Here, Have A Nice Round-Up Of Some Good Sh*t Our Elected Officials Are Doing!

Hooray for doing stuff!

We all like to sit around and bitch about the things that haven't been done — and in this current climate, those things are a pretty big deal. So much so that diverting attention from them can feel frustrating and like rearranging the deck chairs on the Lusitania . That being said, some good stuff is actually happening, so let's count 'em out and see what have we got?

Union Pensions Saved!

This week, President Joe Biden went to Ohio to talk about how his American Rescue Plan includes a provision that will ensure that union workers will get the pensions they earned, ensuring benefits will remain intact for two to three million workers and retirees across the country.

Multi-employer and single-employer pension plans are agreed to in contracts by organized labor and management and then insured by the federal Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation. However, when those plans become insolvent, the PBGC historically only pays out a fraction of the benefits retirees were supposed to get. Also, in 2014, Republicans passed the Multiemployer Pension Reform Act that, for the first time in history, allowed companies that had guaranteed their workers a pension to appeal to the US Government to reduce benefits in order to remain solvent.

What this will do is fund the PBGC until 2051 — as it was projected to be insolvent itself by 2026 — and instead of applying to be allowed to reduce benefits, struggling multi-employer pension plans will be able to appeal to the PBGC for financial assistance to ensure that their workers get the benefits they earned and were promised. There are approximately 200 near-insolvent multi-employer pension plans that will be affected by this and millions of workers who now do not have to worry about what is going to happen to them when they retire. Yay!

The Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act!

Last week, the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, which President Biden signed in December, went into effect. There was little fanfare, what with everything else we had going on — but that doesn't mean it's not important. It's pretty darn important. The new law will bar any imports from Xinjiang under the assumption that they are made with forced labor in the Uyghur internment camps there unless the manufacturer can prove otherwise. This is a big deal given the fact that one in five cotton garments is produced, at least in part, with cotton from Xinjiang.

Long story short, although the Chinese government has been oppressing the Uyghurs (and other ethnic minorities) for as long as I've been old enough to sign my name to Amnesty International letters, in 2014 they instituted the “Strike Hard Campaign against Violent Terrorism” and started rounding hundreds of thousands of them up and throwing them in brutal prison camps they claim are "vocational training" centers. You know, where professors and doctors and artists all learn a new trade, like making clothes for fast fashion companies, so that they can find work once they are set free.

The Chinese government denies this, claims all of those who have escaped these prisons are "known liars," and has gone on offense when companies and countries have made public statements about not using products made in Xinjiang, frequently deploying internet troll armies to attack critics. However, if the US and the rest of the international community can make their forced labor unprofitable, they may have no choice but to end it — even if they continue to insist it isn't really happening.

Technically, the Tariff Act of 1930 bars all imports made with forced labor or convict labor into the US (though convict labor is just fine if we're the ones doing it). In practice this has not always panned out, largely because large corporations claim that the supply chain is just too murky for them to know where the components of their products actually come from.

This Act goes further by making the companies literally prove that their products were not made by forced labor in any capacity, which quite frankly should be the norm for every product known to be frequently made by forced labor ( or child labor).

If it's fully enforced, it will be helpful — though we will need the international community to also get on board. The unfortunate thing here is that even if it is properly enforced, it won't solve the whole problem — given that a large part of the problem is Uyghurs being sent hundreds of miles from their homes to work in other areas of China and that cotton thread is frequently exported from Xinjiang and then used to manufacture clothing in other areas of the world. However, scientific testing now allows us to tell where fabrics originate, which could be used to determine if items are made using components made by slave labor in Xinjiang.

There's also the fact that Xinjiang is sadly far from the only area where cotton is still being picked by forced labor or child labor and in fact it's a norm for the industry that is only very slowly starting to change. Uzbekistan just had its very first cotton harvest without forced or child labor last year and a very big part of the reason for that was the fact that many countries instituted a ban on Uzbek cotton until this was rectified. It's still a huge problem in India, where bonded child laborers are frequently forced to work off the debt of their grandparents in the cotton fields and elsewhere. The fact is, slavery, forced labor, child labor will always exist so long as someone can profit off of it — so it is incumbent to make sure they can't.

We May Be On Our Way To Build Back Somewhat Better?

It was announced this week that Chuck Schumer and Joe Manchin have been secretly working on a skinny version of a reconciliation bill that Manchin will be willing to accept. The new version of the bill includes provisions to allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices, increases taxes on the wealthy, and spends some money on climate change — because hey, we can't do any of the stuff we really want without a planet to do it on.

Naturally, Mitch McConnell is throwing a hissy fit over even that and threatening to tank a bipartisan tech bill meant to make us more competitive with China if they dare go through with it. Because, you know, he's gotta protect the wealthy, the pharmaceutical industry and ... I don't know, torch the planet for funsies?

It's certainly not everything we want, but it's enough of an accomplishment to give Democrats something to run on in November, and being able to negotiate pharmaceutical prices instead of being suckers who pay retail is a huge deal. It's also extremely popular among practically everyone who is not a Republican elected official or pharmaceutical company. It will particularly appeal to seniors, who are known to be pretty good about voting, as well as to younger voters who overwhelmingly want single payer and will see this as a major step towards that goal.

Also, we will believe it when Joe Manchin doesn't once again refuse to take yes for an answer and DQ all his own compromises. But this is a hopeful post, so we should have ended it elsewhere.

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