Photo credit: American Public Media

As Marketplace put it, “retail is getting more and more ‘robotified,’ and where it’s most evident is the self checkout kiosks at supermarkets. Retail clerks are finding themselves displaced by the machines.”

To hear what Ashley and Jackie had to say on self-checkouts, check out the full story over at Marketplace. 

A recent article in Good Magazine focused on telling the stories of workers in the service industry that anyone who works in the sector is all too familiar with. The piece is filled with examples of workers who are overworked, underpaid and do not have any job security or benefits. The fear of not being able to pay the bills, getting sick or getting fired at any moment is plaguing workers in an industry that will become the backbone of the American economy.

Retail jobs are growing, and they’re poised to become as important to the 21st Century American economy as manufacturing jobs once were. Yet, despite the growing demand of the service industry, retail jobs don’t always come with a path to the middle class, and instead leave workers struggling to meet their basic needs. If we want to have a middle class in America, it is crucial that millions of American retail workers have good jobs with solid work schedules, and a paycheck and benefits that pay the bills.

Make no mistake, retailers actively work to make these jobs “bad” jobs. Driven by the bottom line of profit, and emboldened by a struggling economy and a plethora of applicants, they’ve purposely created a broken system and negative working environment for workers. With the exception of a few responsible retailers whose workers have a union voice, most retail employers don’t pay a living wage. They depend on high turnover. They’re stingy with schedules in order to avoid paying overtime and providing benefits.

Retailers trap their workers in a cycle of inconsistent schedules and wages that leave them struggling to make ends meet and support their families. Many workers have to balance two or three different jobs at a time in order to make a 40 hour work week possible. The middle class cannot survive or prosper if its foundation of workers is scrambling between several jobs just to pay the bills or put food on the table.

Retailers and other service industry employers do this to send a clear message to workers: you don’t deserve good jobs. In surprising, stark contrast to the way we felt about manufacturing jobs, Americans are starting to believe retail jobs – the very foundation of our new economy – shouldn’t be decent, dependable, middle class jobs. Many workers are just grateful to have a job at all, and they expect low wages and benefits because it is part of the system that has been ingrained in them.

These workers will play a significant role in the American economy. It’s shocking to think about the consequences of a generation of workers whose primary job opportunities offer them no path to the middle class.

Many people see their retail jobs as temporary or as a stepping stone to other careers, so they don’t want to invest a lot in a position they believe will not serve them in the long run. But the fact is that many will end up staying in their service industry jobs because those will be the only opportunities available to them. That’s why retail workers need to unite and take action now to fight against the industry’s push to make retail jobs “bad jobs.”

Workers in retail can be empowered by coming together on the job, recognizing that they are a critical part of the national workforce, and demanding to share the success with profitable national and international retailers. Union workers at retailers like Macys, H&M, Modells, and Bloomingdales already know that having a union voice on the job means they’ll be compensated and treated in a way that reflects their hard work. They’re able to bargain the middle class wages and health care benefits they earn and deserve.

With a union on the job, empowered retail workers can bolster the growing service industry and re-create the modern middle class that workers had in the past, and what we certainly need now.

I mean, as a non-economist, when I see that we lost 345,000 jobs in May, I think about all the men and women who lost those jobs and what that will mean for their families in the months ahead.

There’s no good news for them.

On the other hand, the Washington Post reports that:

Economists had expected a much worse loss, of as many as 525,000 jobs. The Labor Department also said that April job losses were somewhat less severe than originally reported.

So I guess that’s good. That’s 180,000 jobs we didn’t lose; that’s 180,000 people who can still expect a paycheck next week or next month. The bleeding hasn’t stopped, but at least it’s slowed a bit.

Among the reforms, Obama reemphasized health care as a priority in getting our economy back on track:

Because of crushing health care costs and the fact that they drag down our economy, bankrupt our families, and represent the fastest-growing part of our budget, we must make it a priority to give every single American quality, affordable health care….With this budget, we are making a historic commitment to comprehensive health care reform. It’s a step that will not only make families healthier and companies more competitive, but over the long term it will also help us bring down our deficit.

Obama’s budget reflects the urgent need for action he spoke of in his State of the Union address earlier this week:

Now, there will be many different opinions and ideas about how to achieve reform, and that is why I’m bringing together businesses and workers, doctors and health care providers, Democrats and Republicans to begin work on this issue next week.

I suffer no illusions that this will be an easy process. It will be hard. But I also now that nearly a century after Teddy Roosevelt first called for reform, the cost of our health care has weighed down our economy and the conscience of our nation long enough. So let there be no doubt: health care reform cannot wait, it must not wait, and it will not wait another year.

We have fought tirelessly for this moment and the time is finally here: we are going to get health care reform in 2009. The question now is what will that reform look like?

As the fat cats who have been profiting off of the status quo for so long start to throw up roadblocks on the path to change, it is crucial that we all make sure those who are working for the right kind of reform know they have our support.

Can you help by sending a quick note to the Senate Finance Committee and President Obama thanking them for their swift action so far and commitment to change?

It only takes a minute and we know it makes a difference.