Celebrate labor struggles, past and present

This Labor Day, I'll be celebrating the critical work union members do every day to uphold fair wages and standards in their workplaces, and the courage of workers who are coming together to confront the degradation of work in Iowa.

Since the 2008 economic crash, corporate profits have soared to historic peaks, while income inequality has grown more extreme than at any time since 1917. Indeed, 95 percent of all income gains generated between 2009 and 2012 went to just the top 1 percent of U.S. earners. Meanwhile, Iowa's minimum wage has languished at $7.25 since 2008.

Long-term unemployment, poverty wages, temporary work, and wage theft (the non-payment or underpayment of legally owed wages) are creating crises for workers and our economy as a whole. Iowa Policy Project data show that though workers in our state today are on average better educated and more productive, they earn less than preceding generations. Lax enforcement of many workplace laws leaves the 90 percent of Iowa workers who lack union protections especially vulnerable to abuses.

Consider Omer's story. An Iowa City temp agency placed him on a fast-paced factory production line last summer, but when the job was done, the agency failed to pay him for his final week of work. He met with managers and sought legal assistance, to no avail. Instead of giving up, he joined with the Center for Worker Justice of Eastern Iowa to collect signatures from dozens of community allies in support of his case. Faced with this show of community disapproval, the temp agency finally paid his wages.

The good news is that the economy is not a force of nature. It's shaped by people, power, and policies, all of which are possible to change. The even better news is that stories like Omer's remind us that courageous workers and community members are already at work transforming imbalances of power.

On the policy front, states and cities are leading the way forward. Ten states and dozens of cities raised minimum wages in 2014. Citizens in four more states, including our neighbors to the west in Nebraska, successfully petitioned to put minimum wage increases on the ballot this fall.

Such gains are resulting from sustained collective action, led by workers acting in coalition with organized labor, faith and community allies. Fast food workers, employees of big box stores, taxi drivers and domestic workers are all generating critical momentum for efforts to raise wages and workplace standards. In the South, the Moral Mondays movement is spawning new multiracial, cross-class coalitions to defend civil and worker rights.

Here in Iowa, polls show 65 percent of residents support increasing the state minimum wage. The time is right for our own state to stem the tide of worker exploitation and start taking small steps toward justice, but it won't happen just because a silent majority desires change.

So this Labor Day, I'll be celebrating past and present labor struggles-while joining forces with the many Iowans who are already paving the way toward a state where all work has dignity.

' Jennifer Sherer is the director of the University of Iowa Labor Center. (319) 335-4144 or jennifer-sherer@uiowa.edu