What is So Radical About Workers Asking for a Return of What was Taken From Them? Part 1 of 2

by Dean Prigelmeier, President of Proactive Technologies, Inc.

Incremental change can camouflage the growing accumulation of small impacts that when weighed in their totality can be life-altering. The pressures of life, or a plethora of streaming entertainment, sports, social media interactions, can cast shade on perhaps the most important events in our lives without us noticing. Then, one day a “last straw” or “last Jenga peg pulled” causes our world to tumble and us to reevaluate what was missed and what we could have done differently – but not before we find bottom an inventory of damage is taken.

In trying to understand the angst felt by, it appears, most of the workers in America who struggled with the trauma of the 2008 economic crash only to be knocked down again by the Covid pandemic and its effect on our economy and society, one needs to establish a benchmark for comparison. Both of these largest of economic events in recent history peeled back the illusion of an America where everyone is happily consuming and life couldn’t get any better – the version the media is keen on promoting. It caused me to draw a comparison to my experiences as a worker in my earlier years.

When I attended high school, in addition to the classes I and everyone else was required to complete for graduation, we were offered “vocational training program” options. These programs – automotive, electronics, drafting, woodworking, and others – were not seen by all of us as just an alternative to college. These programs were robust and highly rated by employers. I selected a 2 ½ year electronics program. Some of my peers found jobs immediately upon graduation, and some of us used it as a preparatory program for college to further pursue our interests.

It was easy for me to begin a career in manufacturing while pursuing a college education throughout the 1970s and 80s. I guess I took for granted the inherent fairness of the worker/employer relationship then. Sure, some employees had their grievances. But it seemed to me as long as an employee gave the job their best effort and expressed loyalty to the employer, most employers felt inclined, if not obligated, to reciprocate. Today, I do not sense the same general sentiment among employees I encounter or some of the many employers with whom I come in contact. The growing mutual distrust and adversarial relationships, and the tension it creates, is palpable. To understand the inherent terror workers must feel in struggling to find a way to fight back or explore a path to a new career, we must look beyond the present for clues.

In the 1980’s, I noticed things beginning to change. In the years prior, nearly every employer had a competitive wage and benefit package or they had a hard time attracting workers. Probably due to the existence of strong unions(union membership was in the 20% range), many employers were afraid that the workers would become disenchanted and organize a union themselves. So they set their prevailing wage and benefits similar to jobs in local companies with a union bargaining agreement. Since “inflation” or “the consumer price index” used to calculate the annual “cost of living adjustment” to pay rates was calculated under the old, simple formula before it started changing in the 1980s, workers were not as concerned about inflation since wages usually kept pace.

Most employers offered two weeks of paid vacation – available after your first year of employment. Some allowed increased vacation time up to six weeks the longer you stayed employed with the company.

Many employers had paid sick leave, so a sick worker could stay home rather than infect their coworkers because they couldn’t afford not to work. We had paid bereavement, paid time off to vote, and some employers offered sabbaticals to employees who felt the need to “find themselves.”

We also had paid holidays, time-and-a-half pay for hours over a 40 hour week, double time for weekends and triple tome for working holidays.

If an employee had unused sick or vacation leave at the end of the year, the employee had to either “use it or lose it” or was given a check based on the hourly rate equivalent.

Heck, many employers even handed out turkeys to workers at Christmas!

Employers provided fully paid healthcare for its workers because they knew maintaining a healthy workforce helped maintain the health of company’s bottom line.

I was able to attend college throughout my employment in manufacturing and have it reimbursed fully by the company – including textbooks. It covered my community college degree, my undergraduate degree, and most of my graduate studies before I left manufacturing to start my own consulting business.

And most employers had “defined benefit pension plans,” in which a worker (hourly, salary and upper management) was “vested” after a few years of continued employment. Many workers picked the company they wanted to work for based on the quality of their pension plans. This was a contract between the worker and the employer for many years of dedicated service and for helping to make the enterprise grow and prosper. Even health care coverage was provided in pension packages. This helped the employer to encourage loyalty to the firm, to which the worker gladly reciprocated.

