Boston Human Rights And Equity Event

CARL YOUNGER, BOSTON
TNG-CWA HUMAN RIGHTS & EQUITY COMMITTEE
PRESENTATION TO MOBILIZATION & GRIEVANCE WORKSHOP

BOSTON LOCAL 31245, QUINCY MA
MAY 31, 2008

The Human Rights and Equity committee was created at the 2006 convention in Las Vegas with the purpose of increasing the participation of equity seeking groups at all levels of the union and in all leadership positions at the local, National and international levels. 
 
Nine people were chosen from different areas in the Americas including
 
Washington/Baltimore
Canada
St Louis
Boston
Ohio
Pacific Northwest
New York
 
Some of the objectives for the 9 member committee are:

Outreach at the local, district and community levels
 
Establish mentoring programs.
 
Survey the representation of members of equity seeking groups in the membership
 
Establish networks.
 
Create literature to attract new activists and inform members of their rights
 
Translate all literature into Spanish, in the US and French in Canada; and other languages on request.
 
Establish a web page and other internet communications.
 
Double the number of members of equity seeking groups at conventions.
 
Establish Human Rights programs at District Council and Canadian Representative Council at least once a year 
 
In New England I started to look around at what has been done as far as outreach in the past with the help of some of my brothers and sisters at my local and other locals in the New England District council area.
 
I was told by some that they had worked hard in the past to encourage minorities and other equity seeking group member’s participation but the pool of minorities working in many media outlets in the US is very small.
 
At the Boston Globe, reportedly one of the more liberal papers in New England my unofficial count found that minority union employment was less than 9 percent
 
Other papers had even smaller percentage. 
 
It would be easy to blame the media for not being equitable in their hiring practices but the more I looked into it the bigger the problem seemed to be.
 
I found that economic policy, past and present is decreasing the pool of skilled minorities, especially black males, in our work force creating unemployment rates more that twice that of white America.
 
Past Government wealth building programs enhanced the lives of some Americans but was mostly unavailable to Americans of color because they were barred by law, by prejudice, and by violence.
 
Programs like: 
 
Land grants.
Homesteading programs
The G.I. bill
Social security
Low cost FHA mortgage loans
Farms loans
 
At some period all of these were available only to white Americans.
(Using the middle, median amount after compiling all income levels)
 
The Federal Reserve Bank reported that over a 6 year period between 1995 and 2001 the average (median), black family saw their net worth fall by 7% to $17,000 while in the same time period the average (median) white family’s net worth grew 37% to $120,900.
 
(Median net worth for Latino’s was $11.000) 
 
(Using the mean or average of all income levels)
 
The mean white net worth in 2001,(The average of the total population) was $482,000
 
The mean black net worth in 2001 was $120,000
 
The mean Latino net worth in 2001 was $89,000
 
The mean figure looks high because it averages in the top 1%
 
CEO pay grew from 42 times the median worker pay in 1980 to 431 times the median worker pay in 2004.
 
One in 6 American children lives in poverty including 1 in 11 white children.
 
Economic instability has grown among working people of all races.
 
Almost 46 million Americans lack health care.
 
Neo liberal economic policy has succeeded in redistributing wealth from the poor and middle class to the rich.
 
Recent decades have been good for some but not for the majority of Americans. 
 
Ten years of explosive growth in stock prices and tax cuts targeted at the top group increased the number of millionaires in the top 1%.
 
The wealthiest 1% of American families who own 1/3 of American wealth saw their net worth grow by 63% to an average of 12.6 million from 1983 to 2001.
 
The bottom 40% saw their average net worth fall 44% in that same time period. 
 
These policies tend to disproportionately hurt the most vulnerable which tends to include most people of color in America.
 
The same policies (Privatizing Government institutions, removing corporate restrictions, removing citizen safety nets, destroying union power) have been used in South America, Russia, and Africa with similar results so it is hard for anyone to justify that our administration was not aware of what the results would be.
 
The goal seems to be mega-profit for a few without concern for the bulk of Americans rapped in a patriotic façade.
 
Because of this I decided that a larger percentage of the existing population in our locals should be encouraged to participate.
 
We can no longer be content with being a group with leaders we must become a group of leaders.
 
We need to prepare ourselves by taking time to invest in our human capital and be constantly vigilant of policies that cause us harm.
 
In the 19^th century it became increasingly necessary for a person to be able to read and write. Reading and writing became the base without which economic advancement in the approaching industrial age was impossible.
 
Today advanced math, science and communication skills in multiple languages seem to be the new reading and writhing. I think we should spend time upgrading what we know so to be in a better bargaining position as current jobs morph into the next generation of jobs.

Minorities especially need to keep current with the latest technology or risk being perpetually segregated into the lowest paying jobs, this time not just because discrimination still exists but also because of rapid shifts in our technology.
 
I believe we need to learn more about the cultures and traditions of all of our members.
 
Learning other cultures and languages greatly enhances ones ability to function in an ever shrinking world.
 
If the current administration had taken time to learn more about the culture of other countries we would not be in as big a mess in the middle-east as we are now. 
 
To this end I have proposed a library project to encourage members to form study groups to learn about each other and learn about the things we need to know to enhance our human capital.