WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.940 Welcome. My name is Sharon Burrow. I'm the President of the Australian Council of Trade Unions 2 00:00:06.940 --> 00:00:13.140 and I'm just delighted to be here. It's an honour in fact to be able to chair this session with Amy 3 00:00:13.140 --> 00:00:19.380 Dean and I'm very grateful to the Bob Hawke Prime Ministerial Centre as part of the Uni of South 4 00:00:19.380 --> 00:00:26.400 Australia that we've been able to finally get Amy into the country. For quite a while actually the 5 00:00:26.400 --> 00:00:30.620 labour movement's tried to get Amy to come and visit us and I'll tell you why in a minute and I 6 00:00:30.620 --> 00:00:36.480 think you'll be excited to to know that we have such a woman and a young woman at that with such 7 00:00:36.480 --> 00:00:42.280 incredible talent and successes and she's got a lot to teach us. Let me tell you a little bit about 8 00:00:42.280 --> 00:00:48.960 Amy. Amy has been the Executive Director of the South Bay Labour Council which is located in 9 00:00:48.960 --> 00:00:55.280 downtown Silicon Valley and she's been in that position for 13 years. She's 10 00:00:55.280 --> 00:00:55.580 um 11 00:00:55.580 --> 00:00:55.940 um 12 00:00:55.940 --> 00:01:03.280 ! She's a woman with incredible vision because she built an organisation called Working Partnerships 13 00:01:03.280 --> 00:01:10.240 which is primarily a research organisation but it's community focused. It's about how you position 14 00:01:10.240 --> 00:01:16.500 the labour movement, the growth of new jobs, how you manage the new economy in the context of a 15 00:01:16.500 --> 00:01:23.700 community and in the context of community values and partnerships. And through that organisation 16 00:01:23.700 --> 00:01:25.320 Working Partnerships 17 00:01:25.320 --> 00:01:32.380 then they've created an economic blueprint which provides the basis for an alternative agenda to the 18 00:01:32.380 --> 00:01:38.480 orthodoxy of business. It isn't about getting rid of 19 00:01:38.480 --> 00:01:43.480 business, on the contrary, it's about growing jobs, but it is about saying people matter and that 20 00:01:43.480 --> 00:01:49.640 people sit at the heart of decent communities and that we want decent work where we can balance 21 00:01:49.640 --> 00:01:52.680 both our economic and social asp אס asp אס asp אס asp אס asp 22 00:01:52.680 --> 00:01:53.260 asp אס asp אס asp 23 00:01:53.260 --> 00:01:53.440 אס asp 24 00:01:53.440 --> 00:01:53.780 אס 25 00:01:55.300 --> 00:02:00.260 and with a new team at the AFL-CIO, the equivalent of the ACTU. 26 00:02:00.280 --> 00:02:04.500 Well, I should say, you know, we're but a speck of their numerical numbers. 27 00:02:04.680 --> 00:02:07.160 But in terms of the Peak Labor Council, 28 00:02:07.380 --> 00:02:11.680 the AFL-CIO recognised that they needed Amy's talents too 29 00:02:11.680 --> 00:02:16.860 and they made her the chair of the committee, 30 00:02:16.980 --> 00:02:22.280 the Central Labor Council Advisory Committee for the Peak Union body. 31 00:02:22.280 --> 00:02:26.220 Now, she's actually managed to take that blueprint 32 00:02:26.220 --> 00:02:29.340 or to work with other Labor councils to take that blueprint 33 00:02:29.340 --> 00:02:32.620 and create a language, we were just saying, 34 00:02:32.740 --> 00:02:36.700 a common language across the country about the role of Labor councils 35 00:02:36.700 --> 00:02:40.760 and their central place in our community speaking for working families. 36 00:02:41.100 --> 00:02:45.060 The result we know as the Union Cities Program 37 00:02:45.060 --> 00:02:48.120 and one of the reasons we're so excited to have Amy in Australia 38 00:02:48.120 --> 00:02:51.520 is that we know if our own communities are going to pick up 39 00:02:51.520 --> 00:02:52.260 a job, we're going to be able to do that. 40 00:02:52.260 --> 00:02:54.360 If we can get a genuine renewal around the kind of values 41 00:02:54.360 --> 00:02:56.680 that you're talking about right across this festival, 42 00:02:56.880 --> 00:03:02.340 then we need to invest in a debate about what sits at the heart 43 00:03:02.340 --> 00:03:04.060 of decent work in our communities 44 00:03:04.060 --> 00:03:09.760 and what makes it possible for working families to prosper. 45 00:03:10.260 --> 00:03:14.260 Now, I want to tell you that Amy has a five-year-old boy 46 00:03:14.260 --> 00:03:16.960 and she's actually taken a year off 47 00:03:16.960 --> 00:03:19.280 and she's writing a book about her favourite passion, 48 00:03:19.460 --> 00:03:22.240 which is in fact the future of the Labor movement. 