None of us worried that the company would file bankruptcy and shed their pension obligations to workers who had toiled for them for 30-40 years – sometimes to the point of physical or psychological impairment. That was rare and frowned upon by not only peer employers, but potential workers and society as a whole. That was considered no better that “Welshing” on a bet.

Employers, in most cases, seemed to really care about the health and well-being of not only the worker, but the workers families as well. Whether philanthropically or pragmatically, employers created a world in which the worker and the family could feel safe. The worker may not have liked the work they did, but the security that the job provided instilled a sense of hope, optimism and opportunity.

Many of the children of these workers would become workers for the same employer themselves, often doing better than their parents as their children could expect to do. When a worker reached retirement age, they felt a sense of duty to retire – opening a position for the next generation. Most expected to retire comfortably and securely, passing the torch to the next generation.

Saving for a rainy day and retirement was not as complicated. Savings account interest rates fluctuated with inflation, but it was common to receive a 5% – 10% annual interest on savings, backed by the government’s Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.  Many retirees, and those planning to retire, factored in supplementing their pension and/or social security with the earnings off of interest. As many found out in 2008 and all of the other Wall Street generated financial gyrations, planning on a 401K to be there when needed, especially after fees, is a casino bet.

The stability in day-to-day living facilitated a society that saw more hope, optimism and opportunity. K-12 education provided choices to specialize in a marketable vocational trade while earning a solid educational base, including history and civic classes to know this country’s successes and errors so we could collectively learn from the past and improve life for all. High school completion rates seemed higher and college degree attainment seemed a worthy goal. Crime rates – unlike today when the rate are reported in decline the but rate of incarceration sky-rocketed along with suicide rates – seemed more of an anomaly than a terrifying trend. Homelessness rates were lower – seemingly confined to the occasional “wino” and, even though we had a social protests that focused on expanding the social contract to others, social engagement and trust of their fellow man was higher. Yes, there was a time when we would go to bed at night and didn’t feel the need to lock-up.

For some of the younger readers, no this wasn’t a fantasy. It is not an urban legend. Ask your parent or grandparents, or do a web search if you are curious.

Change started gradually, but as workers retired their replacements were offered less in wages and parts of a disappearing benefit package – often having to share the employer’s costs for just basic benefits. Today, worker wages seemed locked at the 1980s level in real dollars. An increasingly large amount of the stagnant income is used just for housing, healthcare, utilities and soaring food prices while workers are led to believe inflation has been negligible through changes to the way it is calculated. Many workers find themselves needing 2 or 3 jobs, or both spouses work a few jobs, to provide their children a sense of at least normalcy and stability.

College education has grown to be out of reach for most, as illustrated by the enormous college debt gaged at $1.6 trillion in 2020. But while employees pursued a 2 or 4 year college degree as the media experts recommend, unfair trade policies were in the process of moving those jobs somewhere else before they have a chance to finish. The total US debt has soared to $15 trillion in 2021, as workers attempt to stay in the game; a modern manifestation of the “company store” of the turn of the century.

While profits and corporate value have soared exponentially – only tripped up periodically by Wall Street’s own doing – workers lives continued to grow challenging. There are some employers who buck this growing inequality, but they seemed to be shunned by their peers, dismissed by government leaders and not exalted like they should.

What happened?

While we all were lulled into a fantasy world where only sports and reality shows matter, the safety net was stripped away until over half of the country either fell through or are hanging on to the remnants. In part two of this article I’ll try to highlight some of the consequentially poor decisions made by our leaders and manmade events that put U.S. capitalism, democracy and society on a path toward division and potential peril.

Proactive Technologies’ structured on-the-job training system approach develops incumbent, new-hire and cross-training workers to full job mastery through the accelerated transfer of expertise^TM.  We have helped employers to not see employees as a cost, but as an investment worth maximizing and maintaining. To see how it might work at your firm, your family of facilities or your region. Contact a Proactive Technologies representative today to schedule a GoToMeeting videoconference briefing to your computer. This can be followed up with an onsite presentation for you and your colleagues. A 13-minute promo briefing is available at the Proactive Technologies website and provides an overview to get you started and to help you explain it to your staff. As always, onsite presentations are available as well.