SEPTEMBER 21, 2021
Meyerson on TAP
A Company That Takes Our Money and Goes South
As American workers rebel against low-wage-no-benefits jobs, some employers, ranging in size from Amazon and Walmart to neighborhood restaurants, have felt compelled to actually raise their wages. But not all of them.

Still, among those you’d expect to provide decent work would be companies getting public, or quasi-public, money to produce greener products.

This is one instance in which you’d be wrong.

Oshkosh, Inc.—not to be confused with OshKosh B’gosh, the kids’ clothing company—is a venerable manufacturer of trucks and military vehicles, many of which are produced in Oshkosh (Wisconsin) itself. There, workers have had their livelihoods and lives brightened by the wage and benefit standards they’ve won through their union, the United Auto Workers, since 1938. You might conclude, then, that Oshkosh’s recent selection by the U.S. Postal Service to manufacture a new generation of electric postal delivery trucks hit the sweet spot for progressives, addressing as it does the sometimes conflicting goals of combating the climate crisis and paying good union wages in the process.

And, I’m sorry to tell you, you’d be wrong again.

Turns out Oshkosh is eager to make those gasless mail trucks, all right, but not with its unionized workforce. Instead, it says it will decamp to ferociously anti-union South Carolina, which annually ranks either number one or number two on the list of least unionized states, to make those trucks. As the state that most vociferously defended slavery before the Civil War, the first state to secede following Abraham Lincoln’s election, and the state that fired the first shot in that war, South Carolina has a long history of suppressing not just Black but worker power, which continues to this day. And there, where fewer than 3 out of 100 workers are union members, Oshkosh will make its stand against granting its employees a modicum of power.

According to UAW Vice President Cindy Estrada, Oshkosh has found an abandoned warehouse in South Carolina where it plans to make the mail trucks. "A friggin’ warehouse?" she observes. "They can’t find a warehouse in Wisconsin?"

Thanks to President Biden, who has made going green at union wages one of his administration’s mantras, the Board of Postal Governors now has a Democratic majority. It might want to reflect on that mantra in rethinking the USPS decision to subsidize Oshkosh’s lowering of labor, and living, standards for the workers who will build our future.

Infrastructure Summer: The Democrats’ David Boren Wing
There’s always someone in the House or Senate willing to tank a new Democratic president’s agenda. BY DAVID DAYEN
Will Boston Get a Right-Wing Mayor?
If the progressive community splits along tribal lines, it could happen. BY ROBERT KUTTNER
Paid Leave Advocates Won’t Push Back on Payouts to Private Insurance
House proposal would fork over paid leave benefits to private insurers. BY LEE HARRIS
Democrats Expand Obamacare While Abandoning It
While learning the lessons of the Affordable Care Act, Democrats are still building on top of it instead of seeking a better design. BY JON WALKER
 
 
 
 
 
The American Prospect
IDEAS, POLITICS & POWER
The American Prospect, Inc.
1225 I Street NW, Suite 600
Washington, DC xxxxxx
United States
Copyright (C) 2021 The American Prospect. All rights reserved.

To opt out of American Prospect membership messaging, click here.
To manage your newsletter preferences, click here.
To unsubscribe from all American Prospect emails, including newsletters, click here.