49 00:03:22.260 --> 00:03:25.180 So we are honoured to have her with us. 50 00:03:25.340 --> 00:03:28.340 But I want to put some things in context for Amy 51 00:03:28.340 --> 00:03:29.900 and I'll just take a couple of minutes. 52 00:03:30.340 --> 00:03:33.540 Because Australians and working families in Australia 53 00:03:33.540 --> 00:03:37.720 are also facing an incredible change in the nature of work. 54 00:03:37.940 --> 00:03:39.920 Whether it's the over-hours culture, 55 00:03:40.180 --> 00:03:43.160 that means that many parents will tell you, 56 00:03:43.180 --> 00:03:46.040 particularly fathers, that they don't know their children anymore, 57 00:03:46.200 --> 00:03:49.860 that they don't have time to see them on a regular and daily basis. 58 00:03:50.060 --> 00:03:51.700 Or whether it's underemployment 59 00:03:51.700 --> 00:03:52.240 and people can't get to work, 60 00:03:52.240 --> 00:03:53.300 and people can't get enough hours. 61 00:03:53.500 --> 00:03:57.340 Whether it's the fact that one in three, almost 28%, 62 00:03:57.340 --> 00:04:00.340 and headed towards one in three of Australians now work 63 00:04:00.340 --> 00:04:03.420 in casual employment, and the bulk of that's part-time. 64 00:04:03.680 --> 00:04:06.020 Whether it's that 40% of working mothers 65 00:04:06.020 --> 00:04:07.900 don't have any leave entitlements. 66 00:04:07.960 --> 00:04:09.360 Because they're casual workers, 67 00:04:09.600 --> 00:04:13.160 they don't have a day's sick leave or a day's annual leave. 68 00:04:13.320 --> 00:04:17.940 And that's certainly not based on the values of Australian communities. 69 00:04:18.460 --> 00:04:20.920 Whether it's any of those examples 70 00:04:20.920 --> 00:04:22.160 or many, many more, 71 00:04:22.240 --> 00:04:23.740 that we could talk to you about, 72 00:04:23.940 --> 00:04:25.660 that is creating the widening inequality 73 00:04:26.780 --> 00:04:29.760 between those unionists, full-time unionists, 74 00:04:29.800 --> 00:04:32.500 who earn 17% more than non-union members. 75 00:04:32.720 --> 00:04:36.420 That makes us proud on the one level of our work. 76 00:04:36.520 --> 00:04:39.660 But at another level, it says we've got a widening inequality 77 00:04:40.240 --> 00:04:42.360 where of all of the jobs created, 78 00:04:42.640 --> 00:04:44.380 and this is the new economy in part, 79 00:04:44.580 --> 00:04:46.200 most of them service jobs, 80 00:04:46.460 --> 00:04:49.360 all of the jobs created over the last 10 years, 81 00:04:50.560 --> 00:04:52.220 89% of them are non-union. 82 00:04:52.220 --> 00:04:52.560 And we've got a problem. 83 00:04:52.560 --> 00:04:54.500 we earn less than 26,000 a year, 84 00:04:54.560 --> 00:04:58.180 and 47% of them less than 16,000, 85 00:04:58.180 --> 00:05:00.740 because they're part-time casual jobs, 86 00:05:00.820 --> 00:05:02.280 without the kind of standards 87 00:05:02.280 --> 00:05:05.600 that we would ascribe to traditional job security. 88 00:05:06.180 --> 00:05:09.760 And of course, when you consider that the bulk, overwhelming majority, 89 00:05:10.020 --> 00:05:12.420 of the Australian population of 20 million 90 00:05:12.420 --> 00:05:15.220 live in the eastern cities, 91 00:05:15.400 --> 00:05:17.260 with a little bit here in Adelaide, 92 00:05:17.260 --> 00:05:18.660 and a little bit more in Perth, 93 00:05:18.680 --> 00:05:20.540 and a tad or three in Darwin, 94 00:05:20.540 --> 00:05:22.120 then we've got a problem. 95 00:05:22.240 --> 00:05:25.000 Because we do have to renew our communities, 96 00:05:25.120 --> 00:05:26.500 both within the city context, 97 00:05:26.600 --> 00:05:29.840 in terms of urban and particular outer suburb renewal, 98 00:05:30.040 --> 00:05:33.080 but also, most importantly, in rural and regional Australia. 99 00:05:33.380 --> 00:05:37.520 It's incredibly important that we put working families, 100 00:05:37.760 --> 00:05:40.600 their aspirations, their aspirations for their children, 101 00:05:40.760 --> 00:05:42.320 and indeed decent work, 102 00:05:42.460 --> 00:05:44.680 at the heart of a renewal process. 103 00:05:44.920 --> 00:05:48.140 And I can't think of anyone else more experienced, 104 00:05:48.560 --> 00:05:50.020 more entitled, really, 105 00:05:50.020 --> 00:05:51.420 to come and give us advice, 106 00:05:51.660 --> 00:05:52.900 than Amy Deem. 107 00:05:52.960 --> 00:05:53.560 As a comrade, 108 00:05:53.660 --> 00:05:56.320 and a sister in the labour movement internationally, 109 00:05:56.780 --> 00:05:58.480 we are truly honoured to have her with us. 110 00:06:06.360 --> 00:06:07.240 Good afternoon. 111 00:06:08.960 --> 00:06:11.460 You know, I first want to just tell you how proud I am 112 00:06:11.460 --> 00:06:13.580 to be on the same stage as Sharon Burrow. 