent in 2000 to 27 percent in 2012 (Shierholz et al. 2014). Due to their high unemployment rate, the low wages of many jobs, the high cost of living, and student loans and other college debts, many recent college graduates end up living with their parents or other family, instead of on their own. In 2013, 28 percent of young adults ages 24 to 34 who were living with their parents were college graduates (Jones 2014b).

Legislation

-Perhaps the most effective strategy against sweatshop work conditions is legislation. Some U.S. states, cities, counties, and school districts have passed "sweat-free" procurement laws that prohibit public entities (e.g., schools, police, and fire departments) from purchasing uniforms and apparel made under sweatshop conditions (SweatFree Communities n.d.). -Establishing and enforcing labor laws to protect workers from sweatshop labor conditions is difficult in a political climate that offers more protections to corporations than it does to workers. Companies have demanded and won all sorts of intellectual property and copyright laws to defend their corporate trademarks, labels, and products. Yet, the corporations have long said that extending similar laws to protect the human rights of a 16-year-old girl in Bangladesh who sews the garment would be "an impediment to free trade." Under this distorted sense of values, the label is protected, but not the human being, the worker who makes the product (National Labor Committee 2007).

Work-Life Policies and Programs

-Policies that help women and men balance their work and family responsibilities are referred to by a number of terms, including work-family, work-life, and family-friendly policies. As shown in Table 7.2, the United States lags far behind many other countries in national work-family provisions. -Paid Childbirth Leave: No US policy, 168 countries offer paid leave to women, 98 countries offer 14 or more weeks of paid leave -Right to breast-feed at work: No US policy, 107 countries protect working women's right to breast-feed -Paid sick leave: No US policy, 145 countries provide paid sick leave -Paid annual leave: No US policy, 137 countries require employers to provide paid annual leave; 121 countries guarantee 2 weeks or more -Guaranteed leave for major family events: No US policy, 49 countries guarantee leave for major family events, with leave being paid in 40 countries

Slavery

-Slavery, also known as forced labor, refers to any work that is performed under the threat of punishment and is undertaken involuntarily. An estimated 35.8 million people throughout the world live in slavery, more than half of whom live in just five countries: India, China, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, and Russia (Global Slavery Index 2014). Slaves are found working in agriculture, domestic work, food service, construction, garment manufacturing, the sex industry, factories, mining, and other sectors. In South Asia, where sex slavery is most common, either girls are forced into prostitution by their own husbands, fathers, and brothers to earn money to pay family debts, or they are lured by offers of good jobs and then are forced to work in brothels under the threat of violence. -The form of slavery most people are familiar with is chattel slavery, in which slaves are considered property that can be bought and sold. Although chattel slavery still exists in some areas, most forced laborers today are not "owned" but are rather controlled by violence, the threat of violence, and/or debt. The most common form of forced labor today is called bonded labor. Bonded laborers are poor individuals who take out a loan simply to survive or to pay for a wedding, funeral, medicines, fertilizer, or other necessities. Debtors must work for the creditor to pay back the loan, but they are often unable to repay it. Creditors can keep debtors in bondage indefinitely by charging the debtors illegal fines (for workplace "violations" or for poorly performed work) or charge laborers for food, tools, and transportation to the work site while keeping wages too low for the debt to ever be repaid. -There are more than 60,000 slaves in the United States, most of whom were trafficked into the country and forced into slavery, most commonly in domestic work, farm labor, and the sex industry (Global Slavery Index 2014; Skinner 2008). Migrant workers are tricked into working for little or no pay as a means of repaying debts from their transport across the U.S. border. Migrant workers are particularly vulnerable because if they try to escape and report their abuse, they risk deportation. Traffickers posing as employment agents lure women into the United States with the promise of good jobs and education but then place them in "jobs" where they are forced to do domestic or sex work.

