Cal State Long Beach student Jonathan Coop is not afraid to go to his boss at the steel mill and demand a raise when he believes it’s well deserved.
Unlike many of his co-workers who are illegal immigrants, Coop said he will attempt to negotiate his wages and working conditions. He has an advantage, considering that he speaks English, is educated and knows his rights as a citizen.
Experts on wages and labor discussed the economic climate low-wage workers in Long Beach live in, which was largely attributed to the decline of, and aversion to, labor unions at the “Low Wage Long Beach: The Problems and Pitfalls of a Low Wage Economy” program, presented by the Metropolitan and Policy Studies Network at CSULB on Thursday.
The talk focused on low-wage jobs in Southern California and, more specifically, the trucking and hospitality industries in Long Beach.
All of the speakers addressed their concerns with the extremely high poverty rate in Long Beach and how a low-wage economy affects not only those who have these jobs, but everyone living in the surrounding areas.
In 2007, the Long Beach Press-Telegram reported that about 19 percent of Long Beach residents live below the federal poverty line, meaning they live on a monthly income of $19,806 for a family of four.
The program featured Ruth Milkman, Kristen Monaco and Jasleen Kohli, who are all experts in the area of wages and labor.
One factor accounting for reduced wages has been the decline of union representation.
“We all throw around the word ‘union’ but don’t know what it means,” Candela said. “It would help if there was more education so people wouldn’t be afraid of unions.”
Long Beach, as well as the rest of the country, has seen a massive decline in union representation since the 1970s, said CSULB assistant sociology professor Walter Nicholls, which has had considerable impact on the community by turning jobs that were once considered decent into being “really poorly paid.”
Coop believes one of the reasons why unions are not as prevalent as they once were is the presence of a large number of immigrant workers who will not stand up to their employers out of fear of losing their job, and are willing to work in “slave labor” conditions.
In turn, Coop said employers treat their illegal-immigrant employees as more disposable than the rest.
“If illegal immigrants say they will quit if they don’t get a raise, employers will just find another one,” he said.
Hospitality, truck driving and day labor industries comprise a large amount of jobs in the Long Beach area, and all of these sectors have seen decreases in wages, Nicholls said.
Hotel workers in Long Beach make 26.9 percent less than workers in Los Angeles, said Kohli, a policy and research analyst for the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy.
“Over 80 percent of hotel workers who work in Long Beach, also live in Long Beach,” Kohli said. “This means that the poverty wages that are paid to Long Beach hotel workers directly affects the Long Beach community.”
In Long Beach, 41 percent of hotel workers use some form of public assistance to meet their basic needs, which means taxpayers are subsidizing low wages, Kohli said.
As to the question of whether an increase in illegal immigration could account for the decline of union representation, Milkman said de-unionization in Southern California happened first, and as a result, more immigrants started filing in the low-wage occupations.
While students and experts might disagree on how these jobs have gone downhill in the past few decades, they do agree that education as the solution to the problem. Both Monaco and CSULB student Adrian Candela agree that education is a necessity for low-wage workers to both move up the job ladder and fight for better working conditions.