113 00:06:13.980 --> 00:06:15.540 And as many of you know, 114 00:06:15.640 --> 00:06:17.980 Sharon began her working life as a teacher, 115 00:06:18.180 --> 00:06:19.880 and of course she still is. 116 00:06:20.020 --> 00:06:22.020 Except now as president of the ACTU, 117 00:06:22.780 --> 00:06:24.540 she's educating millions of Americans 118 00:06:24.540 --> 00:06:26.340 about labour's vision for Australia. 119 00:06:26.780 --> 00:06:27.960 And from what I can tell, 120 00:06:28.000 --> 00:06:28.900 I've been here three days, 121 00:06:28.940 --> 00:06:29.520 everywhere I go, 122 00:06:29.580 --> 00:06:31.040 people say she's doing an incredible job. 123 00:06:32.080 --> 00:06:35.060 I also want to thank Greg and the organisers of this conference 124 00:06:35.060 --> 00:06:35.840 for inviting me. 125 00:06:35.900 --> 00:06:38.860 I'm really very, very grateful for the opportunity to be here. 126 00:06:39.840 --> 00:06:42.820 I've learned already so much from the last evening and today, 127 00:06:43.000 --> 00:06:45.300 and I hope I have an opportunity to give back just a bit, 128 00:06:45.300 --> 00:06:46.380 as much as I've taken away. 129 00:06:47.340 --> 00:06:49.600 But I also have a small confession to make. 130 00:06:50.180 --> 00:06:53.460 And it's that given President Bush's unpopularity 131 00:06:53.460 --> 00:06:54.560 in so much of the world, 132 00:06:54.600 --> 00:06:57.000 I really was a bit anxious about whether as an American 133 00:06:57.000 --> 00:06:59.020 I'd experience any animosity here in Australia. 134 00:06:59.920 --> 00:07:02.820 But I'm happy to say that the opposite's really been true. 135 00:07:03.580 --> 00:07:05.600 The people I've had the chance to meet with 136 00:07:05.600 --> 00:07:07.060 over the last few days have been wonderful, 137 00:07:07.300 --> 00:07:08.780 warm, incredibly engaging. 138 00:07:09.360 --> 00:07:12.420 And I actually have to tell you something else too, 139 00:07:12.460 --> 00:07:13.740 which is to my surprise, 140 00:07:13.800 --> 00:07:15.260 I've discovered that President Bush 141 00:07:15.260 --> 00:07:16.760 is actually very much admired here. 142 00:07:17.000 --> 00:07:20.000 In fact, it seems you know, 143 00:07:20.000 --> 00:07:21.640 you like him so much that you've given him 144 00:07:21.640 --> 00:07:23.700 his own very special Australian name. 145 00:07:23.980 --> 00:07:25.440 You call him Drongo. 146 00:07:31.380 --> 00:07:32.800 Well, in all seriousness, 147 00:07:32.900 --> 00:07:34.780 I do appreciate the welcome I've received 148 00:07:34.780 --> 00:07:37.660 and I also appreciate the fact that Australians understand 149 00:07:37.660 --> 00:07:39.720 that President Bush doesn't speak for all Americans. 150 00:07:40.180 --> 00:07:41.520 Then again, why would he? 151 00:07:41.580 --> 00:07:43.280 After all, he wasn't elected, was he? 152 00:07:44.220 --> 00:07:47.420 Now, I didn't come all this way to complain about President Bush, 153 00:07:47.600 --> 00:07:49.060 but it's just so hard not to. 154 00:07:50.080 --> 00:07:54.000 Because long before he began talking about his war in Iraq, 155 00:07:54.120 --> 00:07:56.700 it was plain to see that the policies he was promoting 156 00:07:56.700 --> 00:07:58.960 and the kind of vision he was offering 157 00:07:58.960 --> 00:08:01.820 in many respects represented almost the exact opposite 158 00:08:01.820 --> 00:08:03.740 of working people and I, 159 00:08:03.860 --> 00:08:06.040 much of the, think that much of the world need, 160 00:08:06.180 --> 00:08:06.960 and still need. 161 00:08:07.620 --> 00:08:10.020 His supporters believe that President Bush 162 00:08:10.020 --> 00:08:12.240 is a man uniquely suited for his time, 163 00:08:12.360 --> 00:08:14.320 and I would agree, however, 164 00:08:14.460 --> 00:08:16.660 that time has ended several decades ago. 165 00:08:17.740 --> 00:08:19.980 Now, that was a world when the Unilever, 166 00:08:20.000 --> 00:08:21.460 the unilateral use of military power, 167 00:08:21.540 --> 00:08:22.920 routinely triumphed diplomacy. 168 00:08:23.880 --> 00:08:26.340 It was a world where government could operate 169 00:08:26.340 --> 00:08:29.560 as if its principal mission was to promote corporate interests 170 00:08:29.560 --> 00:08:30.860 above all others. 171 00:08:31.660 --> 00:08:34.300 And it was a world where many leaders were content 172 00:08:34.300 --> 00:08:36.780 to leave the real work of meeting human needs, 173 00:08:37.040 --> 00:08:39.280 whether it was housing or education or healthcare, 174 00:08:39.600 --> 00:08:41.500 to the invisible hand of the free market. 