Open Hostility to Workers

This will be one of the rare times where I write a post grounded in national issues, rather than local ones.

The battle for a living wage in LA highlighted a well known issue, many big businesses are openly hostile towards workers organizing themselves collectively. They will engage in any number of illegal activities to discourage unionization, to try an head off the "cancer" of a living wage, or better working conditions.

There is a legislative solution to a lot of this. Tomorrow, the Employee Free Choice Act will be introduced in Congress. This is from the AFL-CIO Weblog. The EFCA would:

• Establish stronger penalties for violations of employee rights when workers seek to form a union and during first-contract negotiations.
• Provide mediation and arbitration for first-contract disputes.
• Allow employees to form unions by signing cards authorizing union representation.

There are already 230 co-sponsors of this legislation and growing.

If we needed further proof why this legislation is needed, we have some courtesy of Steven Law, a former Bush Department of Labor official. The Daily Labor Report from the Bureau of National Affairs provides an account of his apperance in front of the National Association of Wholesaler-Distributers, where he launched a full scale attack on the Employee Free Choice act. From my friends over at EdWize:

"If you think that unionizing is a great thing," Law told the assembled, "then this (legislation) is a great thing."

The Daily Labor Report recounts an episode in the question and answer session:

According to that audience member, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters sought to organize 30 of his company's drivers in 2003, but obtained only 11 signed union authorization cards. Unless an employer learns of the organizing drive, "You have no chance to retaliate — I shouldn't say retaliate," he said to peals of nervous laughter from the audience. Rather, he corrected himself, "You have no chance to say [as an employer] what's going on."

No, you shouldn't say retaliate, nor should you speak of a living wage like it was cancer. These are people who struggle every day to provide for their families and organize collectively so they can have a voice and a seat at the table. They keep you from running roughshod over them, all in the name of profit. Open hostility to workers is deplorable and should be called out whenever it rears its nasty head.