Sunday, September 03, 2006
There's not much to celebrate on Labor Day
Christian Trejbal
Recent columns
Labor Day is one of those holidays whose original intent has been lost over time.
At the end of the 19th century and start of the 20th century, the robber barons and railroad tycoons ruled over vast empires of industry as latter-day nobility. They built fortunes on the backs of average workers in an age without the employment protections taken for granted today.
It was to celebrate those workers, without whom America would not have grown into an industrial juggernaut, that Labor Day was created a century ago.
These days, the first Monday in September is all about a three-day weekend, barbecue and the end of summer.
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Workers deserve better.
Like the tycoons of old, today's captains of industry soar above the rest. They enjoy tax cuts, golden parachutes and obscene compensation packages unaffected by actual company performance.
Meanwhile, workers' salaries stagnate, a heartless Congress refuses to raise an inadequate minimum wage, social services decline, retirement plans go bankrupt, and prices for just about everything keep rising.
One need not look beyond the New River Valley to see that sad fate.
Last week, the U.S. Census Bureau released mid-decade income and poverty figures.
I'll be cheating a little, conflating two sets of Census data and working with less than an ideal sample size taken only from Montgomery County, but the figures are consistent with past indicators and good enough for this informal exercise.
In 2005, median household income nationally rose for the first time since 1999. It blipped up all of 1.1 percent to about $46,000. In Virginia, the median wage was even better at $54,000. Northern Virginia, which has some of the highest-income counties in the nation, buoyed that figure. Around these parts, median income was a paltry $33,000.
Poverty rates are correspondingly bad: America, 13 percent; Virginia, 10 percent; Montgomery County, a whopping 22 percent. Those rates had risen for years before stabilizing last year.
Under such conditions, workers in the valley have little to celebrate this Labor Day.
There are pockets of wealth, to be sure. Today's Current review of what sort of house $150,000 will buy pretty well pins down where the money is. Houses in Blacksburg are worth a lot. Farther away, not so much.
Plenty of factors contribute to the lack of good jobs.
There is the obvious, like the fact that New River Valley adults are undereducated. Almost half earned only a high school degree or less, and one-third of those did not even finish high school.
And the less obvious, like the distance to consistent air service.
"The biggest Achilles heel we have is air transportation," Joe Meredith, president of the Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center, said about attracting employers. "The infrequency and expensive flights put us at a competitive disadvantage with companies that have to move people."
An economic boom and the jobs it creates will not happen overnight. Population-wide education improvement takes time. Attracting additional air service takes time. Building intellectual and physical infrastructure takes time. Fortunately, some pieces are falling into place.
The New River/Mount Rogers Workforce Investment Board provides training to workers. Air taxi service is available at the Virginia Tech Montgomery Executive Airport. The New River Valley Telecommunications Committee is trying to improve broadband Internet capabilities. And a few companies are moving in, drawn by Tech and the region's central location.
That will not be enough to improve the lot of local laborers, though. Economically repressed communities across the nation are doing the same things. Competing with them requires a fresh attitude.
"We're seeing this transition between the old economy and the new economy," Wayne Strickland, the executive director of NewVa, a regional economic promotion group said. "We've traditionally been a manufacturing center: wood products and textiles. ... We need to look at our economy in a different way."
Strickland suggests specialty industries, information services and the like will be the foundation for the future. He also points out the value of tourism. Visitors come, spend money and leave, boosting the economy while placing minimal demand on public resources such as schools.
"We have a great cultural life and wonderful environment," he explained. "We aren't Charlotte or Atlanta, but we don't have their traffic either."
Not the best motto to hearten laborers and attract new companies, but it might be the best the New River Valley has right now.
So on this Labor Day, think of the workers and would-be workers of the New River Valley. There is plenty of room for the region's economy to grow and lift them, but only if we can let go of past glories and embrace a place in a new world.