175 00:08:42.080 --> 00:08:45.520 Now, that almost religious reverence for market forces 176 00:08:45.520 --> 00:08:47.940 is of course the essence of conservatism, 177 00:08:47.960 --> 00:08:49.260 not only in the United States, 178 00:08:50.000 --> 00:08:50.920 but everywhere on the globe. 179 00:08:51.440 --> 00:08:53.540 The question is, is it warranted? 180 00:08:54.200 --> 00:08:55.860 Just over a decade ago, 181 00:08:55.960 --> 00:08:57.840 politicians on the right crowed 182 00:08:57.840 --> 00:08:59.440 that the collapse of the Soviet Union 183 00:08:59.440 --> 00:09:01.280 and the communist governments of Eastern Europe 184 00:09:01.280 --> 00:09:03.160 represented a great triumph of capitalism. 185 00:09:03.900 --> 00:09:06.920 Yet we know that the liberation of Eastern Europe 186 00:09:06.920 --> 00:09:09.460 wasn't led by cadres of dedicated entrepreneurs, 187 00:09:09.920 --> 00:09:12.960 but by workers in shipyards and coal mines. 188 00:09:13.900 --> 00:09:17.460 And what the cause they stood up and risked their lives for 189 00:09:17.460 --> 00:09:19.780 wasn't privatization, it was freedom. 190 00:09:20.000 --> 00:09:23.160 And an idea that most of us would call democratic socialism. 191 00:09:23.720 --> 00:09:26.980 It was the simple but profoundly rational belief 192 00:09:26.980 --> 00:09:30.680 that democracy isn't only about freely choosing your country's leaders, 193 00:09:30.900 --> 00:09:33.020 it's also about having a choice 194 00:09:33.020 --> 00:09:34.980 in choosing your country's economic future. 195 00:09:36.000 --> 00:09:38.780 And I would suggest that as much of the 1980s 196 00:09:38.780 --> 00:09:42.340 were defined by that social democratic rebellion against communism, 197 00:09:42.780 --> 00:09:46.600 this era is being shaped by the struggle between social democracy 198 00:09:46.600 --> 00:09:49.840 and corporatism and the conservative movement 199 00:09:50.000 --> 00:09:51.000 that sustains it. 200 00:09:51.760 --> 00:09:55.280 The economist John Kenneth Galbraith once remarked that 201 00:09:55.280 --> 00:09:58.400 the modern conservative is engaged in one of man's 202 00:09:58.400 --> 00:10:00.700 oldest exercises in moral philosophy. 203 00:10:01.000 --> 00:10:04.720 That is the search for a moral justification for selfishness. 204 00:10:05.900 --> 00:10:08.300 The conspicuously wealthy turn up 205 00:10:08.300 --> 00:10:11.640 urging the character building value of privation of the poor. 206 00:10:12.120 --> 00:10:15.480 And the evidence of that privation grows starker each day, 207 00:10:15.600 --> 00:10:18.020 even though the institutions that profit from it today 208 00:10:18.020 --> 00:10:19.620 are far different from the classic 209 00:10:19.620 --> 00:10:19.980 individualistic 210 00:10:20.000 --> 00:10:23.000 image of the greed-driven multinational corporation. 211 00:10:24.080 --> 00:10:25.940 For example, here in Australia, 212 00:10:26.340 --> 00:10:28.880 Sharon and other trade unionists battled for years 213 00:10:28.880 --> 00:10:31.640 to force Rio Tinto, the giant mining conglomerate, 214 00:10:31.660 --> 00:10:33.660 to end its war on miners and their union. 215 00:10:34.240 --> 00:10:35.880 Over the course of that battle, 216 00:10:35.920 --> 00:10:38.100 which ultimately involved unions around the world, 217 00:10:38.320 --> 00:10:40.340 millions of people learned how Rio Tinto 218 00:10:40.340 --> 00:10:42.260 wasn't only abusing workers in Australia, 219 00:10:42.620 --> 00:10:45.740 they were doing the same in Indonesia and America too. 220 00:10:46.620 --> 00:10:49.360 After all, here's a company that in the 70s, 221 00:10:49.360 --> 00:10:52.400 even maintained a small army all of its own 222 00:10:52.400 --> 00:10:57.600 to keep miners in Namibia working in what amounted to slave wage labor conditions. 223 00:10:58.300 --> 00:11:00.740 Now in the US, when some people hear that, 224 00:11:00.800 --> 00:11:01.980 they'll shake their heads and they'll say, 225 00:11:02.040 --> 00:11:03.020 well, that's a terrible thing. 226 00:11:03.560 --> 00:11:06.520 But they're also not surprised because to many mine owners, 227 00:11:06.680 --> 00:11:09.080 stupidity and brutality have always been on our traditions. 228 00:11:10.320 --> 00:11:13.640 Where a lot of people don't expect to hear about workers being abused 229 00:11:13.640 --> 00:11:16.960 is within what's come to be known as the so-called new economy. 230 00:11:17.440 --> 00:11:19.220 All those fast-growing corporations, 231 00:11:19.220 --> 00:11:21.920 who often boast about their commitment to their workforce 232 00:11:21.920 --> 00:11:24.600 and their communities where they do business. 