bad jobs: the overlooked crisis in the black community

Bad Jobs: The Overlooked Crisis in the Black CommunityAuthor(s): Steven PittsSource: New Labor Forum, Vol. 16, No. 1 (Winter, 2007), pp. 38-47Published by: Joseph S. Murphy Institute, City University of New YorkStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40342666 .

Accessed: 14/06/2014 18:39

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

Joseph S. Murphy Institute, City University of New York is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve andextend access to New Labor Forum.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 62.122.79.56 on Sat, 14 Jun 2014 18:39:38 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=jsmurphy

http://www.jstor.org/stable/40342666?origin=JSTOR-pdf

http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp


Leon Singleton, 16, scoops up french fries at an A&W restaurant, in Detroit, Michigan.

i



By Steven Pitts

BAD JOBS The Overlooked Crisis in the Black Community

Thirty-five years after the end of the modern civil rights movement and the

end of legal segregation, the United States still has a blind spot which renders

invisible the impact of institutional racism on Black life. In the arena of em-

ployment, this blind spot results in the limited view of the job crisis in the Black

community- a view which focuses exclusively on unemployment. Just as white

supremacy is rarely seen as a constituent aspect of U.S. society, the plight of

low- wage Black workers is rarely seen. The racism which only sees two segments of Black so-

ciety - the elite who have made it and the "underclass" who has not- also keeps Blacks who toil in bad jobs in the shadows. This limited view results in a set of policies and programs which are ill-equipped to address the

complexities surrounding the reality of work

facing Black Americans. In reality, there is a two-dimensional cri-

sis of work in the Black community: the crisis of unemployment and the crisis of bad jobs. Unemployment is extraordinarily high in the Black community, and a very large number of

Blacks work at jobs which don t pay family- sus-

taining wages. Embattled communities must broaden the approach to the job crisis they face and develop the organizational capacity to en-

ergize Black workers in order to enact policies and programs which reduce unemployment and transform bad jobs.

THE LIMITED VIEW

GLANCE AT A LIST OF ORGANIZATIONS ADDRESS-

ng issues in a Black community in any city in the United States would reveal that while

many deal with issues such as affordable hous-

New Labor Forum 16(1): 39-47, Winter 2007 Copyright © Joseph S. Murphy Institute, CUNY

ISSN: 1095-7960/07 print DOI-.l 0.1 080/ 1095760601 1 13373



ing, the criminal justice system, and education, few organizations focus on job issues. Of those

organizations which do list jobs as their primary emphasis, virtually all address the issue as if the job crisis facing the Black community has just one dimension: high levels of unem-

ployment. Churches conduct job training programs; community-based organizations com- bine job training programs with job readiness

programs; other groups act as a labor exchange and try to ensure that workers wanting jobs can be matched up with businesses wanting em-

ployees. Sometimes, the scope expands to ex-

plore ways to foster job creation through small business entrepreneurships or the attraction of retail establishments.

The supply side approach to this labor market problem is to increase the skills of the

unemployed. The demand side approach is to create jobs by stimulating business activity. In the best case scenario, some workers move from

. . . there is a two- dimensional crisis of work in the Black community: the crisis of unemployment and the crisis of bad jobs.

unemployment to newly found jobs. However, because of the inattention to the quality of jobs, this movement in the current economic context will result in many individuals finding em-

ployment in low-wage, dead-end jobs. One explanation for this narrow view of

the job crisis facing the Black community lies

in the dominant conceptual approach to low-

wage work. Accompanying the rise of conservatism in the United States has been a singular emphasis on the role of individuals and markets in determining economic outcomes, without situating the behavior of individuals or the

performance of markets in a larger institutional or structural context. In addressing the issue of

low-wage work, this conservatism results in

programs focusing on individual workers: what skills they have or don't have; which of their behaviors are dysfunctional and which are posi- tive; and how to move them out of their current jobs. Little effort is made to understand a series of important structural factors: why cer- tain jobs are created; what determines the level of pay in these jobs beyond individual charac-

teristics; and what choices low-wage workers face in the labor market.

