The collapse of the housing bubble has left millions of Americans with homes worth less than the amount owed on them and resulted in foreclosure rates at their highest since the Great Depression. Although the Democrats and Republicans have rushed to the aid of greedy speculators and reckless lending giants, they have let public spending languish on essential services like education and healthcare.
The fallout from the financial crisis is clearest at the state level. Sinking property values, coupled with lower retail sales and income tax revenues, have created severe budget crises in many states.
There are currently 29 states facing a collective budget shortfall of $48 billion, with California alone having a shortfall of $22 billion! Although the federal government routinely carries enormous amounts of debt, state governments are not able to do this. The options facing states to overcome the shortfalls are not appealing: either cut essential services, raise taxes to make up the extra revenue, or cut state employees’ wages.
The only way to prevent these measures from being taken is by directly challenging the ruling class’s logic. In 2005, Schwarzenegger tried to overturn patient-to-nurse ratios, claiming it was necessary to deal with the shortage of qualified nurses in California and to ensure patients had access to medical care.
Immediately, the California Nurses Association called Schwarzenegger’s regulation what it was – an attempt to save the hospitals money by forcing nurses to take on more patients than they could handle.
The CNA fought hard to keep laws regulating patient ratios. They staged protests and reached out to workers by explaining just how dangerous increasing the ratios would be. The CNA joined forces with other unions that serve teachers, policeman, and firefighters and used their collective numbers to struggle even more effectively against Schwarzenegger’s attacks on public employees.
Through their solidarity with other unions and grassroots organizing, the CNA kept the patient ratios from being overturned.
With so many state employees facing possible cuts to their wages and benefits in the near future, workers should learn from the CNA's example. Wage cuts are not inevitable – attacks on the working class by big business can be resisted! Workers need to organize in their own workplace and in the wider community, and should call on unions to organize solidarity across different sectors and industries to fight back!
So much taxpayer money is wasted on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and tax breaks for corporations; that is where the money should be taken from to fund social services and living wages for state employees.