233 00:11:24.900 --> 00:11:26.880 I want to share an example with you. 234 00:11:27.500 --> 00:11:29.700 Today, the world's largest corporation 235 00:11:30.220 --> 00:11:32.580 is a chain of retail stores called Walmart. 236 00:11:33.200 --> 00:11:35.140 In the year 2002 alone, 237 00:11:35.300 --> 00:11:38.320 they posted sales of more than $244.5 billion. 238 00:11:39.560 --> 00:11:43.200 They have more than 3,200 stores in the US 239 00:11:43.200 --> 00:11:48.680 and another 1,300 in Canada, China, Brazil, Germany, the UK, 240 00:11:48.680 --> 00:11:52.720 Argentina, South Korea, and about a half dozen other countries. 241 00:11:53.280 --> 00:11:56.700 They have a workforce of more than 1.3 million men and women. 242 00:11:57.020 --> 00:12:00.220 Now if you ask its management how Walmart got to be so big, 243 00:12:00.320 --> 00:12:02.660 you'll hear a lot of rubbish about their commitment to excellence. 244 00:12:03.400 --> 00:12:07.080 Well, the way they really got so big is that they sell their goods for less 245 00:12:07.680 --> 00:12:08.680 than the store down the street. 246 00:12:08.880 --> 00:12:11.120 And they do that by paying less to their workers. 247 00:12:11.680 --> 00:12:15.360 Right now, a Walmart employee in the US who works a 30-hour week, 248 00:12:15.460 --> 00:12:17.320 which is the average for the retail industry, 249 00:12:17.320 --> 00:12:21.520 earns about $2,000 less than what a single parent with two children 250 00:12:21.520 --> 00:12:22.720 need to stay out of poverty. 251 00:12:23.160 --> 00:12:24.320 But that's not all. 252 00:12:24.660 --> 00:12:28.360 As most of you are aware, the US is still the only industrial nation 253 00:12:28.360 --> 00:12:29.780 that lacks a healthcare system. 254 00:12:30.800 --> 00:12:34.820 To see a doctor in the US, 60% of workers and their families 255 00:12:34.820 --> 00:12:37.140 depend on medical insurance provided by their employer. 256 00:12:37.820 --> 00:12:41.360 Usually, the company pays the bulk of the cost and workers pay a share as well. 257 00:12:41.680 --> 00:12:46.460 In contrast, only 38% of Walmart employees have this kind of insurance. 258 00:12:46.980 --> 00:12:50.980 Now, one executive at Walmart bragged that by refusing to provide insurance, 259 00:12:51.280 --> 00:12:54.440 the company is able to shift the cost of their medical care to the public. 260 00:12:55.100 --> 00:12:58.940 In other words, Walmart workers and their families are expected to get their medical care 261 00:12:58.940 --> 00:13:01.240 through government programs for poor or from charities. 262 00:13:02.080 --> 00:13:05.920 Now, one might ask why the workers at Walmart don't form a labor union. 263 00:13:06.560 --> 00:13:10.120 Well, the reason is that Walmart will do whatever it takes to prevent employees 264 00:13:10.120 --> 00:13:12.480 from organizing, even if that means breaking the law. 265 00:13:12.900 --> 00:13:16.440 Now, three years ago, when some butchers at one Walmart voted to ban 266 00:13:16.460 --> 00:13:20.080 the company from having a union, the company not only refused to recognize it, 267 00:13:20.140 --> 00:13:23.920 but they retaliated by transferring all those folks into lower-paying jobs. 268 00:13:24.580 --> 00:13:28.060 Now, the workers took the company to court, and a judge ordered Walmart 269 00:13:28.060 --> 00:13:33.600 to negotiate with the union. That happened last month, three years after the fact. 270 00:13:34.620 --> 00:13:39.520 But like Rio Tinto, Walmart doesn't only profit by abusing its workers at home, 271 00:13:39.560 --> 00:13:43.860 but around the world. In Bangladesh, girls making shirts sold by Walmart 272 00:13:43.860 --> 00:13:46.440 are forced to work between 7.30 a.m. to 8.00 p.m. 273 00:13:46.460 --> 00:13:50.620 seven days a week, and they earn less than one-third the legal overtime rate. 274 00:13:50.980 --> 00:13:56.420 In Mexico, workers making women's clothing for Walmart are paid 61 cents an hour, 275 00:13:56.520 --> 00:14:02.040 well below subsistence. And in Guatemala, 1,500 workers at another factory 276 00:14:02.040 --> 00:14:07.100 are on their job between 66 and 80 hours a week, and refusing to work overtime 277 00:14:07.100 --> 00:14:11.340 means an eight-day suspension without pay. Now, if you confront Walmart, 278 00:14:11.620 --> 00:14:15.820 they'll tell you they really want their subcontractors to treat workers fairly. 279 00:14:15.820 --> 00:14:20.120 They can really only do so much. Now, here's a company that does more than 280 00:14:20.120 --> 00:14:24.900 $240 billion in business every year, yet they lack the ability to make sure 281 00:14:24.900 --> 00:14:29.080 the girls working in a factory are paid fairly. When I hear things like that, 282 00:14:29.120 --> 00:14:32.700 I sometimes am reminded of a friend of mine who once said she could always tell 283 00:14:32.700 --> 00:14:35.800 when a politician was lying. So I asked her, I said, how can you tell? 284 00:14:35.960 --> 00:14:38.140 And she said, it's easy. His lips are moving. 