New organization works for economic justice

By Beth Trigg

Bringing together union members, low-wage workers, affordable housing advocates, and other ordinary people from Western North Carolina, a new organization called Just Economics is undertaking a major initiative for economic justice. The group originally came together late last year around a shared commitment to campaign for a living wage bill in Asheville, and has since refined and broadened their focus to include popular education, grassroots organizing, and action for economic justice in our region.

The idea for a living wage campaign for Asheville was sparked by the growing economic disparity in Western North Carolina. Believing that the benefits of local economic growth have been concentrated at the top, Just Economics points to the catch-22 that so many working people here face: wages in Asheville are lower than state and national averages, while the cost of living is high, and climbing higher all the time. Higher wage jobs are becoming scarcer. “Temporary” workers make up a growing proportion of the labor force. As our whole region orients itself around a tourist economy, a large percentage of jobs fall into the low-wage service sector. New employment opportunities are concentrated in industries with historically low wages —retail trade, health care, social services, and hospitality. Local workers struggle to stay above water while hearing constant mainstream media coverage of the ongoing “economic boom.” Here in Asheville, many workers hold down two or more jobs just to pay the rent. Others live below the poverty line. Most working people cannot afford to buy a home in Buncombe County. Even the average one-bedroom rental unit in Asheville is beyond the reach of single minimum-wage workers in our city. According to Elisabeth Bocklet of the Affordable Housing Coalition, “We are drifting toward a divided community, in which an affluent minority enjoy ‘the good life’ while the rest of us scramble to make ends meet.”

Just Economics hopes to address these problems with a variety of strategies, the first being a coordinated campaign for a living wage. Living wage campaigns are underway across the country, aiming to bring the lowest wage earners above the poverty level, and to assure that all workers can afford to cover the basic costs of living. These campaigns resonate with working people, who have experienced the real-life consequences of the fact that real wages have actually decreased for the majority of American workers over the past two decades. While salaries and benefit packages have increased substantially for those on the upper rungs of the economic ladder, wages for the bottom three-fifths of wage earners have been on the decline since 1979. The lowest wage earners, including women, have fared the worst in this systematic widening of the gap between haves and have-nots.

The Federal government has not only failed to respond to this problem, but has actually helped widen the gap with budget cuts at the expense of social programs, and particularly with welfare reform. A new study released last week documents over a million adults having lost health care coverage as a result of welfare reform. The Children’s Defense Fund projected that over a million children would be pushed below the poverty line by the welfare cuts. Also, as part of the new welfare system, corporations that hire former welfare recipients as part of “workfare” programs can avoid paying even the inadequate Federal minimum wage. So a single mother moved “off the rolls,” and thereby considered a success story, may be working for less than minimum wage, living below the poverty level, without health care coverage, and possibly paying for childcare that she could once provide herself.

With the failure of the Federal government to address the decline in wages for the majority of American workers, and the widening gap between rich and poor, local communities have taken the matter into their own hands. People have successfully organized to raise the wages and standard of living on municipal, county, and even state levels with living wage initiatives. Living wage bills do this by requiring public contractors, recipients of subsidies or tax breaks, or in some cases, all businesses, to pay employees wages significantly above the Federal minimum. People that work for the city or county itself are also paid the living wage minimum. Unlike the Federal government, local living wage campaigns take into account cost of living in the particular region, and explicitly aim to bring low-wage workers above the poverty line and to a decent standard of living. Often spearheaded by local, central labor councils, successful living wage campaigns have been supported by grassroots coalitions of community organizations, religious groups, and labor unions. Living wage initiatives have won in communities as diverse as: San Jose, CA; Dade County, FL; Detroit, MI; San Antonio, TX; Chicago, IL; Dane County, WI; Jersey City, NJ; and here in North Carolina in both Orange County and the city of Durham. These communities have established living wage ordinances mandating wage minimums well above the federal minimum wage, with some minimums over $10.00 an hour.

The founders of Just Economics, inspired by the success of these and other initiatives around the country, decided to bring people together to mandate a living wage in Asheville. The group will work for improved wages, benefits, and working conditions for people in our area, with a particular focus on people in historically low-wage occupations and industries. The first step toward achieving this vision is the Just Economics living wage campaign, now in the planning and fundraising stages, which will be launched later this year.

A living wage is just the beginning, however; the founders of Just Economics have a broad vision for social change in our region. The fledgling organization’s working mission statement reads: “Just Economics, a grassroots, community-based organization, seeks to empower ordinary people to shape the economic development of Western North Carolina. Because we are concerned about the growing gap between rich and poor and the erosion of basic economic rights, we will educate, advocate, and organize for more just and equitable economic conditions, increased union representation, and a fair share for all in the prosperity of our region, regardless of race, gender, or citizenship status.” The organization intends to build a base of people concerned about issues of economic justice, and to use this base as an amplifier for the voices of ordinary people in economic decision-making in our region.

Forging links between local unions such as Teamsters Local 61, the IBEW, and UE 150; the WNC Central Labor Council; and community organizers with backgrounds in youth services, women’s services, affordable housing, and neighborhood economic development, Just Economics is a unique meeting ground for working people with common concerns who may not have stood together before. The intersection of organized labor and community activism creates a powerful potential for making change in Western North Carolina. The means of organizing is as important as the ends in this work—by organizing in neighborhoods, schools, churches, and individual homes, by going to and coming from people in their own communities, Just Economics hopes to build a truly community-based movement. Building bridges between unions and community members, the group hopes to support workers’ rights to organize in the workplace and gain collective bargaining rights, and to educate low-wage workers about the benefits of a union. Just Economics is intentionally focusing outreach on low-income and economically disempowered communities, and setting out to build a leadership core for the organization from these same communities. The organization is committed to a democratic, grassroots structure that empowers working people to speak up for basic economic rights for themselves, their families, and their communities, and for economic justice on a broader social scale

. For more information, contact Just Economics
/45 Sardis Road/Asheville NC 28806; 828-665-2198; ANPH71@aol.com