Fuel for the Field

In this guest post, Cynthia Gair, REDF’s Managing Director of Programs, provides her observations on the California Labor Federation’s recent conference, which lead to some ideas about common ground for social enterprises and organized labor to explore.

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A Slippery Slope We Need To Climb
Cynthia Gair
Managing Director of Programs, REDF

The difference between a first-step job and a dead-end job can be a slippery slope, but it is a slope we need to climb.

All of us who have jobs now started out at some point with a first-step job…that job in which we began learning skills for dealing with coworker and supervisor relations, group deadlines, customer interactions, and a host of other demands that come up in any job. Our first-step jobs were often in low wage, entry level positions – positions that, like my first job cleaning tourist cabins in a small town motel, form a necessary step toward productive, satisfying employment.

At REDF, we’ve spent over ten years creating first-step job opportunities for people who, due to histories of incarceration, homelessness, mental illness and other challenges, don’t get opportunities to succeed in jobs that can open the way to other employment. Social enterprises that provide supported first-step jobs are the best way for many long-term unemployed people to get onto the path to better jobs.

The California Labor Federation, an organization representing several unions and their 2.1 million union workers in manufacturing, retail, construction, hospitality, public sector, health care, entertainment and other industries, sets its sights on increasing higher-paying, higher-opportunity jobs. This focus was evident at the Federation’s vibrant annual conference a few weeks ago, themed “Building the Jobs Recovery.” Reports on the scale and urgency of current needs throughout California and the U.S., mixed with thought-provoking critiques of economic policy and innovative private/public and business/labor initiatives made this more than a networking conference —-the air seemed to hum with ideas, concerns, and plans for bolstering and increasing good jobs and individuals’ skills to fill those jobs.

Throughout the buzz of ideas and plans, I heard terminology that said a lot about attendees’ point of view: there was much use of “high-road” and “low-road” to describe the jobs labor promotes (“high-road”) versus the jobs it disapproves of (“low-road”). High-road jobs are those with higher pay and greater opportunity. Low-road jobs are low pay, low skill jobs. Labor’s focus on high-road jobs is not only understandable; it’s admirable in many ways: it is based on a belief in workers’ abilities and potential for increased levels of skill and responsibility. But this positive perspective shouldn’t exclude opportunities for the many Americans who need a first-step job – a job that may seem “low-road” – and an extra boost of support in order to get started on the path to full productive employment.

Organized labor’s skepticism about these jobs is clear and it is well-founded. After all, often entry-level jobs do turn into “last- step” jobs….steps to nowhere, to unending low pay and no opportunity. In addition to wage and opportunity issues, I have heard concerns raised about a lack of work standards enforcement that allows notoriously bad employers to prey upon people coming into their companies’ first- step jobs.

But a first-step job is not necessarily a low-road job, not if it includes, as do REDF-supported social enterprise jobs, employer-sponsored programs to build employees’ job readiness, skills, and links to better jobs. We all need to start somewhere and not everyone is ready to jump into high-road jobs. I hope Labor can begin to embrace the important role these supported first-step jobs can play in people’s lives. Some unions support pre-apprenticeship programs that help people with little experience move toward higher skilled union work. Perhaps links between such pre-apprenticeship programs and social enterprises can smooth the route toward better jobs for more people.

Yes, the distinction between first-step jobs and low-road jobs may be a slippery slope. But if we can be aware of the ‘slipperiness’ and the pitfalls, and if labor and social enterprise proponents can work together, we can strengthen the paths from first-step jobs to better opportunities.