Latinos and the Unheard Third

I was born in 1948, on the forward edge of baby boomers. If it's one thing we have in common as a group, it is that we almost all had parents who talked endlessly (or so it seemed to me as an adolescent) about what they and their parents had to deal with during the Great Depression. That economic disaster, World War II, and the McCarthy period shaped my parent's world view.

Cold water flats, rent parties, stories of my father stealing potatoes and cooking them in tin cans were all part of childhood. The stories were met by my sister and me with the same look of resigned tolerance that must be hardwired into adolescents and teenagers since the beginning of humankind. Here they go again about how tough it was.

So it was with a kind of jolt when I began reading the most recent poll result from our Unheard Third survey concerning what's happening to low-wage Latinos in the current recession and realized they're living what my parents went through.

CSS's Unheard Third survey polls over 1,200 people by phone during the summer of each year, using a leading national polling firm. It focuses on the poor (under $18,000 a year for a family of three) and the near poor (between $18,000 and $36,000 a year for a family of three). In New York City, these groups make up over a third of our eight million people. Because of the large sample size, the poll represents the gold standard in tracking how people are doing economically in the city and has become one of the most authoritative indicators of what's happening with the working poor.

This year's poll paints a grim picture of what's happening to the poor and near poor in the current recession. But the story for low-income Latinos is truly dire. In responding to our telephone survey, 26 percent of low-income Latinos reported losing their jobs in the past year, 31 percent had their wages reduced, and 70 percent had less than $500 in total savings.

What's going on here? It seems that Latino workers -- both native born and immigrant -- are heavily concentrated in industries hard hit in the recession: construction, manufacturing, and retail and, in addition, they represent the group with the lowest rate of unionization.

This is a crisis that won't go away quickly. While recent figures show that the recession may officially have ended, virtually all the experts agree that unemployment is likely to continue to increase even after the worst of the financial crisis has passed. That means for New York particularly we have urgent needs to ensure that those who can't find work get as many supports as possible to get them through this period. There was no stigma during the Great Depression for getting government help for jobs, housing, and basic needs. We have to repair safety net programs torn apart in the welfare reform battles.

The levels of unemployment for Latinos and African Americans are now approaching those of the Depression -- at its depths, 24 percent of New Yorkers were out of work. Longer term, this economic crisis indicates that no group needs the protection of unionization more than low-wage workers.

Unions can provide higher wages, benefits, health insurance, and a cushion for unemployment that is currently not available for a Latino population that is fast accumulating stories of their struggles that will be told to the next generation of disbelieving adolescents who will hopefully be in much better shape than their parents -- if we install the reforms that should have been made permanent in the last depression.

Comments

[Carl Caroli]

Unions, like so much in this country, have come full circle and are now on the losing end of the corporate take over of our government. Originally unions did a very good thing for the workers, things they deserved. Decent wages and work environment, paid sick and holiday leave, decent hours and paid over time. But like our government, power went to the heads of the unions and it had the opposite affect, protecting poorly performing workers from being fired (like protecting the airline pilots that over shot the airport by 150miles?), forcing raises based on nothing and making longevity the major factor in job security as opposed to performance. Consequently many people and employees stopped supporting the unions and they've become a relic. Corporations are now doing all they can to keep it that way. It's time to reign in both corporate resistance and the role of unions. It's time to sit down at the table and negotiate in fair, earnest terms. Power, and the quest for it is destroying the fabric of our society at all levels, and making those with it impervious to the trials and tribulations of the hardest working citizens.

[randyjet]

If there were not so many illegals in the US, wages would be higher now. It is the poor whites, blacks, and brown who suffer the most damage from the cheap unskilled labor who are illegal. If they try and unionize, the employers will simply fire those workers and get more illegals to take their place. And some idiots on the left will defend those scabs too.

I lived on the border for years, and my next door neighbor was a LEGAL Mexican immigrant who was a skilled auto mechanic. He only was paid $8/hr since many of his co-workers were illegals who commuted to work over the border every day. He hated the illegals with good reason. He played by the rules, while all the illegals jumped the line, drove HIS wages down, and spit on US laws. THAT is NOT who we need to give amnesty to.

[Tanyars5]

Nothing is going to happen until African Americans and Latino's work together and demand equality. The racial disparities between whites and POC is shameful. The Dem and Repub party have done absolutely nothing for our communites. Its time to bring our communties together and start demanding true eqaulity.

[Kevins]

Tremendously important post.
This is a big darkness that needs a big light shining on it.

If you take politics as 'find the need and fill it', whatever party puts their heart forward for this will cement loyal voters for a generation. Hispanics--all people of color--are such a major part of the American future, and the political parties--hopefully Democrats--treat them as such, and give them a helping hand that says "we're counting on you to be America's strength in the future".

[redhead61]

I agree, you're calling it what it is by labeling private campaign finance bribery....

People need to get out of apathy. Apathy has allowed them to control this country.

[lightningbolt]

I suggest to everyone who is unemployed to go to your Congressional representative's office and sit in, and demand that bribery (private campaign finance) be made illegal. Bribery is the number one obstacle to change and reform and the number one culprit of the economic crisis. Until bribery is made illegal, the economy will continue to work only for those rich enough to pay bribes.