Strategies for Reducing Unemployment

-Some economists argue that full employment should be a top priority of U.S. economic policy. Full employment is achieved when unemployment rates are below 5 percent, taking into account that some amount of unemployment is unavoidable (Palley 2015). Full employment not only ensures that jobs are available for all workers but also creates labor scarcity, which gives workers more bargaining power for decent wages. -One strategy for reducing unemployment is to make sure that current and future workers have the education and skills needed for employment. Efforts to prepare high school students for work include the establishment of technical and vocational high schools and high school programs and school-to-work programs. School-to-work programs involve partnerships between business, labor, government, education, and community organizations that allow high school students to explore different careers, and provide job skill training and work-based learning experiences (Bassi and Ludwig 2000; Leonard 1996). -Although educational attainment is often touted as the path to employment and economic security, more than a third of college-educated workers under age 25 are working at jobs that don't require a college degree (Luhby 2013). More than half of all U.S. jobs require only a high school diploma or less (Lockard and Wolf 2012); thus, it is important to ensure that all jobs pay a minimum "living wage" (see also Chapter 6). As long as our economy allows people who work full-time to earn poverty-level wages, having a job is not necessarily the answer to economic self-sufficiency. As David Shipler (2005) explained in his book The Working Poor: "A job alone is not enough. Medical insurance alone is not enough. Good housing alone is not enough. Reliable transportation, careful family budgeting, effective parenting, effective schooling are not enough when each is achieved in isolation from the rest. There is no single variable that can be altered to help working people move away from the edge of poverty. Only where the full array of factors is attacked can America fulfill its promise. (p. 11)"

Weak U.S. Labor Laws and Anti-union Legislation

-The 1935 National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) guarantees the right to unionize, bargain collectively, and to strike against private-sector employees. However, in addition to excluding public-sector workers, the law excludes agricultural and domestic workers, supervisors, railroad and airline employees, and independent contractors. As a result, millions of workers do not have the right under U.S. law to negotiate their wages, hours, or employment terms. -Anti-union legislation refers to any law that undermines or weakens unions. Republicans are more likely than Democrats to support anti-union legislation. In 2011, Republican governor Scott Walker (Wisconsin) signed legislation to weaken unions representing state and local government employees. The legislation prohibited collective bargaining by most public workers for issues beyond wages, required unions to hold annual votes on whether they should remain in existence, and increased workers' contributions for pensions and health care. In 2015, Walker signed legislation making Wisconsin the 25th state to pass a law that allows workers to have jobs in unionized workplaces without having to join the union or pay union dues (Jones 2014a). Supporters of right-to-work laws argue that workers should not be required to join any private organization, such as a labor union, against their will, and that such laws attract business. Opponents of these laws warn that "right-to-work" laws weaken unions, leading to lower wages and benefits for workers, and also argue that nonunion workers at unionized workplaces are "free riders" who don't pay union dues but nevertheless benefit from the better wages and benefits negotiated by the union.

