Election 2006: Waiting for November
Recently there has been a spate of books attacking labor unions, helped along by loony Rick Berman’s anti-union ad campaign. With labor in a downward spiral, no threat to anyone but themselves, conservative right-wing Republicans have to be asking: why bother?
The answer can be summed up in two words: midterm elections.
Losing ground faster than unions: President Bush and the Republican Party. Both may soon join unions in single digits.
Labor’s decline was not of their making. Since 2000, unions have been decimated by the outsourcing of jobs and a Bush-appointed NLRB that is an arm of the Republican National Committee. Try to gain members when your best jobs are shipped overseas and employers have a green light to fire workers supporting organizing campaigns.
Midterms could change all that.
Democrats have finally wised-up to the fact that when unions decline, so does their base.
When Democrats win back the Congress this November, the Employee Free Choice Act (that levels the playing field for workers wanting to join unions) will become priority legislation. Even now with Denny Hastert and Bill Frist in charge, the bill at last count had 213 co-sponsors in the House and 42 in the Senate.
Corporate America is well aware what will happen when the Democrats take over, which is why there is such a frantic effort to flood bookshelves with tales of alleged union corruption and why companies are willing to pour millions of bucks into Berman’s sleazy anti-union ad campaign. They need a knockout blow now, hoping labor – even with a Democratic Congress – will be unable to recover.
Wal-Mart, the largest and most anti-union employer in the U.S., is working closely with Berman. He’s their kind of guy. In the past, Berman campaigns have stoutly defended defenders of mercury poisoning, drunk driving and Big Tobacco. For a successful con-man like Berman, no “cause” is too slimy if the bucks are right.
For Berman’s anti-union scam to work, he needed a Labor Department as smarmy as he is, and he found one in the Bush Administration. Labor Secretary Elaine Chao is a stranger to union leaders and rank & file workers, but the best friend unfair employers ever had. She cemented that relationship last year when she cut a deal with Wal-Mart to give the company advance notice any time DOL was planning a “surprise” inspection of their stores. Chao’s priorities are evident in her department budget – she increased staff to monitor union expenditures, while cutting back on Mine Safety at a time when coal mining deaths and accidents are on the upswing.
At a recent seminar at the AFL-CIO on the future of labor, participants agreed that the greatest obstacle to union growth is employer opposition that breaks every rule without fear of retribution. The Employee Free Choice Act will change all that. Then all labor has to do to excite and enroll millions of unorganized and underpaid workers is make Bentonville the new Detroit.
The answer can be summed up in two words: midterm elections.
Losing ground faster than unions: President Bush and the Republican Party. Both may soon join unions in single digits.
Labor’s decline was not of their making. Since 2000, unions have been decimated by the outsourcing of jobs and a Bush-appointed NLRB that is an arm of the Republican National Committee. Try to gain members when your best jobs are shipped overseas and employers have a green light to fire workers supporting organizing campaigns.
Midterms could change all that.
Democrats have finally wised-up to the fact that when unions decline, so does their base.
When Democrats win back the Congress this November, the Employee Free Choice Act (that levels the playing field for workers wanting to join unions) will become priority legislation. Even now with Denny Hastert and Bill Frist in charge, the bill at last count had 213 co-sponsors in the House and 42 in the Senate.
Corporate America is well aware what will happen when the Democrats take over, which is why there is such a frantic effort to flood bookshelves with tales of alleged union corruption and why companies are willing to pour millions of bucks into Berman’s sleazy anti-union ad campaign. They need a knockout blow now, hoping labor – even with a Democratic Congress – will be unable to recover.
Wal-Mart, the largest and most anti-union employer in the U.S., is working closely with Berman. He’s their kind of guy. In the past, Berman campaigns have stoutly defended defenders of mercury poisoning, drunk driving and Big Tobacco. For a successful con-man like Berman, no “cause” is too slimy if the bucks are right.
For Berman’s anti-union scam to work, he needed a Labor Department as smarmy as he is, and he found one in the Bush Administration. Labor Secretary Elaine Chao is a stranger to union leaders and rank & file workers, but the best friend unfair employers ever had. She cemented that relationship last year when she cut a deal with Wal-Mart to give the company advance notice any time DOL was planning a “surprise” inspection of their stores. Chao’s priorities are evident in her department budget – she increased staff to monitor union expenditures, while cutting back on Mine Safety at a time when coal mining deaths and accidents are on the upswing.
At a recent seminar at the AFL-CIO on the future of labor, participants agreed that the greatest obstacle to union growth is employer opposition that breaks every rule without fear of retribution. The Employee Free Choice Act will change all that. Then all labor has to do to excite and enroll millions of unorganized and underpaid workers is make Bentonville the new Detroit.
posted by Victor Kamber | 5:50 PM
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