Obama Transition Team Member David Bonior: "Get a Hold of Inequality" with the Employee Free Choice

http://www.seiu.org/2009/01/obama-transition-team-member-david-bonior-get-a-hold-of-inequality-with-the-employee-free-choice-act.php


1:55 PM Eastern - January 14, 2009
Obama Transition Team Member David Bonior: "Get a Hold of Inequality" with the Employee Free Choice Act
By Michael Whitney

On this weekend's edition of MSNBC's Meet the Press, former Rep. David Bonior, a member of President-elect Barack Obama's economic transition team, talked about ways the next administration can help get the economy back on track. One proposal sorted by President-elect Obama and 60 percent of the public is the Employee Free Choice Act, which will help employees bridge the gap of wage inequality in the country today.

Watch the video clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2-IAJhJpHU&eurl=http://www.seiu.org/2009/01/obama-transition-team-member-david-bonior-get-a-hold-of-inequality-with-the-employee-free-choice-a

The New York Times recently made a similar point in its endorsement of the "swift passage" of the Employee Free Choice Act:

The measure is vital legislation and should not be postponed. By giving employees a bigger say in compensation issues, unions also help to establish corporate norms, the absence of which has contributed to unjustifiable disparities between executive pay and rank-and-file pay. There is a strong argument that the slack labor market of a recession actually makes unions all the more important.

Bonior echoed the same sentiment in a recent letter to incoming Wal-Mart CEO Mike Duke:

The time is ripe for a new Wal-Mart with an incoming President who has pledged to bring change to this country, ensure a fairer economic system for workers and business alike, reform health care, and restart our economic engine so that it works for all Americans. Here's to a New Year, a new Wal-Mart, and a new resolve for being part of the positive change that's coming.

(Transcript of segment below: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28605356/page/3/)

REP. BONIOR: Well, from my perspective we've got to get a hold of this inequality we have in this country today on, on wages and income, and this Bush tax cut piece is a, is a big part of that. The top--over the last 20 years, the top 10 percent took 90 percent of the income gains in this--in the country. And the top 1 percent took roughly 60 percent. And the top 1/10th of 1 percent took 35 percent of that. I mean, it's skewed the wrong way. And what we need to do is focus in on not only monetary policy and fiscal policy, as we have talked this morning, but we've also got to talk about where we want to end up.

MR. GREGORY: Mm-hmm.

FULL story at link.

the Employee Free Choice Act!