The legacies of the modern civil rights movement (circa 1954-1972) are another rea-

son for the neglect of low- wage workers and larger structural forces, and the con- comitant emphasis on unemployment and individual human capital. First, the modern civil rights movement was a

largely Black, multi-class movement which challenged a largely white power structure. The primary thrust of the movement did not threaten fundamen- tal interactions between the State, corporate elites, and workers of all races; how-

ever, it did tear asunder the existing racial fabric of the country. As pressure from civil

rights demonstrations mounted, Blacks gained access to some public positions and public resources. Since the movement did not alter re- lations between corporate power and the State,

newly elected Black officials found their use of these positions and resources constrained by

40 • New Labor Forum S. Pitts



parameters set by political and economic elites. This meant that local governments could use their authority to attract businesses, but not to set wage and benefit standards. Local govern-

... [Few] organizations addressing issues in the Black community in any city in the United States . . . focus on job issues.

ments could foster and encourage job training programs but they could not enact large-scale public employment programs. The entry of Blacks into local government positions was ac-

companied by their acceptance of mainstream

approaches to the job crisis.

Second, the tendency of the African American freedom movement to stress self- determination led to practical activity that

sought control over community institutions. In the arena of economic development, they pushed for community ownership of businesses. Also, the emphasis on "the Community," defined by physical space, led to an emphasis on the need for jobs in the neighborhood (and

implicitly, ignoring those jobs held by African Americans outside of the neighborhood). At its

very best, these perspectives attempted to increase the assets held by the community. How-

ever, it did not look at the existing employer- employee relationship in which most Blacks

engage as workers, and attempt to transform bad jobs into good jobs.

A third factor was the legacy of the anti- Communist purges of the late 1940s and early 1950s. During the 1930s and 1940s, a major ten-

dency within the African American freedom movement linked the call to end segregation with a sharp critique of capitalism. Numerous Black activists - from ex-Garveyites to Com- munists - placed their energies in the service of organizing Black workers into unions. How- ever, the anti-Communist hysteria impacted civil rights activism by viewing any critiques which linked racism to economic structures as

reflecting a conspiracy directed by the Soviet Union. Traditional civil rights groups distanced themselves from these analyses and these moves meant that the modern civil rights movement that emerged in the mid-1950s was led by calls for moral justice; any critiques of structural economic inequalities were abandoned.

Struggles around jobs were limited to issues of

job access into previously white employment niches. Any struggles to increase worker power and transform bad jobs were largely abandoned.

WHAT IS HAPPENING TO BLACK WORKERS: SOME FACTS

FROM THE BAY AREA

THE SPRING OF 2007, THE UNIVERSITY OF CALI-

fornia-Berkeleys Center for Labor Research and Education will complete a multi-city study of job quality and Black workers, focusing on

changes in the level of low-wage work since 1970. (The report will be posted at http:// laborcenter.berkeley.edu.) Preliminary results from one of the cities - the Bay Area - indicate three key trends:

1 . The persistence of low- wage work. Despite the successes of the modern civil rights movement, the problem of low- wage em-

Bad Jobs New Labor Forum • 41



ployment remained stubbornly high, In 1970, 25.7 percent of all Black workers in the Bay Area held low- wage jobs; in 2000, the figure was 27.8 percent. (The threshold used to define "low- wage" was two-third the median wage in the Bay Area. In 2000, this threshold was $1 1.50 and was a conserva- tive figure. A report from the United

Way of the Bay Area indicated that for a two-parent family with chil- dren to pay for basic expenses, each

parent would need to work fulltime and each earn between $11 and $18

per hour. See The Bottom Line: Set-

ting a Real Standard for Bay Area Work-

ing Families-http://www. uway.org/ helplink/reports/Bottom Line/pdf.)

2. The growth of low- wage work in industries which employ large numbers of Black workers. As illustrated by Table 1, in six of the ten industries employing the largest number of Black workers, the number of low- wage workers has risen between 1970 and 2000.

