In today’s Progressive, our own Kimberly Freeman Brown is speaking out on the state of America’s workforce—and calling on Congress to fix our jobs:
Our work force is scared, stressed, and scarred by financial insecurity. Working conditions may only worsen as our economic climate opens the door for more exploitation.
The National Employment Law Project found that more than two-thirds of low-wage employees surveyed in 2008 lost 15 percent of their pay on average due to the growing problem of wage theft by U.S. employers. An astounding 62 percent of workers surveyed by Nebraska Appleseed Center in 2008 said they had been injured on the job in the previous year.
So what should we do? As our leaders go to work creating jobs, we need to make sure they are good jobs:
We can do that by giving workers a stronger voice and a fairer shake through meaningful labor law reform. When Congress meaningfully protects workers’ rights to join unions, workers will have a level playing field to improve their workplaces, and a real path to gain job security, better health care and decent benefits.
Read the whole piece here.