285 00:14:40.920 --> 00:14:45.400 But it's not only Walmart. The region that I've done the majority of my work in 286 00:14:45.400 --> 00:14:50.660 is San Jose, California, Silicon Valley, the epicenter of the so-called new economy. 287 00:14:51.060 --> 00:14:55.660 We're the home of Yahoo, Hewlett-Packard, Cisco, Adobe, Intel, and literally scores 288 00:14:55.660 --> 00:15:00.140 of other high-tech firms. Now, during one month, 12-month period alone, 289 00:15:00.320 --> 00:15:04.040 more than $17 billion in venture capital was invested in our area. 290 00:15:04.440 --> 00:15:09.460 We're now the fourth largest export market in the United States. And even with all that, 291 00:15:09.700 --> 00:15:14.900 four of the ten fastest-growing occupations now offer working families less than what it takes 292 00:15:14.900 --> 00:15:20.860 to stay out of poverty. Roughly 40% of all jobs in our community pay less than what families need 293 00:15:20.860 --> 00:15:26.320 to live decent, middle-class lives. And last year, only 14% of the families in San Jose 294 00:15:26.900 --> 00:15:32.780 could afford to buy a home. Now, how is it possible for companies like Yahoo and Hewlett-Packard 295 00:15:32.780 --> 00:15:37.980 to succeed while the community around it is failing? Well, to a great degree, that's a byproduct 296 00:15:37.980 --> 00:15:43.160 of their strategy. It's the same strategy used by high-tech companies in Germany, in Japan, 297 00:15:43.180 --> 00:15:44.520 in France, and here in Australia. 298 00:15:45.160 --> 00:15:49.560 It's that you pay your domestic workforce as little as possible by moving as much capacity 299 00:15:49.560 --> 00:15:53.120 as you can to low-wage countries. And it's not just in manufacturing jobs. 300 00:15:53.500 --> 00:15:58.920 It's increasingly happening in knowledge jobs as well. For example, right now, there are more than 301 00:15:58.920 --> 00:16:04.520 200 businesses operating in San Jose whose job is to place temporary workers with local companies. 302 00:16:04.980 --> 00:16:09.140 Some of these workers could end up working at the same company for months, even years, 303 00:16:09.360 --> 00:16:13.900 but because technically a labor broker employs them, they're denied the better wages and benefits 304 00:16:13.900 --> 00:16:14.880 companies provide them. 305 00:16:14.900 --> 00:16:15.460 And that's why they're being denied permanent employment. 306 00:16:16.120 --> 00:16:20.740 Now, two workers sitting next to each other and doing the same job, but one is paid less 307 00:16:20.740 --> 00:16:23.980 and receives no benefits because she's only considered a temporary worker. 308 00:16:24.280 --> 00:16:30.720 Now, how widespread is that? Well, over the course of one year alone, more than 40,000 women and men 309 00:16:30.720 --> 00:16:33.400 in my community had no choice but to work as temporary employees. 310 00:16:34.040 --> 00:16:39.960 But again, it's not only a matter of the domestic workforce going without the economic security they need. 311 00:16:40.120 --> 00:16:43.840 They're also shifting more to lower-wage labor markets outside the country. 312 00:16:44.160 --> 00:16:44.880 For example, in San Jose, there are more than 1,000 women and men in San Jose. 313 00:16:44.880 --> 00:16:52.100 For example, Microsoft, a company with $46 billion in the bank, is in the process of moving its customer call center jobs 314 00:16:52.100 --> 00:16:54.880 out of the U.S. to other countries, particularly India. 315 00:16:55.480 --> 00:16:58.580 For the companies, it's a very easy transition to make. 316 00:16:58.940 --> 00:17:02.360 The only problem has been training workers to lose their Indian accent. 317 00:17:03.120 --> 00:17:07.240 Now, I'm told that one way they do this is by sitting workers in front of televisions for hours 318 00:17:07.240 --> 00:17:09.540 and having them watch reruns of American TV shows. 319 00:17:10.000 --> 00:17:14.380 Now, I don't know if Sharon would agree, but that may constitute a form of worker abuse 320 00:17:14.380 --> 00:17:15.080 in and of itself. 321 00:17:16.980 --> 00:17:22.420 But one impact of job shifts like these is that hourly earnings of U.S. computer consultants 322 00:17:22.420 --> 00:17:24.940 have dropped by 10% to 40%. 