Realted Stories
Reforming Unemployment
International President Tom Beffenbarger
says that state governments need to take a hard look at their unemployment
insurance systems to make sure they are doing the job.
.
Unemployment Insurance: More
Than Just a Benefit:
Unemployment Insurance Stops Recessions
from becoming depressions
.
Unemployment Insurance:
Will it pay the bills? A laid off
IAM member's experience.
Resources & Contacts
How you can help effect unemployment reform.
Get the Video
Order "Reality Checks" a free IAM-produced video that explores the current state of the nation's unemployment insurance system.
Email your order to IAM Communications
Director Rick Sloan at rsloan@iamaw.org
or call the ommunications Department. 301-967-4520.
As A Weapon
Employers have traditionally used unemployment to drive down wages, divide workers and undermine unions. They have exploited the unemployed as strikebreakers and warned workers who have jobs, "Don't rock the boat. There are 10 people outside who will take your job in a minute."
Federal Reserve Chairman
Alan Greenspan has publicly credited "job 
insecurity"
with holding down wage demands and discouraging strikes.
Greenspan echoes, in more polite terms, the 19th century robber baron Jay Gould (pictured at right) who bragged, "I can hire one half of the working class to kill the other half."
Department of Labor figures
show a direct link between unemployment and worker wages: a 1 percent drop
in the unemployment rate boosts average annual family earnings 1.7 percent
(roughly $460 a year) and pushes up the earnings of the nation's poorest
families a full 3. percent per year.
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