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Opinion Contributor

Women bear brunt of union-busting

The author writes that the assault on the public sector disproportionately hurts women. | AP Photo Close

By REP. ROSA DELAURO & HEIDI HARTMANN | 3/17/11 4:44 AM EDT

Across America, hardworking teachers, police officers, firefighters, nurses and other public employees are being squeezed from two directions.

On one hand, cutting deficits has become the main budgetary priority in Washington and state capitals, which means pay freezes or layoffs for hundreds of thousands of these middle-class workers. Meanwhile, in Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana and other states, governors are using the real problem of budget deficits as a justification to pursue a long-term goal: union busting.

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Whether by design or default, this two-pronged assault on the public sector disproportionately hurts women.

Women are the majority of public-sector employees at the state and local levels and have already lost 320,000 public-sector jobs in the past two years. As budget crises intensify this year, and as states still face a $125 billion budget shortfall, state governments are likely to shed more jobs. These layoffs are likely to fall squarely on women.

Worse, job losses will come as female workers are trying to do more with less because they have already begun in the hole. College-educated public servants, for example, make 32 percent less than their private-sector counterparts. Because of pay discrimination, women make 77 cents on the dollar compared with men. Over the course of a career, women lose out on anywhere from $400,000 to $2 million in earnings — simply for being female. As a result, 28 percent of unmarried working women with children live below the poverty line, compared with 6 percent of working men.

Similarly, women not only are the majority of public-sector workers, they more often need government services. Women are 60 percent of those receiving the earned income and child tax credits, which serve mainly working parents. And women are more than two-thirds of those receiving food stamps.

Just as government is rolling back its commitment to these programs, the number of families that need this help is greater than ever.

To complicate matters, the new House Republican majority is trying to drastically cut education, job training and health care services. For example, the Head Start early-education program faces a $1 billion cut — meaning 55,000 teachers and aides would be laid off. K-12 education is predicted to see a cut of almost $600 million. That means approximately 17,000 teacher layoffs. Job training programs would be eliminated with a cut of more than $4 billion to the work force investment system.

In addition, the GOP majority is attempting to defund Title X services, which have connected millions of American women to health care since 1970. Republicans want to repeal the Affordable Health Care Act, which ended the pernicious practice of gender rating — charging women more for the same coverage — and at long last put women’s health care on an equal footing.

The danger to American women in these rollbacks is clear. The question is: What do we do about it? How do we turn back these assaults on women at all levels of government?

First, we can call out the anti-union tactics for what they are. Some governors are attempting to use the state budget crises as a pretense to fulfill a long-term ideological agenda and scale back the provision of public services. By eliminating collective-bargaining rights for public-sector workers, the U.S. loses its strongest champions of critical government services.

If residents can no longer count on government for education, public safety or even roads, they will have to fend for themselves. Under a privatized scenario, those with higher incomes will be the only ones who can afford these services. Average working women and men will be left out and the middle-class standard of living will decline.

Second, we should support strong investments in education, job training and health care. The future of America depends on not turning back the clock on these critical work force investments.

Businesses are looking for the employees who can make them successful. Because the federal government is the only institution that can backstop revenue losses at other levels of government, it falls to Congress to make these critical investments when states and localities are feeling the pinch.

Third, we should pass the Paycheck Fairness Act, which will give teeth to the Equal Pay Act, bringing sex discrimination law into parity with all other types of discriminatory law — giving female workers the tools to ensure they are fairly compensated. Equal pay for equal work will reduce the burden on the safety net — and thus reduce deficits.

What is at stake in Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana and other states is more than a budget crisis. It is whether we as a nation will stand up for the rights of working middle-class women and men to improve their lives or make it harder for them and their families to seize opportunities — at home or at work, in college or in our hospitals.

If this assault on public-sector unions succeeds, Americans may lose not only their bargaining rights in the workplace but the critical services they rely on.

We can and must do better.

Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) is the ranking member of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies. Heidi Hartmann, an economist, is president of the Institute for Women’s Policy Research.

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