Corporate Greed: More Than Working Families Can Afford
Worker productivity and corporate profitability used to equal job security, rising wages, and benefits that would provide health care and retirement security for working families. That equation was the social contract between working America and corporate America. It brought middle class democracy to the United States. The challenge in the last century was how to expand the contract to cover all those who had been excluded. Women, minorities, young and old demanded that their contributions be equally recognized so they too would have a fair share of the wealth that they helped produce. No one questioned the underlying the economic equation, or the values that gave moral force to the social contract.
Labor Day 2003, however, is witness to a sustained attack on the future viability of the social contract— the social contract that made the American dream come true for generations of working families.
At the turn of the 20th century, mass production industries set in motion the economic theory that put the money in the social contract— pay workers wages high enough so they can buy what they produce. Mass production required a mass market. Workers became consumers and corporations became the beneficiaries of a new mass market that produced a seemingly endless stream of profits. Not only did the social contract make economic sense, the moral values of the nation demanded it.
In 1908, the United Methodist Episcopal Church made one of clearest statements on the moral obligation of corporate America, and one that virtually every other faith tradition shares in one form or another. The Church’s Social Creed declared that each employer must pay "the highest wage...the industry could afford," and that pay scales should reflect "the most equitable division" of the industry’s revenue. There were differences of opinion on what was affordable and what was equitable, but no employer would dare declare publicly that they were not obligated to pay the highest possible wages. Until now, that is.
Tyson Foods— the largest producer of meat products in the country— has kept more than 400 working families out on strike since February of this year with corporate demands that wages be lowered and benefits be reduced or eliminated. The plant in Jefferson, Wisconsin has operated profitably for decades. Has productivity and quality slipped? No, the workforce is one of the most productive and produces the highest quality product. Has the market shrunk for the plant’s products? No, Tyson is scrambling to meet demand. Are profits going down? No, the plant is a profit center for Tyson.
What’s the problem? Tyson greed has shredded the social contract. Productivity and profitability don’t mean higher wages and secure benefits. Worker well-being and employer moral responsibility are irrelevant at the corporate level. Greed-motivated power is the only thing that counts. Tyson thinks it has the power to permanently reduce the standard of living for working families, and that’s what it intends to do.
Tyson is expanding from a low wage, rural poultry producer to the dominate force in the grocer’s meat case. From pork and beef to prepared meals, Tyson wants its label on what America eats. The company is taking over more and more of the industry and buying up more and more plants like the one in Jefferson, Wisconsin— plants that, unlike most Tyson poultry plants, pay living wages and provide affordable benefits. While workers in Tyson poultry plants could have once expected to see their wages and benefits go up as their company expanded and increased its market share, Tyson is now demanding that workers in its newly purchased plants lower their wages and cut their benefits.
Working families cannot afford Tyson greed. Instead of sharing the wealth, Tyson wants to spread the poverty. Its agenda is to reduce wages to the level of its lowest paid plants, rather to raise wages with increased productivity and profitability. The fight at Tyson in Jefferson is a fight for all of working America. One out of every four pounds of meat in this meat-eating nation comes from Tyson. Conditions at Tyson will define the wage and benefit structure for much of the food industry and will impact the living standards for all workers in any area where it operates. The fight in Jefferson is about the shape of our economic future. Will workers have wages that keep consumer spending up and the economy growing; or, will we sink into a stagnate economy and a two tier society where the few have too much and the many have too little?
Most importantly, the strike against Tyson is a fight about values. Will we have a nation that reflects our traditional shared values of respect for work and workers, and the mutual obligation between employer and workers that requires the most productive labor from one side and the highest possible wage from the other? Will we degenerate into world where greed is turned from a vice into corporate virtue, and where brute economic force can rob workers of the dignity that comes with a living wage?
In the values war, in the fight for the future of America, we know which side the workers in Jefferson are on, and we know which side Tyson is on. On Labor Day 2003, the question for the rest of America is: Which side are you on?
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Current Issue Archives |
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Corporate Greed: More Than Working Families Can Afford |
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Tyson Foods: Fueling the Low-Wage Economy |
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Taking on Tyson Foods |
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Support Tyson Working Families |
