With all the attention that the President's public option has been receiving, voices of single payer advocates have for the most part been either silenced or lost in the pandemonium. Still, a few have managed to have their voices heard. Congressman Weiner has made the talk show rounds promoting single payer and more recently New York Senate candidate Jonathan Tasini.
Tasini, a progressive Dem and Executive Director of the Labor Research Association, appeared on a CNBC panel to discuss why middle class wages have stagnated. Opposing him were Daniel Griswold of The Center for Trade Policy Studies, and Harry Kazazian of Exxel Outdoors.
Kazazian begins by saying he pays his non-unionized workforce $15-$18 an hour with benefits, and stresses 'flexibility' and 'innovation' as to why his factory is successful. When asked if Kazazian's story makes the case that 'we don't always need unions', Tasini wisely states that while he does not know the specifics of Kazazian's factory;
"The CEO of Walmart, Lee Scott, used to come on TV and tell people how wonderful his workers were, how well he treated them, even though he was the target of the largest sex discrimination suit in history."
Tasini goes on to say,
"It's indisputable the labor movement created the middle class. Union workers get 25%-30% better wages. I would argue that the current crisis we're in is not just due to Bernie Madoff and the foolishness on Wall Street, but....the result of 30 years of wages being flat. The best middle class jobs program in America is unionizing the workforce."
Griswold goes off saying that union are becoming 'irrelevant for the vast majority of American workers" calling them 'a kind of leukemia' for the US industry. Tasini counters by pointing out that health care costs are the primary issue.
"Had we had a single-payer health care system...many of the companies that we're talking about, particularly the auto industry, would be very healthy because what's weighing down industry in America of both small and large business are the unsustainable health care costs. Productivity has been rising dramatically in this country for the last 30 years and wages have essentially been flat."
Check out the video.