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We demand this fraud be stopped!

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Michigan has become the latest state to adopt a Right-to-work law, in what appears to be a rather blatant effort to further bust unions.  Similar efforts are also being made in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.  On the surface, the Right-to-work law sounds reasonable.  Why should workers be required to be part of unions in order to retain their jobs in closed shops?   I suppose this is why so many Americans support these measures.  But, when you look at the forces at work, notably the Koch Bros, this is nothing more than an attempt to further undermine unions in America, which have suffered greatly ever since the Taft-Hartley Act was passed over Truman's veto in 1947.  Today, 24 states have right-to-work laws, and of couse if Republicans had their way there would be a national right-to-work law undermining those states which still respect unions.  Republican presidents have invoked the Taft-Hartley Act to break strikes, most recently Bush in 2002 to end a longshoremen's strike on the West Coast, which shut down virtually all the ports.  Just shows that the struggle never ends.

Comments

  1. avrdsDecember 13, 2012 at 4:20 PM

    I find it very upsetting. I've been watching Ed Schultz on this, since he's really good on labor issues (otherwise his "style" is a little hard to take). He showed a chart with the income and union affiliation and as union membership has declined, so have wages. Americans are shooting themselves in the foot on this one.

    But the main issue is political. If you bleed the unions of dues and members, they don't have the resources to fight back. He showed a great clip of Karl Rove saying exactly that.

    ReplyDelete
  2. James FergusonDecember 13, 2012 at 5:37 PM

    What gets me is how these Republicans are supposed to be all for state rights, yet they are mounting costly national campaigns to get union states to adopt these right-to-work laws, having overturned legislates in these states in recent years. It really makes you wonder why states like Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and New Jersey would vote for Republicans to begin with. I don't think these states will stay Republican very long.

    ReplyDelete
  3. avrdsDecember 13, 2012 at 5:39 PM

    ALEC.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Rick DiguetteDecember 13, 2012 at 5:58 PM

    Republicans are all for letting states decide things for themselves except when they're not. The hypocrisy . . . oh, never mind.

    ReplyDelete

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