What good is economic growth if working families don’t see the benefits? In spite of what pundits might tell you, America’s middle class is in its worst shape in years as families struggle with rising expenses and stagnant wages.

According to a recent report from the Center for American Progress, our so-called economic “recovery,” currently in its fifth year, has more families struggling to pay for medical care, housing, transportation and their children’s education than ever. While they barely cope, corporate profits are soaring.

The trend is especially pronounced among typical middle-class families – dual income couples who earn between $18,500 and $88,030 a year. From 2001 to 2004, the proportion of middle-class families that has saved three months’ worth of income fell from 28.8 percent to 18.3 percent.

Not only are they increasingly unable to save for a rainy day, but they are also borrowing at record levels to maintain their day-to-day consumption.

The economic trends signal a path leading straight to this fictional article from the satirical newspaper The Onion where the middle class is depicted as a museum piece and described as “the socioeconomic category that once existed between the upper and lower classes.”
The ongoing trend can be averted on November 7 when working families will have a precious opportunity to take back Congress and elect representatives that have their (and not big business cronies’) best interests at heart.

When planes roared through the sky on Sept. 11, 2001, millions of Americans watched on TV in horror. We were transfixed, unable to comprehend what we were watching. Many of us were paralyzed by fear, sadness and confusion.

That paralysis was not felt by the public employees in New York and at the Pentagon. The firefighters, EMT’s, paramedics, 911 operators, transit workers, nurses, hospital and health care workers, ambulance drivers, city engineers and air traffic controllers sprang into action and responded to the call of duty.

Three AFSCME members gave their lives that day in the rescue effort. Five more AFSCME members were killed in their offices at the State Department of Taxation and Finance at the World Trade Center.

On the fifth anniversary of the attacks, our hearts go out to their families. We know they are missed every day.

A list of those AFSCME members we lost that day:

The Rev. Mychal F. Judge of Local 299 (DC 37), the New York Fire Department chaplain who died at the World Trade Center administering last rites to a mortally wounded firefighter; paramedics Carlos Lillo and Ricardo Quinn, DC 37 members who braved that hellish scene to support rescue efforts; Chet Louie, a betting clerk and member of DC 37; and and five members of the Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA)/ AFSCME Local 1000 — Yvette Anderson, Florence Cohen, Harry Goody, Marian Hrycak and Dorothy Temple — who worked for the state Department of Taxation and Finance in Tower 1 and were thus caught in the worst of places at the worst of times.

Tragically, the death toll does not end there. The collapse of the World Trade Center buildings created a heavy cloud of caustic dust and airborne toxins that included pulverized cement, glass, asbestos, lead and numerous chemicals. And in the early weeks of the recovery effort, city agencies provided no breathing protection. Many of the responders that day, as well as workers who have been part of the recovery effort at Ground Zero, breathed this noxious smoke. A new health study released this month shows that nearly 70 percent of recovery workers who responded to the attacks on the World Trade Center have suffered lung problems, and high rates of lung “abnormalities” continue. In February, AFSCME member Ron Vega testified before Congress on the effects that he, and others like him who worked at Ground Zero, have suffered as a result of exposure to dangerous toxins.

Many workers have lost their lives since 9-11, as a result of this exposure to toxics. They include AFSCME members such as Paramedic Deborah Reeve. The 17-year veteran and member of DC 37 was one of hundreds AFSCME members who worked at Ground Zero Sept. 11 — rescuing victims and searching for survivors of the terrorist attacks — and in the subsequent recovery effort. By 2003, she began having respiratory problems — difficulty breathing and a persistent cough. Doctors later discovered cancer in her lungs and diagnosed it as mesothelioma, which develops after exposure to asbestos. After waging a two-year battle with the malignancy, Paramedic Reeve passed away on March 15, 2006; she was 41 years old.

Public Employee magazine archives from the Fall of 2001:

Staying Calm While Others Panic

Hours of Horror, Weeks of Valor

Land of the Free, Home of the Brave

Today, the AFL-CIO’s blog discusses unions and the response to Katrina — one year later. Here’s an excerpt that reveals how AFSCME was there for our Gulf Coast members:

Michele Baker, a custodian supervisor for the New Orleans schools and president of AFSCME Local 872, called her union representative once she got to Baton Rouge. Within hours, a group of AFSCME members showed up at the church to bring money and other aid to the Bakers.

AFSCME asked her to join a press conference to talk about her experiences and to travel around the country, telling people what happened. As a result, Michele was offered a job as an AFSCME organizer and now works in Milwaukee. Her husband, Alex remains in Baton Rouge with the transit authority, but he will return to work in New Orleans Sept. 1. He says the two are committed to making a long-distance marriage work.

Follow the links below for AFSCME’s archived coverage of the aftermath of Katrina:

“Victimized by Wind, Water and Politicians”

“Misplaced Priorities — Gerald W. McEntee”

“Attacking the Culture of Poverty — William Lucy”