Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/756468
96 CINEMONTAGE / Q4 2016 LABOR MAT TERS €3.7 billion between 2009 and 2013, on which it reported only €16 million in taxes, writes Janet Sparks in Blue MauMau. The global burger chain is already being probed by the European Commission, which is focusing on how McDonald's licenses its name and other valuable intellectual property assets in Europe through Luxembourg, seemingly to escape taxation. A study submitted by the European Public Service Union, the European Federation of Food, Agriculture and Tourism, and the Service Employees International Union was sent to the European Commission. The coalition says that McDonald's track record of low-wage jobs and tax avoidance has caused a "unique coalition of trade unions from both the public and private sectors as well as civil society groups to join efforts to hold the company accountable for its practices across the world." The European and American trade union federations, joined by the anti-poverty campaign group War on Want, released the "Unhappy Meal" report in 2015. It highlights how McDonald's avoids taxation. UNION DECLINE COSTS NON- UNION WORKERS $133 BILLION ANNUALLY In the new report, "Union Decline Lowers Wages of Non-Union Workers," Washington University sociologist Jake Rosenfeld and co- authors find that the dramatic decline in union density since 1979 has resulted in far lower wages for non-union workers. The impact on their wages is more than the 5 percent bump from globalization found in recent research, according to the Economic Policy Institute. How much greater is the impact? Non-union men without a college degree would have earned 8 percent, or $3,016 annually, more in 2013 if unions were as strong as they were in 1979. Between 1979 and 2013, the number of private sector workers in unions has dropped from about 34 percent to 11 percent among men, and from 16 percent to 6 percent among women. The report says that unions keep wages high for non- union workers for several reasons. First, union agreements set wage standards and a community of strong union members prods managers to keep wages high to keep workers from organizing or their employees from quitting. Second, unions set industry-wide standards for wages and benefits, influencing what is seen as normal. "Working-class men have felt the decline in unionization the hardest," said Rosenfeld. "Their paychecks are noticeably smaller than if unions had remained as strong as they were almost 40 years ago. Rebuilding collective bargaining is one of the tools we have to reinvigorate wage growth, for low- and middle-wage workers." Rosenfeld, along with co-authors Jennifer Laird and Patrick Denice, found that the effects of declining union membership on the wages of non- union women are not as substantial because the number of women was not as high in unionized private sector jobs. The authors add that any significant growth in collective bargaining would be expected to have as much or more impact on women as men. The authors found that women's wages would be 2 to 3 percent higher if unions had stayed at their 1979 levels. Their study also shows that Courtesy of the Economic Policy Institute. Women's wages would be 2 to 3 percent higher if unions had stayed at their 1979 levels.