Where is the U.S. Economy Headed?

Last week I wrote about Hartmarx, makers of Hart Schaffner Marx suits, and its struggle to stay in business. The company that made President Obama’s inauguration tuxedo and topcoat, and which is the last major high-end men’s clothing company in America, is in Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Now the workers and their union are fighting Hartmarx’s main creditor, Wells Fargo, to keep the company from being liquidated. Steven Greenhouse writes in the New York Times that “most of the 650 workers at the plant in this Chicago suburb crowded into the lunchroom and voted to stage a sit-in if Wells Fargo takes steps to liquidate their company — and jobs.”

Union and company officials say the company has two potential buyers who plan to keep the U.S. operation going as is. Other buyers want to liquidate the company and put the Hart Schaffner Marx label on suits made overseas. The union points to $25 billion Wells Fargo received in TARP funds.

The union, Service Employees International Union (SEIU) is setting up a nationwide toll-free number and clearinghouse that other embattled so that workers around the country can call in if lenders that received government bailout money are forcing their workplaces to liquidate. The union blog Progress Illinois has an archive of background articles and videos.

Here’s what I say: If the U.S. economy continues on the same trajectory, the only employers left in America will be banks, insurance companies and restaurants.

As I wrote in the previous post on Hartmarx, it seems most “solutions” to the financial crisis involves sacrificing working people. Cut wages, cut benefits, cut jobs, cut pensions, cut health care. And while we’re at it, relax environmental and workplace safety regulations and bust unions. Workers don’t stand a chance.

So much of the wealth of the country was created by workers whose union wages bought homes, cars, television sets and vacations. If the disposable incomes of most working people are eliminated, who’s going to be left to buy stuff?

On the other hand — union busting, the health care crisis and “tort reform” might just keep Social Security solvent a few decades longer, since fewer people will live to collect it. It really is important to save jobs that pay a living wage, preferably in workplaces that aren’t oozing with industrial hazards like asbestos.

Barbara O’Brien
May 13, 2009

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 13th, 2009 at 3:24 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.