No subject

tions, where he earned a good salary and full benefits. Since Bell laid him=
 off, he's worked periodically as a forklift operator for various companies=
, getting temporary placements through an employment agency. Most recently,=
 he earned $12 an hour working for a deli meat and artisanal cheese produce=
r. No benefits were provided. A year's work, he explained, would mean a wee=
k's vacation, "but they don't keep you that long. They lay you off or rotat=
e you into another job before then."=20



Today, as he's discovered, even such temp jobs are becoming scarce. "In the=
 eighties, it wasn't as bad as it is now," he comments from the unemploymen=
t heartland of what, in 2009, is a deeply de-industrialized Philadelphia. "=
The city had jobs, but then the jobs moved to the suburbs. Now they're movi=
ng overseas. Back then, say, you applied for a job, maybe fifty others appl=
ied, too. Today, that same job, you're going to have hundreds -- I mean, a =
thousand for that one job. It's hard. It's depressing."=20



For the past year and a half, Rodney has been collecting unemployment perio=
dically, and in that time, he hasn't landed a single interview. Recently, b=
ecause the Bush administration finally acquiesced to grassroots and Congres=
sional pressure to lengthen unemployment benefits, he received a thirteen-w=
eek extension, providing him a little cushion (unlike equally interview-les=
s Juanita). "That helped me a lot. Times are hard right now. I hear there a=
re over four million people collecting unemployment. That's kind of high."=
=20



If Juanita and Chris are casualties of the intensified war of attrition bus=
inesses are quietly waging on workers, Rodney represents a deeper unravelin=
g of jobs and job security, thanks to a globalized economy in which the har=
d-pressed workers in this country are pitted against cheaper labor pools in=
 Latin America, South Asia, China, and even the American South. In such a j=
ob environment, what is one to do?=20



Someone I interviewed prior to my job center visit described her reaction w=
hen she heard that her company had recently closed a plant in the Midwest: =
"The first thing I thought, and I felt bad for thinking it," she recalled, =
somewhat sheepishly, "was that means more work for us -- at least for the t=
ime being."=20



Her comment speaks volumes, as does her request not to be identified. Who n=
eeds union busters, patrolling shop-stewards, or legions of high-paid lawye=
rs fighting wage and hours claims when a worker is so anxious about job sec=
urity that she responds positively to the laying off of those she imagines =
as potential competitors? When employees police their own behavior for fear=
 of the axe -- monitoring their time checking email or using the bathroom -=
- bad times distinctly have an upside for management.=20



In this job environment, it's easy to turn not just on others, but on yours=
elf. Reflecting on what she will do without a job and unemployment benefits=
, Juanita wonders if the problem isn't the economy, but the choices she mad=
e in life. "I left home when I was sixteen and lived in my own places, had =
my children, and got married," she says nervously, continually folding and =
refolding a local newspaper. "I should have gone to school and did a lot mo=
re things to make myself more marketable earlier in life. Now I'm left havi=
ng to start over again."=20



A look at corporate opposition to the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), whos=
e passage in Congress is a central demand of organized labor, offers a glim=
pse of how persistently companies seek to disadvantage their workers. EFCA =
would allow workers to form a union when a majority of them sign union card=
s in a given workplace. "Card check," as it is frequently called, enables t=
hem to organize unions without the need for an election. In a November colu=
mn surveying the business elite's response to the Act, Wall Street Journal =
op-ed columnist Thomas Frank wrote: "Card check is about power. Management =
has it, workers don't, and business doesn't want that to change."=20



In Frank's estimation, the current struggle over EFCA is the latest incarna=
tion of a constantly evolving struggle between workers and employers. For t=
he under- or unemployed crowding into this center in Philadelphia, the curr=
ent recession isn't a time-out from the normal struggle, it's more like a n=
ew open season for corporate attacks on them.=20



Right now, for Juanita, Chris, and others at this center, there are actuall=
y two wars going on, and only one of them seems to have caught the attentio=
n of labor and business reporters. The headlines about the first read: Desp=
erate Companies Forced to Cut Jobs. But many here seem to be experiencing a=
 second war in which businesses are using bad times to act in ways they cou=
ldn't in the best of times.=20



Shouldn't reporters be heading out in search of this one-sided, covert stru=
ggle? Isn't it time for the second business war of our moment to make a few=
 headlines of its own?=20



Robert S. Eshelman is an independent journalist and audio host at TomDispat=
ch.com. His articles have appeared in the Nation, In These Times, and Abu D=
habi's the National. He can be emailed at robertseshelman at gmail.com .=20