3. The deterioration of labor market outcomes for Black men. Since 1970, there has been a tremendous deterioration in job outcomes for Black men whether mea- sured by labor force participation, unem-

ployment, full-time work, or wages. Table 2 presents some of this data.

BEYOND WAL-MART

SINGULAR FOCUS ON UNEMPLOYMENT AS THE

crisis of jobs in the Black community has led to numerous efforts to better prepare job seekers, stimulate small business entrepreneurship, and create retail districts. However suc-

cessful these programs might be, they cannot address the crisis of low- wage work on the scale that it demands. Without changing the context

Without changing the context of current job creation, successful job training programs will only place job candidates in low-wage jobs.

of current job creation, many job training programs will only place job candidates in low-

wage jobs. The most well-intentioned entrepreneurship must still operate in the midst of larger market dynamics; without a change in these im-

peratives, many small businesses will be forced to pay low wages. And the specter of Wal-Mart is shaping the practices of most retail establishments: its drive to lower wages and reduce benefits set the parameters for others in the

industry. The presence of Wal-Mart in central city

communities creates what seems to be a Hobsons Choice between no jobs or low- wage jobs. Wal-Mart and its supporters advocate that communities with high poverty rates should

accept bad jobs as being better than no jobs. Some Black communities are rejecting these limited options. The largely Black citizens of

Inglewood, California rallied and rejected Wal- Mart s plans to open a store in their city. Black residents of the Southside of Chicago said no to this false choice of "no job or a Wal-Mart low- wage job," and, demanding quality jobs, blocked the entry of the chain. Chicago citi-




Table 1 Industries which employed the largest number of Bay Area Black workers in 2000

Rank Percentage of

Low-wage Jobs

Industry 2000 1970 2000 Change Business Services 1 33.4% 32.4% unchanged Educational Services 2 33.0% 28.8% fewer

Transportation 3 7.3% 24.1% more

Finance, Insurance, and Real Estate 4 32.4% 21.5% fewer Retail 5 40.8% 46.4% more

Hospitals 6 25.4% 19.8% fewer Federal Public Administration 7 13.3% 18.3% more

Non-hospital Medical and 8 22.2% 32.7% more Other Health Services

Durable Goods Manufacturing 9 14.1% 21.4% more Construction 10 10.7% 23.5% more

zens banded together and convinced the city council to pass a big box ordinance which re-

quired large retailers to pay a "living wage." Support for this law was so high that the council was almost able to override a mayoral veto.

The dilemma of no jobs or low- wage jobs goes beyond the situation of Wal-Mart to re- flect the dominance of low-road economic de-

velopment policies. These policies seek to attract businesses to regions and cities regardless of the quality of jobs they offer residents. These

policies allow intense competition between cities for tax bases, and subsequently a vicious race to the bottom, as local governments offer higher and higher subsidies to firms which, by neces-

sity, lower the net benefits of the firms presence in a region. Low- wage jobs proliferate. In such a climate, policies which seek to mitigate the negative impacts of new firms or create labor standards are viewed as being antithetical to the healthy development of a region. What is needed are public policies that raise labor

Table 2

Indicators of Labor Market Outcomes for Bay Area Black Men from 1970 to 2000

1970 2000

Not in the labor force 17.5% 31.5%

Unemployed 4.2% 9.5% Full-time work 45.7% 39.3%

Low-wage work 14.9% 27.0% Full-time work at low wages 1 1 .7% 2 1 .3%




standards, transform bad jobs, and reduce high levels of unemployment.

Public policies that offer a high-road al- ternative to development would include mini- mum wage, living wage, and industry wage laws which establish wage floors in regional labor markets. They would include "clawback" policies so that any firms receiving government subsidies would be required to return a por- tion or all of these benefits if they did not ful- fill promises surrounding job creation. Com-

munity benefits agreements would be designed to ensure that low income neighborhoods and their residents benefit from economic devel-

opment. Economic development programs would offer incentives to place local residents on the path to good paying jobs, and seek to

develop those sectors of the local economy which provide a possibility for such jobs.

