Perspective: Even sucking can be good enough

T.A. Barnhart

Today is Labor Day. I have the day off, but it's no holiday. I'm a temp worker, I haven't worked enough hours with a single firm, so I get to enjoy something I've enjoyed too much of for the past six years: a day without pay.

The NY Times and The Oregonian published a couple of excellent pieces today. First, a Times op-ed from Mark Lange, corporate executive (and former HGW Bush speechwriter) who understands quite well what is going on in today's economy:

It is in our self-interest to support labor mobility, development and advancement. Growth in productivity, fundamentally, is how we raise everyone’s standard of living. It starts with the first rung.

Lange is a conservative, but he sees clearly how the entire economy depends on the skills of those at the bottom. He also understands that not only do all people deserve an opportunity to make a better life for themselves, it's up to society, in its own self-interest, to ensure they get that opportunity:

The guy with the leaf-blower not only can learn English, he — like the unemployed steelworker — should have a chance to learn auto repair or programming. He’ll start with the jobs “ordinary Americans” won’t do. But we impair our economic future if we leave him there, imagining that’s all he or his children will ever do.

Possibly inadvertently, the Oregonian endorsed the need for labor unions to protect vulnerable workers:

But experts who study the labor market say workers recruited by staffing agencies are vulnerable to exploitation. The state and federal regulators who enforce wage and hour laws rely on worker complaints to alert them to potential violations, the experts said. Industrial workers hired by employment agencies — often immigrants — typically do not file complaints because they fear losing their jobs, lack familiarity with the laws and have no union to back them. (emphasis added)

As I said above, I am a temp worker. Unlike some in this sector, I don't want to be a temp. Right now, however, for a variety of reasons, that's how I'm able to earn an income. Not much of an income: it's enough to pay my basics, to cover child support and have a bit extra. It's not enough to afford health care, not enough to replace my 11-year-old glasses, not enough for extras for my kids, not enough to get my bike fixed (it's pretty much beat to hell from years of commuter riding). It's enough and no more.

But I've been working, at least, and that's reason for gratitude. When I lived in Corvallis, I often did not work. I spent the summer of 2004 commuting Monday through Friday — to Portland. That was the only work I could find, and yes, it was a temp job. And I had to get a car first (found a great deal on SE 82nd, and Tom Dwyer's guys made sure it was road-worthy). Wednesday, I'll be heading up to OHSU to do data entry for a few months at $12/hour. Beats minimum wage at McDonald's or a fish processing factory, but there's a chunk of money not coming to me but to the temp firm.

And what if it's a crap job? What if I'm treated badly, or the work is harsh (if you've never done data entry, you don't get to have an opinion on what harsh can mean)? I can ask my agency to intervene, but ultimately I have one way to take care of myself: walk away. Without a union to back me up, I depend on the company making a profit off my work to have my back — and they have plenty of bodies to take my place. They have more of an interest in maintaining good relations with clients than advocating for expendible workers. And I have no misapprehensions abou that: I am a disposable worker.

Now, to be fair, because I work in the white collar sector (well, there was that two-day gig making wart remover, but that was a long time ago), and because I have skills well above average, I'm usually taken pretty good care of. But like everyone not in a union job, I am vulnerable not only to the kind of abuse you ignore to keep your job, I can have my assignment terminated on a moment's notice with no grounds needed. No notice, no explanation. Anyone who thinks that breeds a strong workforce probably also agrees with Scrooge on the efficacy of the poorhouses for dealing with the surplus population.

I am convinced I will never again hold a regular job. It will not be, however, through a lack of personal effort to that end. But I am almost 51, and no one wants to hire some old guy when there are plenty of people much younger; not only would they be expected to stay with the company longer (an assumption no longer valid based on statistics), but potential employers must surely wonder why I'm still unemployed. There must surely be something wrong with me. I frequently think this myself, yet it is a fact that I have both excellent skills and a great attitude at work. Nonetheless, no matter how many jobs I apply for, I don't even get an interview. I haven't had a job interview in years. And I have the skills Mark Lange is saying is necessary for workers to have a chance to advance their opportunities. It's not enough, Mr Lange, not by half.

From the Economic Policy Institute:

On the sixth Labor Day of this economic recovery, the pace of progress ranges from slow to stalled for the nation's middle- and low-wage working people. Even the modest wage gains from the beginning of this recovery period have been fading. Since 2001, real hourly wages rose only 3% for the middle-income worker, with none of this historically small progress occurring after 2003. While most working people remain stuck in the economic slow lane, the better-off among us have avoided the congestion on the ground by flying over it. Since 2001 those with wages higher than 95% of all workers have seen their wage rise by 9%.

And here I was blaming myself. It's hard to accept my role as simply another cog in the wheel, or, in my case, a cog tossed into a heap in the corner because no one has any real use for me. But if I try to make a living in the job market, that's all I will be. I have to make my own living somehow, something I've been working on but something tremendously difficult to do, as anyone who has tried to start their own business knows. No matter how hard it may be, however, I have no other realistic option before me.

My sons, age 21 and 18, start school in a few weeks, the elder resuming at PCC and the younger starting at PSU. Both have inadvertently chosen excellent strategies, the same as my great-grandfather did over a century ago when he became a barber: mobile skills. My grandmother Stella's father wanted to be able to up-and-go whenever he felt like it; as a barber, all he had to do was grab his scissors, razor, strop and brushes. Alex is going to be a physical trainer, and Jesse will be studying Japanese. Both will have a huge range of job and career options to choose from; and if one door closes on them at some point, the possession of tools within their minds will allow them to get a new start very quickly. They won't need an office, a factory or a major capital investment. I am proud and relieved to see them making these vital, modern choices.

I just wish I could help them more. No matter how hard I work as a temp, it's not going to get me anything more than $15 an hour. I know I'm not going to get a job with good pay and benefits; these are disappearing anyway, and no one's going to waste one on an old loser like me. So I will enjoy my Labor Day skimping on food (fortunately I'm a damn good cook, and you would not believe how well I do skimp), watching a couple of free movies (courtesy of the Clackamas County Library and bittorrent), and going through Craigslist and the Oregonian's want ads. (And, of course, writing for BlueOregon.)

And feeling grateful and rather sad. My situation sucks, and yet I'm actually closer to the elite class in America than to the position millions of other Americans, and billions around the world (including many hiding in fear in our country). I should be near the bottom of the heap in my condition, yet I'm so far away from there I can do nothing but feel good about myself. That's how bad things are in America today. And as the Oregonian pointed out, here on Labor Day, we know why so many millions of legal workers in America are doing so badly: they have no union to back them. I'll let Andy Stern and others make the case for unions; to their words, I'll just say "Amen." How pathetic that my only honest appraisal of my circumstances is that I am in the roses.

By T.A. Barnhart Sept. 03, 2007