State Legislatures Attack Jobless Workers Rather than Create Jobs
Andy Richards on our Field Communications staff sends us this.
Many state legislatures have gone back into session this week and some state lawmakers aren’t looking to create badly needed jobs. Instead, the first item on their agenda is to attack jobless workers and their families.
The legislature in South Carolina is among them. This week, a senate panel approved legislation that would require unemployed workers to pass drug tests to get their unemployment insurance (UI), volunteer a minimum of 16 hours a week and look for only full-time employment opportunities after a certain period. The legislation will now go before the full Senate Labor, Commerce and Industry Committee for review and could be approved as early as Thursday.
At the same time, the executive director of the South Carolina Department of Employment and Workforce, Abraham Turner, announced new changes to agency policies that would go into effect Thursday, including forcing jobless workers to take a job at minimum wage after receiving 20 weeks of unemployment insurance.
Gov. Nikki Haley—who has used much of 2011 attacking the National Labor Relation Board (NLRB) and President Obama while she watched her approval rating hit bottom—said in October that she “so wants” drug testing for unemployed workers. Unfortunately for Haley, the claims she used to back up her arguments were debunked as exaggerations.
Republican NLRB Bill Guts Workers’ Rights, Shields Boeing, Other Corporations
House Republicans have turned a routine complaint by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) against Boeing into a “political and ideological circus,” says AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka.
He says a Republican bill introduced after the NLRB’s complaint, which accuses the aviation giant of retaliating against workers for exercising their legal rights,
is sweeping legislation that would gut the National Labor Relations Act and result in serious harmful changes to jobs and workers’ rights throughout the country.
Trumka, Pat Bertucci, a Machinists (IAM) member and third generation Boeing worker, and University of Texas law professor Jack Getman took part in a telephone press conference today to set the record straight on the Republican House bill (H.R. 2587) that would cripple the NLRB’s ability to protect workers.
S.C. Workers Say Boeing Should Not Break Law to Move Jobs There
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In advance of a politically motivated hearing, South Carolina working men and women called today on lawmakers to focus on creating good jobs instead of mounting a political three-ring circus in defense of Boeing lobbyists and CEOs.
The workers spoke prior to a field hearing in North Charleston, S.C., organized by House Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) and attended by South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and several Republican members of Congress.
In April, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) issued a complaint alleging that Boeing’s 2009 decision to locate a Dreamliner 787 final assembly line in North Charleston represented illegal retaliation against Machinists (IAM) members who work for the company. The NLRB is seeking a court order requiring Boeing to operate the second 787 line, including supply lines, with union workers in the Puget Sound. To learn more and check out the real deal on the NLRB and Boeing, click here and here.
Republicans Aiming to Take Away Voting Rights in 36 States
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More evidence that Republicans are determined to grab as much power as they can at the expense of everyone but the rich. Not satisfied with attacking the rights of workers, Republicans in 36 states are going after the most sacred American right—the right to vote. The We Party reports that through a myriad of proposals, they are trying to suppress the votes of traditionally Democratic voters, including minorities, the poor, people who live in rural areas, seniors and students.
Last week, the Wisconsin Senate added another chapter to its anti-democratic record by passing a voter ID bill that the non-partisan state Legislative Fiscal Bureau says would disenfranchise 20 percent of the state’s voters, especially in rural areas. The Brennan Center for Justice at New York University estimates that 11 percent of voters nationwide do not have official IDs that would pass muster for these new and proposed state laws.
Republicans Cry ‘Thug’ Over NLRB Action in Boeing Move
There was a time when Republicans claimed the “law and order” mantle was theirs and theirs alone.
But Republican senators’ recent cries of outrage against the National Labor Relations Board’s (NLRB) issuance of a complaint against the Boeing Co. for trying to skirt federal labor law show they’re all for law and order as long as it’s not labor law.
With charges from Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) and others that the NLRB is acting like “thugs” from a “third world country” and is bullying poor little old Boeing, you’d think the labor agency was taking rubber hoses to some poor schoolyard weakling.
Here’s the case in a nutshell. In April, the NLRB issued a complaint against Boeing for moving a planned production line for its 787 Dreamliner from its unionized Puget Sound, Washington plant to a non-union facility in South Carolina. The complaint alleges that the move was in retaliation against the Puget Sound workers for having previously exercised their federally-guaranteed right to strike against Boeing and to prevent these workers from striking in the future. Read the rest of this entry »
NLRB: Federal Law Pre-Empts State Secret-Ballot Amendments
Today, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) took steps to enforce workers’ rights as guaranteed by U.S. law. The board advised the attorneys general of Arizona, South Carolina, South Dakota and Utah that so-called secret ballot amendments to their state constitutions are pre-empted by the National Labor Relations Act, which offers workers two paths to choosing a union.
The board also has authorized its acting general counsel to file federal lawsuits, if necessary, to stop the states from enforcing the laws. The amendments have already taken effect in South Dakota and Utah and are expected to become effective soon in Arizona and South Carolina.
Under the federal law, workers may choose a union by voting in a secret-ballot election conducted by the NLRB or they may persuade an employer to voluntarily recognize the union after a majority sign authorization cards. Because the state amendments in question prohibit the voluntary recognition option, they “interfere with the exercise of a well-established federally protected right,” the NLRB said in a release.
You can read the NLRB release here.
Corporate-Backed, Anti-Union ‘Secret Ballot’ Measures Pass in Four States
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While most voters were focused on the economy in Tuesday’s elections, a corporate front group slipped in constitutional amendments in four states—Arizona, South Carolina, South Dakota and Utah—in an orchestrated attempt to pre-empt the proposed federal Employee Free Choice Act. If enacted, the Employee Free Choice Act would give workers more options when they consider joining a union.
The four so-called “Secret Ballot” Amendments all contained similar language. For example, the Arizona measure, known as Prop. 113, would “guarantee” the right to vote by secret ballot in “elections for public office or public votes on initiatives or referenda, or designations or authorizations of employee representation.”
Employee Free Choice Web Roundup
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One way to celebrate May Day is to catch up on recent coverage of the Employee Free Choice Act, so here’s a roundup of news, resources and blog posts from the week about the fight to ensure workers have the freedom to form unions without harassment and intimidation from managers.
* In the Huffington Post, the AFL-CIO’s Stewart Acuff looks at Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter’s decision to leave the Republican Party and says the union movement will be “watching closely” to see how Specter votes on issues critical to working people. Acuff says the Specter switch is a step in the right direction for the Employee Free Choice Act:
Arlen Specter’s decision to become a Democrat makes the fight for the Employee Free Choice Act much more fluid and passage much more likely.
The labor movement will re-double our already overwhelming efforts in Pennsylvania to convince the Senator to once again support the bill that he was a co-sponsor of.
Barnacles of Class War Around Our Necks
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For more proof that the Republican opposition to the auto bridge loan is ideologically based class war against workers and their unions, look no further than yesterday’s comments by Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), who wants to force the American auto industry—at the cost of 3 million to 5 million U.S. jobs—to its knees:
I’m not trying to get rid of the unions but I am saying that they appear to be an antiquated concept in today’s economy and if a company cannot be competitive with the union structure that they have then we need to recognize that.
…Most of this is being done to protect unions. It’s not to protect the workers. What I want to do is make sure we have jobs for these workers and we have first-class American auto companies and we’re not going to do that with the barnacles of unionism wrapped around their necks.