What is also needed are policies designed to empower poor communities and their residents. Without this power, any attempts to af- fect the local economic development game on behalf of low-income workers will result in

political compromises yielding few gains to

poor people. Foremost are policies which allow workers to organize without the interfer- ence of employers. Unions have been an indis-

pensable weapon as low- wage workers seek to raise the quality of the jobs they hold. How-

ever, in the past thirty years, the right to organize has been under attack as deliberate efforts

by businesses combined with government regu- latory neglect and rapid changes in the structure of the economy have resulted in the lowest levels of unionization since the Great Depres- sion. The impact of the loss of effective collec- tive action at the workplace has been the loss of

dignity on the job, and lower living standards.

Any attempts to transform the bad jobs

which many Black workers currently hold into

good jobs will require a revitalization of Black activism around the particular issues, concerns, and sensibilities of Black workers. It is important to specify that the target of the activism focus on the Black working class. Because of the nature of legal segregation, the modern civil

rights movement was a multi-class movement; class differences within the Black community, while important, were subsumed under the

larger effort to eliminate Jim Crow laws. How-

ever, the removal of the yoke of legal segregation allowed class dynamics to play a larger role in the prospective life outcomes for individuals in the Black community. To ignore this re-

ality would limit the ability to craft effective

policies and programs needed to address the crisis of bad jobs.

Still the renewed activism around Black

working-class issues must be accompanied by a reconceptualization of some of the concerns that face the Black community and strategies which have been employed in the past. Below are some thoughts on three key topics.1

THE ROLE OF UNIONS IN TRANSFORMING BAD JOBS

INTO GOOD JOBS

SINGULAR FOCUS ON UNEMPLOYMENT AS THE

key problem and job training as a key so- lution also ignores the role of unions in creat-

ing good jobs. Any sustained effort at address-

ing the crisis of low- wage Black employment must view unionization as an essential strategy. Much is made of the role of blue-collar manu-

facturing jobs in the development of stable Black communities with decent incomes and the subsequent devastation visited upon Black communities in the aftermath of the massive




deindustrialization of the 1970s and 1980s. What is not said is that most of these jobs were

good paying jobs because they were union jobs. When Blacks migrated from Georgia and the Carolinas to New York City, they entered a labor market heavily influenced by power- ful unions. When Blacks left Alabama and Mississippi for jobs in Detroit's auto

industry or Chicago's steel industry, they help to organize the United Auto Work- ers and the United Steelworkers of America. When Blacks moved from Louisiana and Texas to California, they found jobs in heavily unionized maritime and aircraft industries.

Unions can enable workers to suc-

cessfully obtain higher wages and better benefits from their employer. In conjunction with

community allies, unions have the potential to

gather the political power necessary to pass leg- islation and fund the necessary enforcement

agencies to erect labor standards which raise the quality of work.

THE RESIDENCY OF THE BLACK WORKING CLASS

IS AN ARTICLE OF FAITH THAT THE MODERN CIVIL

rights movement was one of the largest sustained mass movements for social change in this

country's history. Given that the Black commu-

nity is an overwhelmingly working-class com-

munity, it should be recognized that Black workers were the backbone of this movement.

Consequently, a key element of any new movement must be Black workers. However, activists often invoke the language of "the Commu-

nity" without a sharp analysis of where Black workers live today, what networks they have

formed, and what their salient issues are.

An outgrowth of the move from an indus- trial to a postindustrial world has been a trans- formation of metropolitan areas. Traditional Black neighborhoods have been changed quali- tatively. These spaces have fewer Black residents, and those that remain are often poorer

Any sustained effort at addressing the crisis of low- wage Black employment must view unionization as an essential strategy.

than the regions Black population. For instance, in 1970, the City of San Francisco contained 26.1 percent of the total Bay Area Black population. By 2000, San Francisco s share of the Bay Area Black population had fallen to 11.8 percent. The out-migration from old Black neighborhoods has meant a greater dispersion of Blacks throughout the metropolitan area. In 1970, Solano County - a county near the pe- rimeter of the San Francisco metropolitan area- contained just 4.5 percent of the Bay Areas Black population. In 2000, the size of the Black population in Solano County approxi- mated that of San Francisco. Many of these new communities are working-class communities and, as such, they defy the traditional middle- class notions of suburbs.