Federal and State Family and Medical Leave Initiatives

-The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), signed into law in 1993, requires employers (with 50 or more employees who worked at least 1,250 hours in the preceding year) to provide up to 12 weeks of job-protected, unpaid leave so that they can care for a seriously ill child, spouse, or parent; stay home to care for their newborn, newly adopted, or newly placed foster child; or take time off when they are seriously ill. A 2008 amendment to the FMLA requires employers to provide up to 26 weeks of unpaid leave to employees to care for a seriously ill or injured family member who is in the armed forces, including the National Guard or Reserves. However, only about half of workers are eligible for FMLA benefits (Miller 2015). Some eligible workers do not use their FMLA benefit because they cannot afford to take leave without pay, and/or they fear they will lose their job if they take time off. Some employers do not comply with the FMLA either because they are unaware of their responsibilities under FMLA, or because they are deliberately violating the law. A national survey of employers found that one in five employers who are supposed to comply with FMLA fails to do so (Matos and Galinsky 2014). -Out of 185 countries, only two lack guaranteed paid maternity leave: the United States and Papua New Guinea (Walsh 2015). Several international human rights and labor treaties that call for paid maternity leave have not been ratified by the United Sates (Human Rights Watch 2015a). California, New Jersey, and Rhode Island offer workers paid family leave benefits that are financed through payroll taxes deductions (no employer contribution) and offer eligible employees a portion of their salary for four to six weeks. Opponents of paid family leave say it is an economic burden on businesses, but in California, most employers say paid leave has had no effect or a positive effect on productivity, turnover, and morale. (Miller 2015). A 2015 bill introduced in Congress—the Family and Medical Insurance Leave Act—would create a national paid family and medical leave program enabling workers to receive partial pay (66 percent of wages, up to a cap) for up to 12 weeks to care for new children, ill family members, or their own health problems. -As shown in Table 7.2, there is no U.S. federal policy requiring employers to provide workers with any paid sick leave; however, Connecticut, California, Massachusetts, as well as several cities have passed laws requiring some employers (e.g., with 50 employees or more) to provide paid sick leave to their workers. The Healthy Families Act proposes to establish a federally mandated paid sick day policy. Employees could take the benefit if they or a family member is sick. Supporters of the Healthy Families Act point out that, when sick employees go to work because they cannot afford to take unpaid sick days or fear losing their job by taking a sick day, they risk spreading infectious diseases at the workplace. And sending sick children to school because their parents cannot afford to take unpaid sick days to stay home with them risks spreading infectious diseases at school.

Workforce Development

-The federally funded Workforce Investment Act (WIA) awards stipends to some unemployed persons to help pay for further education and job training. However, the cost of further education and training often exceeds the stipend, and many unemployed who go through an education or job training program end up with massive debt and no job offer in their chosen field (Williams 2014). Some workforce development programs focus on strategies to improve the employability of hard-to-employ individuals through providing targeted interventions such as substance abuse treatment, domestic violence services, prison release reintegration assistance, mental health services, and homelessness services, in combination with employment services (Martinson and Holcomb 2007). -The Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, implemented in 2015, provides English instruction and vocational training to immigrants. Programs that focus on integrating immigrants into the workforce are important, given that immigrants are projected to account for nearly all of the nation's labor force growth through 2050, when more than a third of the U.S. population is projected to be foreign born or the children of immigrants (Wilson 2015).

Worker Cooperatives: An Alternative to Capitalism

-The global financial crisis that began in 2007 stimulated public discussions about the problems that stem from capitalism and renewed efforts to consider alternative business models. Economist Richard Wolff explains: "We believe the capitalist organization of production has now finished its period of usefulness in human history. It is now no longer able to deliver the goods. It's bringing profits and prosperity to a tiny portion of the population, and delivering not the goods but the "bads" to most people. Jobs are steadily more insecure, unemployment is high[,] ... benefits are increasingly being reduced, the prospects for our children are even worse, as more of them go deeper and deeper in debt to get the degrees that do not provide them with the jobs and incomes to get out of that debt.... It's longer overdue that we face honestly that the crisis we endure is the product of an economic system whose organization is something we should question, debate, and change. (quoted in Rampell 2013, n.p.)" -One alternative to the capitalistic economic model is the cooperative workplace model that uses democratic methods in its business organization. Worker cooperatives or workers' self-directed enterprises—also known as "co-ops"—are businesses that are owned and democratically governed by their employees; workers participate in deciding what, how, and where to produce, and they would decide how to distribute the surpluses (or profits) generated in and by their enterprise. One of the most successful cooperative businesses is Mondragon, a corporation in Spain that started out as a small 7-member cooperative and, over 60 years, has grown into a corporation with over 10,000 workers. In 2013, the Mondragon Corporation won the Drivers of Change category at the annual Boldness in Business awards, sponsored by the London newspaper the Financial Times. At Mondragon, the workers hire the managers, the exact opposite of a capitalistic corporation. The workers decided to adopt a rule specifying that the highest-paid worker cannot be paid more than six and a half times what the lowest-paid worker earns, unlike many U.S. CEOs, who make up to a few hundred times more than the average worker (not even the lowest paid). Wolff is not surprised by this rule: "If all the workers in any office, store, or factory, got together and had the power—which in a co-op they would—to decide what the wages and salaries of everybody are, do you think they'd give a handful of people at the top tens of millions of dollars, while everybody else is scrambling and unable to pay for their kids' college education, etc.? That's not going to happen. Even if you decide to pay some people more you're not going to live in the world of extreme inequality the way that's normal and typical for capitalism.... (quoted in Rampell 2013, n.p.)"