323 00:17:25.500 --> 00:17:28.560 So what's been the labor movement's response to all this? 324 00:17:30.660 --> 00:17:35.900 Well, if you said nothing, you're right, because there really hasn't been one. 325 00:17:36.920 --> 00:17:41.120 Instead of a strategy, what we've really offered has been a series of reactions. 326 00:17:41.680 --> 00:17:44.360 For example, in some instances, we've gone to court 327 00:17:44.380 --> 00:17:49.420 and legislatures and to the bargaining table to insist that temporary workers be permanent. 328 00:17:50.000 --> 00:17:52.760 Sometimes we've won. More often, we've lost. 329 00:17:53.440 --> 00:17:58.520 And at other times, we've tried to use those same approaches to keep companies from relocating jobs overseas. 330 00:17:59.020 --> 00:18:04.260 Now, that would usually fail, leaving communities and unions no other option than begging employers to stay 331 00:18:04.260 --> 00:18:08.440 and bribing them with offers of public subsidies and other contract concessions. 332 00:18:08.560 --> 00:18:11.240 And in the end, that hasn't worked very well either. 333 00:18:11.800 --> 00:18:14.360 In some respects, I think the failure of the American economy 334 00:18:14.380 --> 00:18:20.000 and the American labor movement to advert the exodus of technology jobs to low-wage labor markets 335 00:18:20.000 --> 00:18:25.060 was summed up best by one international union president who several years ago said that 336 00:18:25.060 --> 00:18:29.100 if a company wanted to move jobs to Mexico, he would stop them at the border. 337 00:18:29.600 --> 00:18:34.720 Well, it was a memorable piece of rhetoric, but it ignored the fact that to the tech industry, borders don't exist. 338 00:18:35.060 --> 00:18:36.840 And even more, they can't. 339 00:18:37.880 --> 00:18:42.420 They can't because unlike the economy of the 60s and 70s and even 80s, 340 00:18:42.440 --> 00:18:44.360 high technology companies must be able to move jobs to Mexico. 341 00:18:44.380 --> 00:18:48.380 And that's why the government has to be prepared to act almost instantaneously to take advantage of emerging business opportunities. 342 00:18:49.020 --> 00:18:53.160 The idea that a customer in Hungary or Argentina would be willing to wait two weeks 343 00:18:53.160 --> 00:18:57.160 for the arrival of an American-made or Australian-made computer component is absurd. 344 00:18:57.800 --> 00:19:03.440 Anyone who's ever worked in a busy office when a computer crashes understands that waiting isn't really much of an option. 345 00:19:04.380 --> 00:19:07.680 And that's why it's better for business to have the capacity where your customers are 346 00:19:07.680 --> 00:19:13.400 rather than require your customers to depend on capacity that's located where you are. 347 00:19:14.380 --> 00:19:18.380 And very few executives would tell you that there's a contract concession or a public subsidy 348 00:19:18.380 --> 00:19:21.320 that outweighs the cost of losing access to a new market. 349 00:19:22.000 --> 00:19:24.480 But it's not only borders that don't exist. 350 00:19:25.020 --> 00:19:28.020 It's also the old way of making things and selling them. 351 00:19:28.560 --> 00:19:33.580 Except for a little bit of tinkering here and there, the business model used by manufacturers has gone unchanged 352 00:19:33.580 --> 00:19:35.500 since the introduction of the assembly line. 353 00:19:36.100 --> 00:19:38.360 That makes sense when the product was standardized. 354 00:19:39.420 --> 00:19:43.940 Henry Ford, the famous industrialist, and I might add an infamous anti-Semite, 355 00:19:44.380 --> 00:19:50.260 once said that customers could only buy a Model T Ford in any color they wanted, so long as it was black. 356 00:19:50.940 --> 00:19:54.360 Now, 80 years ago, that approach made Ford a multi-millionaire. 357 00:19:54.400 --> 00:19:58.620 But if he tried that approach in high technology today, he'd be out of business within a month. 358 00:19:59.440 --> 00:20:04.180 Computer systems and other high technology products are crafted to meet specific consumer needs. 359 00:20:04.480 --> 00:20:09.360 And because of that, it's much easier and more lucrative for companies to use contractors 360 00:20:09.360 --> 00:20:13.760 so they can increase and reduce their capacity to meet the requirements of a specific project. 361 00:20:14.380 --> 00:20:18.980 Now, sometimes that might mean contracting for a year with a company with 5,000 employees, 362 00:20:19.320 --> 00:20:23.340 and it also could mean contracting with five individual workers for a week. 363 00:20:23.740 --> 00:20:30.920 And as we're seeing in the U.S. and here in Australia, that way of doing business isn't only limited to technology companies. 364 00:20:31.200 --> 00:20:39.060 It's been refashioned for the retail industry, for the energy industry, for healthcare, for transportation, and for government. 