[Listen to the audio version by using the player below.]

There are a lot of “Help Wanted” signs posted around Levittown. For this solidly blue-collar area that we live in, I wondered why. I think the answers may have roots in the past.

In part, Fairless Hills and Levittown were built to provide housing for industrial workers. The most prominent industry at the time was the US Steel Fairless Works. This steel plant was considered of strategic importance leading to the regional designation as a Critical Defense Housing Area in the 1950s following the end of WWII and with the Korean War still underway. But US Steel was not the only large manufacturer in the area; across the river in New Jersey was Roebling Wire & Rope and American Bridge, to the south was 3M, a soap factory in Bristol, and a paper manufacturer (Paterson Parchment Paper or PPP) along the river. Fortunately, there was a lot of industrial work available for our parents and grandparents in the post-war era. Unfortunately, none of these facilities is in operation today.

Industries have a life cycle, which is sometimes hard to see clearly when standing in the middle of it. Over time, markets contract, cost pressure increases, and jobs are cut or outsourced until the very technologies that men and women of this area built are sold off and crated for transport elsewhere. The hunt for cheap labor is never-ending.

Industries made their decisions in boardrooms a long time ago and left this area to pursue a stronger bottom line. But what became of workers and their families who lived in the housing that lasted longer than the industries? They adapted.

Captains of Industry want to see an organization with a lean payroll. As markets fluctuate, layoff notices become a safety valve that vents payroll costs. Spreadsheet models have become increasingly proficient in calculating the precise number of labor units needed to produce a good or service. Payrolls expand and contract obediently to their predictions. For those labor requirements that cannot be cut further, the trend over the last few decades has been to slice and dice full-time jobs into multiple part-time jobs to avoid the cost of providing benefits. This has not gone unnoticed.

Many of us with developed skills go it alone. And on any given day, you can see panel vans and pick-up trucks with LLC pasted on the side offering every kind of contracted service around Levittown. Some of these entrepreneurs do well. Others work multiple part-time jobs to make ends meet. Most just want a fair shot at providing a living for their families.

The value of family became emphasized during this pandemic – it has been a period of shared family sacrifice. But unfortunately, the pandemic has also taught us how tenuous the relationship between the employer and employee can be. Some employers worked hard to ease the burden of their employees, while others were quick to trim their payrolls. Cast aside, these families had no choice but to adapt. And now, I believe, many are seeking employment mindful of their sacrifices. They seek a workplace where mutualism exists – where there is a practice of shared reward and sacrifice. Nobody wants to be merely a “Unit of Labor” in somebody’s spreadsheet.

Kevin Deeny