Commentary |
September
2, 2010 |
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Greetings!
On Monday, September 6,
2010, we will celebrate Labor Day.
It is a time for reflection. Gone are the tolerance for a child
labor workforce, 12-16 hour days, sweat shops, low and subsistence
wages, employment discrimination, dangerous working conditions,
management retaliation against employees, willingness to accept
unequal pay for equal work, massive overtime without due and fair
compensation, and preventing employees their right to assemble or
form unions.
Our industry, the mortgage industry, has suffered greatly in the
current economic environment. And on this Labor Day we should be
mindful of the loss amongst our own ranks of members of our fine,
professional work force.
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Commentary |
Jonathan Foxx
President and
Managing Director
Lenders
Compliance
Group
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Commentary:
Labor Day - 2010
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It was 1894 and the Pullman Strike had
reached its zenith. Due to the panic of 1893, workers at Pullman's
train building factories had their already low wages reduced or
were downsized out of a their 12 hour a day jobs. But Pullman also
owned the town in which the worker's lived. Rents and municipal
service charges were not also reduced. So workers saw their wages
further reduced, or were laid off - but the town kept charging the
same fees as if nothing had changed!
Strike broke out and workers around the
country refused to handle or work on trains with Pullman cars. It
was a show of solidarity that had hardly been seen before, not only
by the members of the American Railway Union itself but also across
many unionized and even non-unionized companies.
At its height, the Pullman Strike would
embroil in this conflict the President, Grover Cleveland, the U S
Supreme Court, U S Marshals, and the U S Army. Many strikers died
or were wounded. Eventually, the strike was put down by the use of
federal troops. Pullman agreed to divest its ownership of municipal
services and towns. In the wake of the Pullman Strike, six days
after the strike was broken, Congress unanimously signed Labor Day into law as a
national holiday.
In
the last few years, the mortgage industry has gone through a
considerable downsizing of its own. Many mortgage originators have
watched helplessly as their wages went down and employees were laid
off. Entire companies shut down - some of them amongst the largest
originators in the country - with virtually no advance notice to
workers, leaving those employees stranded without jobs. Yet the
cost of living did not change.
In
many ways, the mortgage industry has been decimated. Even the
industry associations that have been strong advocates have endured
an attrition that has reduced their membership and, by extension,
their lobbying clout. No group in the mortgage industry has been
spared, including, of course, the compliance community. Recently, I
founded a new association for the compliance community, the Association of Residential Mortgage
Compliance Professionals (ARMCP), which will serve to support
this particular group of industry participants. But the damage to
the overall industry has been done, and it will take quite some
time for a recovery to take place.
Yet I think it is important for us all to
show solidarity with one another in pursuit of a stronger mortgage
industry and a stronger country. If you are against wage, gender,
race, age, or any other form of discrimination at work, then you
are in favor of Labor Day. If you are against an industry's jobs
and services being sent overseas, then you are in favor of Labor
Day. If you are against the termination of unemployment insurance
benefits at a time when there are six applicants for each job
opening, then you are in favor of Labor Day. If you are against the
federal government's withholding of stimulative ways and means to
invigorate the economy, then you are in favor of Labor
Day.
We
do not live in a vacuum. People working are also people needing
mortgages and the other products our industry offers. It is
unreasonable to expect the mortgage industry to rebound as long as
the economy itself does not substantially improve.
On
this Labor Day - 2010, let's give some thought to the difficult
times our colleagues have been going through - those who have lost
their jobs through no fault of their
own, those whose desk nearby is now vacant - and keep hope
alive for them, wishing for their welcoming return soon to
work.
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So,
What Do You Think?
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I would welcome your comments and
views.
Please feel free to email me at any time.
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