Public Employee Press

NYC Politics
Wages and pay discrimination are top electoral issues for labor

Muckraking author Jack Newfield and social activist Paul du Brul asked what's wrong with New York in their 1977 book, "The Abuse of Power," and pointed to an elite and unelected "permanent government" that was reducing the living standard of working people.

In an Oct. 19 forum moderated by investigative journalist Tom Robbins, the City University of New York's Murphy Institute addressed that question.

CUNY Sociology Professor John Mollenkopf noted that while Democrats far outnumber Republicans, the Democratic base often neglects to vote or opts for Republican mayors.

Some 30 percent of the electorate is now foreign-born and often economically liberal and socially conservative. Labor and liberals, he said, must reach out to the new groups and develop common policies that are comfortable for all. "This can't be done in the heat of a campaign," he said.

Robbins pointed out that despite the city's strong union density, labor usually fails to unite around candidates.

Murphy Institute Distinguished Lecturer Ed Ott spoke about changes in the city's economy and the labor movement. "Forty years ago, there were a million more industrial jobs in the city and they were highly unionized," he said.

In coming elections labor must tell the Democrats that the job losses and wage suppression of recent decades must be reversed. "You want revenue? Raise wages. End pay discrimination against women. Labor cannot leave gender discrimination standing alone as a women's issue," Ott said, "and public service employees must build closer bonds with private-sector workers."

New York City Council Member Brad Lander emphasized the need to learn from and teach the participants in the Occupy Wall Street movement.

"We have to teach the lessons from the past about ways of thinking and acting that support change," he said.