Steve Mikulan: The International Longshoremen’s Association hasn’t waged a full-fledged strike since 1977, but is now threatening to do so if a new collective bargaining agreement is not in place by December 30.
Right-to-Work
“In our glorious fight for civil rights, we must guard against being fooled by false slogans, such as ‘right to work.’ It is a law to rob us of our civil rights and job rights." -- Martin Luther King, Jr.
Michigan’s “Right to Work” Debate Affects Latinos, Too
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Victoria Defranceso Soto: Latinos aren’t the first group that comes to mind in a discussion about unions, especially with regards to a rust-belt state such as Michigan. But it turns out that Latinos are disproportionately affected, and not in a good way, by the diminishing strength of unions.
The Racist Roots of ‘Right-To-Work’ Laws
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Chris Kromm: While Michigan’s momentous decision has received widespread media attention, little has been said about the origins of “right-to-work” laws, which find their roots in extreme pro-segregationist and anti-communist elements in the 1940s South.
As New Jobs Return, Employers Slash Wages
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Seymur Slavin: The startling fact is that low wage jobs now constitute 58% of all job growth. The jobs with the fastest growth were retail sales at a median wage of $10.97 per hour. At this salary, workers would be eligible for food stamps.
Corporate Tax Breaks and Jobs
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Ann Robertson and Bill Leumer: The only way workers will succeed in defending jobs with decent pay lies in workers standing together and embracing the principle that the labor movement was built on — solidarity.
Puppet Government: What the Michigan Vote Means
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Steven Mikulan: Take away organized labor and the political playing field suddenly becomes a whole lot more even for a party with a vast treasury but a shrinking demographic base.
Les GOP Misérables
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Brent Budowksy: When Republicans try to destroy collective bargaining with the fanaticism of Javert trying to destroy Valjean, they create backlash and fear that escalates the organizing and activism of labor and its supporters.
Paul Krugman Discovers Marx (and Misses the Point)
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Ann Robertson and Bill Leumer: Amazingly, Krugman never mentions the decline of organized labor as a huge factor explaining the decline of the standard of living of working people, adding that there has been so little discussion of these developments.
The Oligarchs’ Coup in Michigan
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Joseph Palermo: With the stroke of a pen Michigan Governor Rick Snyder reduced the earning potential of millions of people, lowered the quality of the state’s schools and government services, and set up the next fiscal crisis when, lo and behold, they discover that low-wage workers have little means to pay taxes adequate to meet the basic needs of the state.
Don’t Count Out the Labor Movement
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Walter Brasch: It’s a time to honor the working class, and the unions that gave them the rights of collective bargaining. They may be struggling but they are far from dead.
Romney Likes Unions — in Poland
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Berry Craig: While Romney saluted Solidarity, he conveniently omitted the role of trade unions in building the American middle class.
The Right to Shirk
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John T. Cumbler: Indiana ’s proposed “Right to Work” Act is not just anti-union, it is anti-democratic. Under the law if a majority of workers in a plant vote for a union, those who opposed the union would not have to contribute dues to the union.
Mitch Daniels Is a Scab
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Devin Griggs: His presidential hopes dashed by a “kinder, gentler” approach to hot-button social issues, Daniels has now joined the ranks of scab governors Scott Walker, Chris Christie, and Jan Brewer.
‘Right to Work Is a Cancerous Ideology’
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Berry Craig: Simply put, right to work laws are designed to weaken large unions, destroy small unions, and keep unorganized workers from unionizing.
Right To Work Laws Bad For Everybody, Including the Boss
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Berry Craig: A big reason the South’s white political and business elite hated and feared unions was that in a union everybody is equal. Thus, they played the race card to divide white and African American workers and keep unions at bay.
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