WASHINGTON – When Robert Hathorn visited the White House on Wednesday, he was wearing a button. It read: “Nissan, lead us not to tempt-nation.”
He explained why when he spoke to a forum on the U.S. workforce. “I make the same in 70 hours as a full-time employee does in 40.”
Hathorn is an autoworker in a Nissan factory in Clinton, Miss., where he is part of the Pathways Program, a transition program that teaches workers new skills and aims to make them full-time employees, generally in two years.
Nissan sold more than 2 million cars last year and has more than 100,000 employees globally.
Hathorn was one of the participants at the Summit on Worker Voice hosted by the White House. The summit was a series of events to generate solutions for labor issues such as the minimum wage, workplace flexibility and equal opportunity.
President Barack Obama spoke to the union leaders, workers and business leaders, saying solving labor issues will create opportunity for every American worker.
Obama said collective bargaining and unions are a possible solution to the problem of inequality in the workforce.
“Labor unions were often the driving force for progress,” he said. “The 40-hour workweek, overtime pay, health insurance, retirement plans. The middle class itself was built on a union label.”
He said technology and the changing economy spurred the start of the conversation.
“Now, the economy is changing again. Technology has made it easier for companies to do more with less,” he said.
Yet with the beginning of the conversation, frustration showed.
Hathorn, a husband and father, said it is unjust for him to train full-time workers who make $25 an hour while he makes $18 as a temporary worker.
In 2014, there were more than 2.8 million temporary workers in the U.S., according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
“In recent years, we’ve seen more companies cut costs by hiring contractors and ‘perma-temps’ – workers who are laboring side-by-side with full-time employees but don’t earn the same pay and benefits and job security,” Obama said.
He said Congress has to help solve the problem.
“They need to strengthen paid leave and expanded child care, and raise the minimum wage for Americans across this country,” he said.
After expressing his frustration with the ineffectiveness of Congress, Obama said one immediate solution is to change the work culture in the U.S.
“Creating new norms and social pressure with employers … is a really powerful tool,” Obama said.
Obama repeatedly stated his passion for labor issues and his involvement in organizing the summit. He said the conversation began after discussions with his Cabinet.
They shared “the belief that all the success we made in recovering the economy, if we don’t solve this problem, it will have a long, adverse effect on our competitiveness,” he said.
Secretary of Labor Thomas Perez said the conference was a call “to start a conversation.”
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Vice President Joe Biden attended the conference.
Biden spoke shortly before the president’s town hall meeting. He expressed his frustration about the challenges for some American employees.
“Because of the way the deck has been stacked in the previous 10-12 years, middle class folks have been getting hurt, and they are still getting hurt,” Biden said.
Reach reporter Jessica Pereda at [email protected] or 202-408-1493. SHFWire stories are free to any news organization that gives the reporter a byline and credits the SHFWire. Like the Scripps Howard Foundation Wire interns on Facebook and follow us on Twitter and Instagram.