What are some implications of this dis-

persion of Black workers? If Black workers are to be a core constituency of a new social

movement, the movement must listen to their voices, tap into their networks, and facilitate an activism which addresses their concerns. When this is not done, their latent energies cannot be




released. By maintaining an exclusive focus on old Black neighborhoods and a definition of

"Community" which was forged during de- cades of legal segregation, activists miss the fact that a large segment Black working class has relocated out of traditional Black neighborhoods. While there is still a sense of place which ties most Black workers to old neighborhoods, this sensibility is insufficient to sustain a mass movement over new ter- rain and new issues.

For instance, in an attempt to gen- erate additional revenue for urban mass transit systems in the Bay Area, a labor-

community coalition advocated assess-

ing a surcharge on bridges in the region, with the funds earmarked for urban transit projects. When labor activists brought this campaign to the members of unions

participating in the coalition, there was some resistance because the added toll would fall on some members who used the bridges to commute to work from the new working-class suburbs. A growing segment of Black workers are dealing with the issues of sprawl along with new

ways in which racial hierarchies manifest themselves in suburban political and educational institutions. These are key issues which must be addressed.

BLACK COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

IN CENTRAL CITIES

THE DISPERSION OF THE BLACK POP-

ulation, the older Black neighborhoods cannot be ignored. Here, the primary economic manifestations of the postindustrial devastation are the high level of unemployment and the ab-

sence of quality retail opportunities. Most urban development policies ignore these concerns. When they are addressed, the approach involves fostering big-box retail developments, stimulating minority entrepreneurship, and cre-

ating construction jobs by increasing minority construction contracts. Each approach has a

By ...focusing on old Black neighborhoods and a definition of "Community" ... forged during ... segregation, activists miss the fact that much of the ... Black working class has relocated out of [these] neighborhoods.

complicated relationship with established labor interests. Led by Wal-Mart, big-box retail out- lets are driving down wage and benefit standards with a severe impact on grocery workers. Many minority business owners are anti- union because they feel that the union wage puts them at a competitive disadvantage with

large corporations. Consequently, they oppose organizing efforts of workers in building services. Tensions between the Black community and the construction trades are well-docu- mented. Attempts to address these concerns are made difficult by remnants of old union racial

cultures, the need to ensure that existing mem-




bers have jobs, and the complexities of construction employment. Often, when the build-

ing trades take steps to maintain the market share of union contractors, these efforts con- flict with attempts to expand the base of mi-

nority construction contractors. In the absence of a broader labor agenda

to revitalize central cities in ways which truly address the needs of poor Black communities

while maintaining labor standards, it will be difficult to develop a movement opposing the

developing coalition of Wal-Mart (and other

corpor-ate interests), minority entrepreneurs, and other elements of the Black community which seek genuine growth. Attempts to sim-

ply eliminate the presence of big box retail in central cities will only help unify Wai-Marts desired coalition. ■

O CD

1. Another key issue - immigration - is beyond the scope of this article. Two short points: first, the discussion of Black-immigrant tension needs to take into account the reality that many Blacks are immigrants (According to 2000 Census data: 17 percent in New York; 14 percent in Washington, DC; 12 percent in Bos- ton) and thus the either/or racial lens must be

re-examined. Second, native-born workers and immigrant workers would be better suited if the underlying frame of "what would be the impact on Black workers if immigrants were not here" was shifted to "what would be the impact on wages is all workers - native-born and immigrant - were granted full labor rights including a real right to organize unions."




bad jobs: the overlooked crisis in the black community

Documents