365 00:20:39.760 --> 00:20:41.880 So what's the net result of all this? 366 00:20:42.300 --> 00:20:44.360 Well, it's an economic future for the industry. 367 00:20:44.380 --> 00:20:49.020 It's an economic future for young people in Australia, the U.S., and I'd suggest most of the world 368 00:20:49.020 --> 00:20:52.580 that's considerably more dismal than the economy we're living in today. 369 00:20:53.240 --> 00:20:57.060 A future where jobs will offer little of the security we have 370 00:20:57.060 --> 00:21:00.000 and almost none of the security our parents' generation enjoyed. 371 00:21:00.700 --> 00:21:06.500 Given the scale of the crisis we're facing, is there reason to hold out any hope of a resurgence of a labor movement? 372 00:21:06.960 --> 00:21:11.140 And I think there has to be, because otherwise the consequences would be intolerable. 373 00:21:11.800 --> 00:21:14.360 In the U.S., we've already seen how the decline in labor is a result of the economic crisis. 374 00:21:14.360 --> 00:21:17.700 The decline in the labor movement hasn't only weakened the voice of workers on the job, 375 00:21:17.880 --> 00:21:23.820 but paved the way for the rise of George Bush and a host of the most reactionary politicians in recent memory. 376 00:21:24.360 --> 00:21:31.320 I'm talking about politicians who, in the name of national security, took collective bargaining rights away from baggage inspectors at American airports. 377 00:21:32.600 --> 00:21:39.820 But compounding labor's own weakness has been the reluctance of many of our so-called friends in the Democratic Party to champion our agenda. 378 00:21:40.580 --> 00:21:43.080 Now, some of them say they are political centrists, 379 00:21:43.080 --> 00:21:44.340 but I'm more inclined to think differently. 380 00:21:44.340 --> 00:21:45.500 I think of them as political cowards. 381 00:21:46.000 --> 00:21:53.960 And for all his populist rhetoric, the truth is that Bill Clinton did not initiate one improvement in national labor law. 382 00:21:55.380 --> 00:22:02.260 In fact, one could say that American workers would be better off had only Bill Clinton been as daring in his public life as he was in his private one. 383 00:22:03.680 --> 00:22:09.280 But the blame for organized labor's woes in the U.S., and I think much of the world, can't be pinned on any politician. 384 00:22:09.600 --> 00:22:11.800 Our wounds have been largely self-inflicted. 385 00:22:11.800 --> 00:22:16.260 And they are the result of our failure to anticipate the economic changes around us. 386 00:22:16.460 --> 00:22:18.040 They are the result of our xenophobia. 387 00:22:18.420 --> 00:22:24.000 And they are the result of our own stagnation, the fact that too many labor leaders stopped behaving like they were part of a movement, 388 00:22:24.120 --> 00:22:26.760 and instead thought of themselves as managing institutions. 389 00:22:27.460 --> 00:22:34.740 Now, add to that fact that most union leaders are older, white, and male, at a time when the workforce is increasingly younger, non-white and female. 390 00:22:35.000 --> 00:22:40.920 And you have the makings of unions which are not only indifferent to economic changes, but out of touch with their own members. 391 00:22:41.800 --> 00:22:46.000 And that stagnation and resistance to change extends to politics too. 392 00:22:46.660 --> 00:22:53.580 Now, during political campaigns in the U.S., union members are expected to hand out campaign literature, put up signs, attend rallies. 393 00:22:53.820 --> 00:22:56.820 But draft policies and campaign positions? Forget it. 394 00:22:57.560 --> 00:23:04.040 Then, too often, after the votes are counted, too many labor leaders have no idea what they want the candidate they helped elect to do. 395 00:23:04.420 --> 00:23:10.720 So they end up being bought off with invitations to receptions, or help getting their son or daughter a job, or seats at a football game. 396 00:23:10.720 --> 00:23:14.560 All the while, the politician strays further and further away. 397 00:23:15.020 --> 00:23:19.000 Now, can any institution last like that for long? I don't think so. 398 00:23:19.180 --> 00:23:26.820 And that's why I'm convinced that the challenge we face isn't to make marginal reforms, but to rebuild trade unionism from the bottom up. 399 00:23:27.340 --> 00:23:35.600 In essence, we need to refashion ourselves into a new and very different movement that speaks not only to the needs of workers in our own communities, but around the world. 400 00:23:35.940 --> 00:23:39.360 And luckily, I think we have a model that we can use for guidance. 401 00:23:39.840 --> 00:23:41.920