Defend Workers' Rights from Corporate Assault
Mar 31, 2011
By Alan Jones
The corporate-funded attacks against public sector workers and labor unions are not confined to Wisconsin. Across dozens of states in the U.S., there is pending legislation that intends to weaken or destroy public services, unions and public education. These unprecedented attacks are taking place under the pretext of dealing with large budget deficits. In turn, these were caused by tax breaks for the rich and big business given by Democrats and Republicans and the economic crisis of capitalism, which affects the lives of tens of millions of working families.
In states like Arizona and Tennessee, the anti-worker legislation that is pending in state legislatures intends to strip public workers of even their most basic political rights in terms of political participation, and to ban collective bargaining. Arizona House Bill 2367 proposes that the state shall not “negotiate with a labor organization or employee association representing public employees.”
Other bills prohibit employees from engaging in “a sickout, slowdown, or strike that will disrupt delivery of service” and seek to establish a legal framework that is usually found in police dictatorships. Good examples are Arizona Senate Bill 1363 and Tennessee Senate Bill 1033, which would outlaw any sort of resistance to the corporations, including “unlawful picketing,” “unlawful mass assembly,” and “concerted interference with lawful exercise of business activity” (i.e., strikes) as part of an “employer protection law.”
Last year, Arizona introduced the racist legislation that profiles immigrants as part of the attacks against workers and democratic rights. Utah has now passed a similar anti-immigrant bill. Anti-immigrant legislation, including many bills patterned after Arizona’s racist law, is in the process of being introduced in 30 states, half of which are Republican-controlled.
In Tennessee, legislation is being passed that aims to “abolish teachers’ unions’ ability to negotiate” terms and conditions with local education boards. States like Iowa, Idaho, Indiana, Ohio, Kansas, Florida and Oklahoma have passed legislation that aims to end collective bargaining rights for most or all public sector workers. Republican-controlled states like Arizona, Florida, New Jersey, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Texas intend to pass legislation that would in effect seek to radically weaken or destroy public sector unions through eliminating automatic dues check-off, mandating recertification elections, and putting serious limitations on the use of union funds for political purposes. Maine, Michigan and Pennsylvania have introduced so-called “right to work” anti-union legislation.
One of the most drastic measures pushed by corporate CEOs and their Republican front men is what is called Michigan’s “financial martial law.” The so-called emergency management bill would allow Republican Governor Rick Snyder to declare a “financial emergency” in a city or school district in Michigan, declare it bankrupt, and appoint a manager with the power to fire local officials, break contracts, seize and sell assets, and eliminate services! Such measures will be used to accelerate the cuts and attacks on public services and public sector workers across the state, and to privatize public services.
Bills that would effectively restrict political participation of unions have been introduced in 15 states where Republicans control the legislature and hold the governor’s office. Legislation is being introduced in 19 states that aims to eliminate “prevailing wage” laws and project labor agreements that protect construction workers and entire communities from unscrupulous contractors on taxpayer-funded construction projects. These efforts are heavily funded by large construction CEOs who are looking to increase their profits.
Backlash
These attacks have provoked an angry response among large sections of workers. In Indianapolis, over 10,000 workers, including teachers, steelworkers and building trade workers, demonstrated against attacks on public education and collective bargaining in front of the Indiana Statehouse in March. The Republicans were forced to temporarily drop their efforts to pass anti-union “right to work” legislation.
Unfortunately, union leaders in Indiana have not called for further mobilizations and demonstrations to defeat the undemocratic attacks on public education and workers’ rights. Instead, they limited their efforts to praising the Democrats – who initially fled to Illinois in order to deprive the Republicans of a quorum – and token protests.
In Lansing, 5,000 teachers, nurses, autoworkers and young people demonstrated against budget cuts and the dictatorial emergency finance law signed by Michigan Governor Rick Snyder on March 17. There is enormous anger and bitterness against the $1.8 billion in tax cuts for the rich and corporations while funds for education and social services are cut and new taxes are forced on workers. The measures are widely expected to escalate conditions of poverty, homelessness and hunger in a state that is already suffering from widespread unemployment and poverty.
In a letter encouraging workers and young people to demonstrate against the measures, filmmaker Michael Moore said that Wall Street CEOs “see our state as one big fire sale – and they are licking their chops to get their hands on what is still a state rich in natural resources and industrial infrastructure.”
In Ohio, tens of thousands of workers have demonstrated in Columbus against Republican Governor John Kasich, who intends to slash spending on education and health care and create mass layoffs in order to cover an $8 billion state budget deficit. The budget cuts include a 25% reduction of state aid to cities and municipalities and massive cuts in Medicaid. Included in the governor’s measures is the privatization of the prison system.
Kasich has campaigned for the anti-worker Ohio Senate Bill 5 that was passed in March, which strips 350,000 public workers of collective bargaining rights and criminalizes resistance. The bill gives officials legal authority to prosecute workers who attempt to strike.
While tens of thousands of workers have shown their determination to challenge the plans of Republicans in Ohio and anger against the budget cuts is spreading across the Midwest, union leaders have failed to provide anything more than token resistance to the savage attacks against working people. Their main strategy remains to support the Democratic Party, which also agrees with the massive cuts in living standards and does not offer an alternative strategy. Both Republicans and Democrats agree with the budget cuts at the expense of workers and the poor, but the Democrats want to use the unions to implement the cuts while the Republicans want to destroy public unions, which tend to support Democrats in the elections.
Need for a Fight-Back
Under pressure from the size of these attacks, the Communications Workers of America (CWA) has issued a call for a nationwide “We Are One” day of action for April 4. The date was chosen to commemorate the assassination of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in Memphis 43 years ago while supporting a strike by city sanitation workers.
The AFL-CIO, the NAACP, student organizations and many individual unions, along with other organizations, support the initiative. While this is a good start, it will not be sufficient to stop the massive attacks against workers across the country. What is needed is a serious effort to urgently start organizing mass demonstrations at the local level in every state where workers face budget cuts, layoffs and attacks against their organizations. These demonstrations are needed in order to alert the wider public about what is going on, build public support, and prepare the ground for further escalation, including strike actions.
The Tea Party Republicans could be stopped dead in their tracks if their real agenda of making workers pay for the crisis is exposed. Anger is already widespread and it is likely that it would lead to massive demonstrations if the program of cuts was contrasted with the tax breaks and massive profiteering by the rich and big business. Such a struggle needs to be linked to a program that challenges the idea of making workers pay for a crisis they did not create, while the rich and big business are let off the hook. We should also demand a massive jobs program and an end to imperialist U.S. wars.
The union leadership is unlikely to mobilize serious opposition against the cuts because that brings them into immediate conflict with the Democrats, who also want to implement cuts. But on the basis of rising anger, radicalization, and widespread opposition to cuts, local coalitions of unions, socialists, community groups, and student and antiwar groups could be built at a city and state level to fight back. Conferences and local actions against budget cuts should be organized. On such a basis, it would be possible to run anti-cuts, independent candidates against Republicans and Democrats and to demand that big business pay for the crisis.
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