The bosses never miss a chance. Low Pay, increased exploitation of labor. Whatever way they can get it they are looking for ways to lower pay. And in this period of the capitalist offensive against the working class they particularly do not want any steps in the other direction, that is any steps that would improve the conditions or pay or rights of working people. This would throw their offensive all out of step, throw it back in the wrong direction.
The case I would like to draw attention to today in this regard is the inequality of pay between men and women. Women still earn only 77% of the wage of men for equal work. The bosses mouthpiece the Wall street Journal today has an article with the title: "Washington's Equal Pay Obsession." To the bosses equal pay is not something that is fair and just, instead it is an "obsession." If you know a woman who wants equal pay then the Wall Street Journal says she is "obsessed." Right away the article is tainted in the eyes of most readers. It is going to be dealing with an "obsession," wanting equal pay is a form of "mental illness, an obsession." I am reminded of a former editor of the Wall Street Journal who said he did not mind who wrote the articles for his paper as long as he could write the headlines. So let us look at this "obsession".
The women's' movement and the black revolt in the 1960's combined to challenge and throw back the worst scandals of unequal pay for women which provided so many extra profits for the bosses. The original equal pay act of 1963 made it illegal for companies to pay different wages to women and men who performed equal work on jobs in the same establishment. This was a major step forward. Title v11 of the 1964 Civil Rights Act outlawed discrimination against women and minorities in all aspects of employment, including hiring, promotion and compensation. Additional protections came with the 1978 Pregnancy Discrimination Act, the 1991 Amendment to title v11, which increased penalties for discrimination, and the 2009 Lilly Ledbetter Act, which essentially eliminated the time limit for filing discrimination suits. The women's' revolt and the black revolt and the increased power of women workers, as more and more entered the paid workforce, forced these advances on the bosses, and to some extent reduced their ability to use women as cheap labor to the same degree. These have been important advances which have been won by struggle.
Of course the bosses have used everything to get around the changes. Giving women different jobs titles, separating women and men workers into different buildings, and so on. But still and all the women's' movement and the black revolt forced the bosses to retreat and make concessions on this front.
So what is this article about in the Wall Street Journal? What are they whining about now? It is written by a right wing hack from the right wing employer financed propaganda outfit the American Heritage Institute, June E. O'Neill. (When you are reading an article always read first who has written it. And check the political ideas of this person. In papers like the Wall Street Journal this is usually printed at the end of the article.) And of course this article by this hack is printed in the right wing bosses' mouthpiece the Wall Street Journal.
Anyway to move on. What are they whining about now? After all in spite of all the advances mentioned above women still earn only 77% of men in the workforce. Yes still only 77%. They are still being used as cheap labor. What the bosses are whining about is that there is talk about a bill being put to Congress called the "Paycheck Fairness Act." This would, amongst other things, strengthen the possibility of legal action being taken by greater numbers of women to move further towards full equal pay.
There are a number of reasons why woman still earn only 77% of the pay of men. One is the increased time women spend in child rearing and for which they are not paid. Now any reasonable person and any reasonable system would then say let us deal with this by providing professionally staffed free child care facilities at every workplace and in every community and paid maternal and paternal time off without loss of pay or position for all parents at the time of and after childbirth. Simple! Of course it is simple. Well simple for a rational system which is not based on profit like our present sick capitalist system. It not simple , nor even possible, for this capitalist profit addicted system which is based precisely on profit.
The idea that their capitalist system would provide free professionally staffed child care and paid time off for either mother or father is like an idea from mars for these profit addicted capitalists. They need the children to live and become workers for them but they are not prepared to provide the care needed to bring the children up. The whole point of capitalism is is to make women cheaper labor not help them get equal pay.
The bosses are organizing their paid lobbyists, that is their paid bribers of their capitalist politicians in their two capitalist parties, to kill this bill. They do not want women to be able to earn equal pay, they do not want women to be able to earn more than the 77% of men's pay they earn now. To the contrary, they want to go back to the old days where they earned much less than 77%. This is what this article is about. It is part of the offensive against the working class which we see around us every day. It is the bosses mouthpiece the Wall Street Journal calling its class into action to take steps to kill this bill and keep up the offensive against the working class.
The union leaders as on all other aspects of the offensive must get off their comfortable chairs and organize a movement. Their refusal to fight the bosses offensive is a disgrace. Worse than that a crime. And of course it is linked to them killing off any struggles that the rank and file workers take to fight the bosses offensive. Think about all those strikes and struggles, from the Air traffic Controllers, to Decator, to Greyhound, I could go on and on, over the past two four decades which have been let go down to defeat by the refusal of the union leaders to fight. To be more accurate by the decision of the union leaders that it would be better if they were defeated so as not to disrupt their collaboration with the bosses and their positions of privilege and perks in the existing system. These union leaders have forfeited their right to lead the movement. They have to either change their policies or be removed.
The left and radical forces must also look at the moat in their own eyes. They too have been unable to build a mass force to take on the bosses offensive." This is because of their left sectarianism and ultra leftism. They too must look at their inability to reach out and connect with the broader layers of the working class and build a united front of struggle which can take on and throw back the bosses offensive. The left and radical movement must look to take action in the form of building fight to win united fronts of struggle to fight for full equality in all areas for women and men workers.
Sean.
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