Republicans: No Time for Jobs, Attacks on Workers Come First
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In 2011 alone, anti-worker legislators in Congress have launched nearly 50 attacks on the National Labor Relations Board and the nation’s labor law—the National Labor Relations Act—according to a new report from American Rights at Work (ARAW).
The assaults on workers’ rights comes at a time when most Americans say jobs are the nation’s No. 1 priority.
ARAW’s Zoe Bridges-Curry breaks down the attacks by Republican lawmakers on workers and their unions:
They’ve introduced 24 bills and amendments; approved one continuing resolution; held eight hearings; and tied up the agency with eight threatening letters, four official requests for documents, and one subpoena—none of which created a single job. So it’s clear that their ultimate aim is to eliminate the rights and protections that ensure the 99 percent a fair shake in the workplace.
Click here for a detailed chart and here, here and here for a closer look at some of the attacks on workers and their unions.
Proposed NLRB Rule Requires Employers to Post Workers’ Rights
Most workers have seen notices about their right to a minimum wage or safe workplace posted in the company break room or elsewhere on the job. Employers are required to post those notices by federal law.
But there is no requirement for employers to post any sort of notice about workers’ rights under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), including the right to form a union. Now, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is proposing a rule that would require employers to post such notices in the workplace.
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka says the proposed rule is “a common sense policy needed in today’s workplace.”
Every working person in America deserves to know his or her rights… [The rule]…ensures that workers’ rights are effectively communicated in the workplace. It is necessary in the face of widespread misunderstanding about the law and many workers’ justified fear of exercising their rights under it. Read the rest of this entry »
Employers Must Post Workers’ Rights Info
A just-published Department of Labor rule ensures that workers employed by contractors and subcontractors to the federal government will now know their rights under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA).
The new rule requires employers to post notices–where workers can see them–that list their rights, including the right to join unions. AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka says the new rule will “provide workers with a clear understanding of their rights.”
Trumka says the action by the Obama administration’s Labor Department helps reverse the Bush era approach to workers
which put corporate interests before workers’ rights. Making sure that workers know their rights on the job will reduce harassment, intimidation and fear in the workplace. Informing workers of their rights will improve employee morale and contribute to positive labor-management relations. Read the rest of this entry »
‘Can They Do That? Retaking Our Fundamental Rights in the Workplace’
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Lynn Gobbell was fired because her boss didn’t like the John Kerry bumper sticker on her car.
In Colorado, teacher Meg Spohn got the pink slip from DeVry University for complaining about her job on her personal blog.
At Best Lock Company in Indiana, workers are axed for social drinking because the company president believes it’s a sin.
Can employers do that?
You betcha, writes human rights attorney Lewis Maltby. He’s president and founder of the National Workrights Institute (NWI), which he formed after leading the American Civil Liberties Union office on free speech and privacy protection in the corporate world.
Before heading up the NWI, Maltby had spent time in the corporate world where “learning how to run a productive, profitable company without violating employees’ human rights” became the focus of his life. Right up front in Can They Do That, Maltby gets to the crux of the misconception most people have when facing unfair treatment on the job.
The United States Constitution applies to the government, not to corporations.
Gerard, Bacon: History Shows Why We Need Employee Free Choice Act
In two terrific recent articles, United Steelworkers (USW) President Leo Gerard and labor journalist David Bacon make the case that the Employee Free Choice Act is legislation that will help our economy work for everyone again.
On the Campaign for America’s Future blog, Gerard takes a hard look at the pattern of corporate hostility to both government oversight and workers’ freedom to form unions and how that fraudulent argument has undermined our economy. Gerard says we need a return to “common endeavor” so working families can counterbalance the overwhelming power of corporations and bargain for a fair stake in the economy. And that means passing the Employee Free Choice Act:
Simply put, employers wield considerable strength, and workers must be able to unionize so wage and benefit negotiations occur on a more even playing field. There’s power in common endeavor.
Beware of the Big Lie Bill
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Opponents of the Employee Free Choice Act in Congress made their Big Lie into a bill Wednesday, when Republican Sens. Jim DeMint (S.C.) and Mike Enzi (Wyo.) introduced the so-called Secret Ballot Protection Act.
Before we go further, let’s clear up the bill’s false implication right now:
The Employee Free Choice Act would not—repeat after me—would not, take away the secret ballot National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) election process if workers seeking to form a union wanted to use it. The Employee Free Choice would ensure workers made the decision of whether to select a union via majority sign-up (card-check) or via ballot process. Choice is good. That’s one reason why we called it Employee Free Choice—because it would enable employees, not management, to make the decision of how to form a union.
The alleged goal of S. 478 is to:
amend the National Labor Relations Act to ensure the right of employees to a secret-ballot election conducted by the National Labor Relations Board.