The Globalization of Trade and Free Trade Agreements

-The globalization of trade refers to raw materials, manufactured goods, and agricultural products being bought and sold across national and hemispheric borders. The first set of global trade rules were adopted through the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) in 1947. In 1995, the World Trade Organization (WTO) replaced GATT as the organization overseeing the multilateral trading system. -In the 1980s and early 1990s, U.S. officials began negotiating regional free trade agreements that would open doors to U.S. goods in neighboring countries and reduce the growing U.S. trade deficit. A free trade agreement (FTA) is a pact between two countries or among a group of countries that makes it easier to trade goods across national boundaries. Free trade agreements reduce or eliminate foreign restrictions on exports, reduce or eliminate tariffs (or taxes) on imported goods, and prevent technology from being copied and used by competitors through protection of "intellectual property rights." Treaties such as the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), and the Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) were designed to accomplish these trade goals. As this book goes to press, Congress is considering a new trade agreement called the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). -Although free trade agreements have expanded trading opportunities, benefiting large export manufacturing and service industries in the global north, they have also undermined the ability of national, state, and local governments to implement laws designed to protect workers, consumers, and the environment. Trade agreements include provisions that supersede national and local laws, including the U.S. Constitution, and give foreign corporations the right to sue governments for lost profits due to environmental, worker safety, food or product safety, and other laws that hurt corporate profits (see also Chapters 6 and 13; Korten 2015; Scott and Ratner 2005). -Free trade agreements have also hurt both U.S. and foreign workers. Before the U.S.-Korea free trade agreement took effect in 2012, the United States had a trade deficit with Korea, meaning that the United States imported more goods from Korea than it exported to Korea. The U.S.-Korea FTA was implemented with the promise that it would reduce the trade deficit, and that it would lead to increased U.S. exports to Korea, which means more U.S. jobs. But the U.S.-Korea FTA also resulted in increased Korean imports, which reduced the demand for domestic goods and services and resulted in more than 75,000 U.S. jobs lost in the first three years after the agreement took effect (Scott 2015). The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) allowed U.S. corn growers to sell their corn in Mexico, but Mexican corn farmers could not compete with the cheap price of U.S. corn, which put many Mexican corn growers out of business (Scott and Ratner 2005). Free trade agreements have also made it easier for U.S. companies to move jobs "offshore," usually to countries where wages are low and there are few environmental, health, or safety regulations with which to comply. Although offshoring jobs increases profits to corporations, it also takes jobs away from U.S. workers.

Declining Union Density

-The strength and membership of unions in the United States have declined over the last several decades. Union density—the percentage of workers who belong to unions—grew in the 1930s and peaked in the 1940s and 1950s, when 35 percent of U.S. workers were unionized. In 2014, the percentage of U.S. workers belonging to unions had fallen to just under 11.1 percent, down from 20.1 percent in 1983 (Bureau of Labor Statistics 2015d). Union membership among public sector workers is more than five times the rate of union membership among private sector employees. -One reason for the decline in union representation is the loss of manufacturing jobs, which tend to have higher rates of unionization than other industries. In addition, globalization has led to layoffs and plant closings at many unionized work sites as a result of companies moving to other countries to find cheaper labor. Corporations also take active measures to discourage workers from unionizing.

