Let’s get organized.
Rep. Barney Frank had an interesting notion the other day for getting labor unions and corporate America to work together on legislative issues of mutual concern. And the two do have issues.
With Democrats now in control of the Congress, multinational corporations fear that union opposition will re-write trade pacts and sink their globalization gravy-boat.
A labor priority is passage of The Employee Free Choice Act that would make it easier for workers to unionize.
Frank suggests corporate America curb its hostility to the Employee Free Choice Act and in exchange labor will ease up on its proposed amendments to “free trade” agreements.
His compromise proposal comes at a timely moment for both business and labor. Business has prospered from NAFTA, CAFTA and all the other AFTAs, but trade agreements have been a disaster for workers. Demands to toughen our trade laws to protect workers were a big issue that helped elect a Democratic Congress in the November mid-term elections. Even Business Week ran a cover story on how our overseas factories “lie and cheat on labor standards.”
Meanwhile, a recent BLS announcement revealed more bad news for organized labor: the number of workers in unions had dropped to 15.4 million, just 12% of the workforce. That’s the lowest percentage since the government began keeping those records over two decades ago and explanation enough why unions so desperately need The Employee Free Choice Act. Surveys show that 60 million workers would join a union if they could. What stops them is employer resistance. Employer intimidation, harassment and retaliation have greeted every union organizing campaign since the early 1980s. After Ronald Reagan fired the striking aircraft controllers and brought in permanent replacements, the Congress named an airport after him. From that moment, the public has been led to believe that when employers beat up on workers it is a patriotic act.
Republican administrations from Reagan through the Bushes have all but destroyed the “right” of working men and women to organize. Union membership is the ticket to middle-class living standards, but at a time when the nation’s largest employer is ferociously anti-union, a middle-class that made our country the envy of the world is slowly disappearing. Bush stacked the NLRB with management appointees who see their role as debunkers, not protectors, of labor law, which helps explain why union membership in the U.S. has sunk to the lowest in the industrialized world. It is downright appalling as well as humiliating that on International Human Rights Day pleas are raised from Jakarta to Helsinki to end government and corporate abuse of workers in the U.S. of A.
China with its sweatshops last year shipped $280 billion worth of goods to the U.S. is closer to an Employee Free Choice Act than we are, though they have the same opposition our workers do: the American Chamber of Commerce and corporate biggies like Wal-Mart. When Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao announced a new labor law that would crack down on inhumane working conditions and significantly push up the wages of everyday workers, representatives of American and European business organizations warned that the new law would discourage their corporate members from making further investments in China.
Chinese government officials are concerned about the widening income gap and threats of social unrest, aware that the vast majority of Chinese citizens have gained little from the global economy. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?
Maybe Barney Frank should go to Beijing.
With Democrats now in control of the Congress, multinational corporations fear that union opposition will re-write trade pacts and sink their globalization gravy-boat.
A labor priority is passage of The Employee Free Choice Act that would make it easier for workers to unionize.
Frank suggests corporate America curb its hostility to the Employee Free Choice Act and in exchange labor will ease up on its proposed amendments to “free trade” agreements.
His compromise proposal comes at a timely moment for both business and labor. Business has prospered from NAFTA, CAFTA and all the other AFTAs, but trade agreements have been a disaster for workers. Demands to toughen our trade laws to protect workers were a big issue that helped elect a Democratic Congress in the November mid-term elections. Even Business Week ran a cover story on how our overseas factories “lie and cheat on labor standards.”
Meanwhile, a recent BLS announcement revealed more bad news for organized labor: the number of workers in unions had dropped to 15.4 million, just 12% of the workforce. That’s the lowest percentage since the government began keeping those records over two decades ago and explanation enough why unions so desperately need The Employee Free Choice Act. Surveys show that 60 million workers would join a union if they could. What stops them is employer resistance. Employer intimidation, harassment and retaliation have greeted every union organizing campaign since the early 1980s. After Ronald Reagan fired the striking aircraft controllers and brought in permanent replacements, the Congress named an airport after him. From that moment, the public has been led to believe that when employers beat up on workers it is a patriotic act.
Republican administrations from Reagan through the Bushes have all but destroyed the “right” of working men and women to organize. Union membership is the ticket to middle-class living standards, but at a time when the nation’s largest employer is ferociously anti-union, a middle-class that made our country the envy of the world is slowly disappearing. Bush stacked the NLRB with management appointees who see their role as debunkers, not protectors, of labor law, which helps explain why union membership in the U.S. has sunk to the lowest in the industrialized world. It is downright appalling as well as humiliating that on International Human Rights Day pleas are raised from Jakarta to Helsinki to end government and corporate abuse of workers in the U.S. of A.
China with its sweatshops last year shipped $280 billion worth of goods to the U.S. is closer to an Employee Free Choice Act than we are, though they have the same opposition our workers do: the American Chamber of Commerce and corporate biggies like Wal-Mart. When Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao announced a new labor law that would crack down on inhumane working conditions and significantly push up the wages of everyday workers, representatives of American and European business organizations warned that the new law would discourage their corporate members from making further investments in China.
Chinese government officials are concerned about the widening income gap and threats of social unrest, aware that the vast majority of Chinese citizens have gained little from the global economy. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?
Maybe Barney Frank should go to Beijing.
posted by Victor Kamber | 9:11 AM
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