Adrianne Shropshire

The Cities New Anti-Poverty Program: Gut Union Contracts & Gentrify Bushwick

With great skill Mayor Bloomberg laid out his plan for reducing poverty in our city. It includes an attack on pensions for workers, "We will work with labor and legislative leaders on innovative pension modifications for future workers". Ah yes, innovative cutbacks not just the regular slash and bleed kind.

It included adding more anxiety for families around their ability to cover the cost of health care, "Today, nearly all private sector employees contribute to their health care". Well then that settles it. If everyone in the private sector is doing it then it must be right. Now, there's a thought on how to deal with poverty and provide job security for workers, let's look to Delphi and Wal-Mart as models.

It included a nod to the city's success in drop kicking people off of public assistance, "Today, the number of New Yorkers on welfare is at a 40-year-low". Yes, and today poverty in New York City is at an all-time high. Think there's a connection?

And then there's Bushwick and Bed-Stuy and Melrose. Already seeing the early onset of gentrification these communities can now expect a blue ribbon task force-style transformation.

To be fair and honest there were laudable goals in the state of the city address. Increasing apprenticeship opportunities in construction for communities of color, health coverage for every child in school, efficient and effective programs for getting job training and placement to job seekers, and other hopeful ideas. But we could add in having higher standards for the distribution of public subsidies. Make wage and benefit standards and local hiring policies conditions for receiving public money. Let's guarantee that the 250,000 new jobs to be created are quality jobs not poverty jobs.

The Mayor of the City of Los Angeles, Antonio Villaraigosa said at the US Conference of Mayors this week, "As mayors, I think we can all agree that we saw reflections of all our cities in the faces of the people stranded on the rooftops of the Lower 9th Ward ... Poverty must be made a moral issue, dealt with by the "collective will" of communities. The federal government must do more, but so must the private sector".

Attempting to lay out a plan for addressing poverty is, in fact, a noble action. But the last time I checked strong unions, and their inevitably strong contracts, were one of the best anti-poverty programs that we've ever had.

Adrianne Shropshire: Author Bio | Other Posts
Posted at 11:25 AM, Jan 27, 2006 in Economy
Permalink | Email to Friend