Under assault, less fanfare to celebrate labor

Scranton Times-Tribune

Labor Day, the day to celebrate the contributions of labor, may be a muted celebration this year.

Unemployment remains high in Northeast Pennsylvania - 9.4 percent in July for the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre/Hazleton metro area - and joblessness has been near double-digit and the highest in the state for more than a year. More workers, rather than working full time at the peak of their abilities, are in lower-skilled jobs or involuntarily part time, like Sandy Beavers.

Just a few weeks ago, she was let go from her job with Scranton-Lackawanna Human Development Agency Inc. where she helped people apply for heating grants and find jobs.

Now she finds herself living a bitter coincidence. She's looking for a job at CareerLink in Scranton.

"Now, I'm in the position of the people I used to help," she said as she looked through job listings on a computer. She still has a part-time job working at a group home for the disableded. She would have qualified for limited unemployment benefits, but it wasn't worth it, she said, and she wants to find another job.

She's hoping to land a civil service job, thinking that it would be more stable. But given the jobs being cut from every level of government, she admitted that a civil service post may not be as secure as once thought.

"The state and federal governments are cutting back just like everyone else," she said. "Good jobs are very hard to find."

Misery index

Unemployment captures the headlines. But the statistic tells only part of the story. The unemployment rate doesn't capture people who have given up looking for work, so called "discouraged" workers. It doesn't count people such as Ms. Beavers, who still work, if even just a few hours a week. It doesn't count the former Ocean Logistics workers who recently traded $20 per hour jobs with benefits for $8 per hour as warehouse pickers.

The unemployment rate doesn't include the people who accept less pay, and a reduction in standard of living, for a job - any job - like the people Mike Hayes and Judy Altavilla of Select Staffing have been interviewing. A temporary placement service, the company is looking to fill temporary warehousing jobs, mostly pickers, packers and forklift drivers, at wages between $8 and $12 an hour.

"I've had people with four-year degrees, people with management-level experience, willing to take any job we have," Mr. Hayes said.

The measure of the unemployed and all the people earning less than they had or working less than they would like, has been called the "misery index." It's close to 20 percent by some estimates.

According to a Keystone Research Center study, "The State of Working Pennsylvania," one in four working Pennsylvanians have had less paid work than they wanted in the last 12 months. People such as Ms. Beavers, the involuntarily part timer, account for 6 percent of the labor force.

Long thought to be better off, unionized workers, too, find themselves on the defensive. The poor job market and high employment means they have a weaker bargaining position. Locally, Ocean Logistics in Dunmore announced it would close - a loss of 200 jobs, many of them unionized.

A few weeks ago, Verizon workers may have sounded paranoid when they accused company management of wanting to roll back 50 years of contract negotiations, until Verizon ran newspaper advertisements under the banner "They're Right," admitting it did want to undo decades of collective bargaining. After a short strike, workers are back on the job and the negotiations are tenuous.

Even public sector unions, thought to be more secure than private sector unions, are under assault in states such as Minnesota and Ohio as they lock horns with cash-strapped local governments. In Scranton, the public safety union files regular complaints over the administration's attempts to save money by layoffs and staffing changes. Several teachers unions, such as those in Scranton, Abington Heights and Old Forge, are girding for tough negotiations as school districts confront rising costs and dwindling state support.

For years, college students were drawn to public education, thinking it was a recession-proof profession. Starting last year, they began getting laid off. The state's largest union for education and support staff, the Pennsylvania State Education Association, has seen its ranks statewide decline by 3 percent, or 5,000 members, so far this year, said Paul Shemansky spokesman for the union. It may be just beginning.

Cuts in federal and state funding for schools have hurt local districts. Recently, Gov. Tom Corbett made it clear he has no intention of reversing education funding cuts and has proposed a private school voucher program that critics say could siphon more money from public schools. Unless they have a degree in chemistry or another field, dislocated educators have fewer options, Mr. Shemansky said.

In the city of Scranton, a looming deficit has prompted a reduction in city workers, including in police and fire departments, which lost 21 people after a court decision last week.

"Rather than thinking about new benefits or higher wages, unions are in a position of defending what they got," said Mark Price of the Keystone Research Center. "Anyone going to the bargaining table is under pressure to give back."

Bright Spots

Still, it's not all bad news. With some exceptions, the building trades have been doing well, benefiting from institutional construction for the military and the University of Scranton and business construction such as for Sanofi-Aventis, Procter & Gamble and the Connell Building, said Jack Greenwood, business manager of Pipefitters United Association in Scranton. But he knows his group will soon face uncertainty, both economic and political.

"The recession is catching up and Harrisburg is sounding like it wants to follow Minnesota and Wisconsin and take away protection for union workers," he said. For now, though, things are good.

Things are looking better at CareerLink, as well, said Site Administrator Michael Bakaysa. Job postings are becoming more diverse, he said. While there's still the year-around demand for truck drivers and nurses, there are more skilled professional positions opening up. A hopeful sign, Mr. Bakaysa said, that businesses are ready to start hiring again.

More temp jobs are going permanent, Michael Hayes said of Select Staffing's placements. More of their placements are working 540 hours for more than three months, the tipping point when companies begin to make a position permanent, he said.

"I think we are approaching the peak of temporary employment and it will start to shift to permanent," he said. Even if things do turn around, it's unlikely it will be back to the way it was in the 1960s or even the 1990s.

"We've gone through 10 years of dismal wage growth and a recession that hurt people with and without college degrees," Mr. Price said. "Wage growth will continue to be slow."

This weekend during La Festa Italiana in downtown Scranton, thousands of people will walk around the statue of labor organizer John Mitchell. Some will know who he was and that he and labor organizations made Northeast Pennsylvania a starting point for workplace reforms and benefits. Fewer festivalgoers will see the tableau behind the statue that depicts a coal miner's family.

Even unions that rally in front of the statue rarely see the issues for which the early labor movement fought that are depicted behind the Mitchell monument. For whatever reason, Bill Cockerill, treasurer of the Greater Scranton Labor Union, said, American workers are letting their voice and their gains slip away.

"We did too well for our own good in the '60s and '70s. Instead of worrying about feeding our families, we worried about getting a second car. Instead of supporting a community pool, we put a pool in our backyard and cut ourselves off from our neighbors," he said. "Today, we think we are entitled to the fruits of our labor, good wages and health care, but we forgot what it took to get what we have. Now, the pendulum is swinging back but we aren't doing anything. We are more worried about our pizza frita."

On Labor Day, Mr. Cockerill and other labor leaders will hold a quiet commemoration at the John Mitchell statue.

Ms. Beavers will be working her part-time job at the group home. She plans to do something special for the residents for the holiday.

"I am going to be thankful that I have a job, even a part-time job," she said. "Because I know I'm so much better off than many people."