Student Activism

-United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS), formed in 1997, is a grassroots organization of youth and students who fight against labor abuses and for the rights of workers around the world, including campus workers, fast-food workers, and garment workers who make collegiate licensed apparel. USAS student activists have influenced more than 180 colleges and universities to affiliate with the Worker Rights Consortium (WRC), which investigates factories that produce clothing and other goods with school logos to make sure that the factory meets the code of conduct developed by each school. A typical code of conduct includes fair wages, a safe working environment, a ban on child labor, and the right to be represented by a union or other form of employee representation. If the WRC investigation finds that a factory fails to meet the code of conduct, the companies—often well-known international brands—who purchase items from that factory are warned that their contract with the school will be terminated if working conditions at the factory do not improve. -Sodexo—a profitable multinational food service company—serves food to more U.S. college students than any other company. In 2009, United Students Against Sweatshops began a Kick Out Sodexo campaign after discovering that Sodexo paid its campus food service and janitorial workers poverty-level wages and interfered with employees' attempts to form a union. Students who are active in the Kick Out Sodexo campaign have written letters to Sodexo, expressing their concerns about the company's labor practices, and have campaigned to convince college and university administrators to cancel their food service contracts with Sodexo and to do business instead with a food service company that meets certain labor standards.

Alienation

-Work in industrialized societies is characterized by a high degree of division of labor and specialization of work roles. As a result, workers' tasks are repetitive and monotonous and often involve little or no creativity. Limited to specific tasks by their work roles, workers are unable to express and utilize their full potential—intellectual, emotional, and physical. According to Marx, when workers are merely cogs in a machine, they become estranged from their work, the product they create, other human beings, and themselves. Marx called this estrangement "alienation." -Alienation in the workplace has four components: =Powerlessness results from working in an environment in which one has little or no control over the decisions that affect one's work =Meaninglessness results when workers do not find fulfillment in their work =Workers may experience normlessness if workplace norms are unclear or conflicting, such as when companies have nondiscrimination policies yet they practice discrimination =Self-estrangement may stem from the workers' inability to realize their full human potential in their work roles -The fast-food industry epitomizes working conditions that lead to alienation. But the principles that characterize the fast-food industry also characterize many other workplaces, a phenomenon known as McDonaldization (Ritzer 1995). McDonaldization involves four principles: =Efficiency. Tasks are completed in the most efficient way possible by following prescribed steps in a process overseen by managers. =Calculability. Quantitative aspects of products and services (e.g., portion size, cost, and the time it takes to serve the product) are emphasized over quality. =Predictability. Products and services are uniform and standardized. A Big Mac in Albany is the same as a Big Mac in Tucson. Workers behave in predictable ways. For example, servers at McDonald's learn to follow a script when interacting with customers. =Control through technology. Automation and mechanization are used in the workplace to replace human labor. -What are the effects of McDonaldization on workers? In a McDonaldized workplace, employees are not permitted to use their full capabilities, be creative, or engage in genuine human interaction. Workers are not paid to think, just to follow a predetermined set of procedures. Because human interactions are unpredictable and inefficient (they waste time), "we're left with either no interaction at all, such as at ATMs, or a 'false fraternization.' Rule number 17 for Burger King workers is to smile at all times" (Ritzer, quoted by Jensen 2002, p. 41). Workers may also feel that they are merely extensions of the machines they operate. The alienation that workers feel—the powerlessness and meaninglessness that characterize a "McJob"—may lead to dissatisfaction with one's job and, more generally, with one's life.

Top Ten Common Work-Related Stressors

1. Unemployment 2. Lack of health insurance 3. Shift work 4. Long working hours 5. Job security 6. Work/family conflict 7. Low job control 8. High job control 9. Low social support at work 10. Low organizational justice