April 01, 2007


IMPEACH BUSH


IMPEACH CHENEY

TIME FOR NEW UNION MOVEMENT

53% of Americans would join a union if they could, according to new polling data. But business, in cahoots with the federal government, has been able to assault the union movement for decades. Despicable companies like Wal-Mart will even close stores rather than recognize unions. That should be illegal under the Wagner Act, but hey what's a little thing like the law these days? A resurgent union movement would be good for all working people, not just for union members. Things we used to take for granted like the eight-hour day, forty hour week, overtime pay, sick leave, and paid vacations were won because of unions. This article by Robert Kuttner is at www.boston.com:

In truth, academic studies going back to the work of Richard Freeman and James Medoff document the principal al reason unions have declined, from more than 30 percent after World War II to fewer than 8 percent of private sector workers today. It is mainly the result of business making clear that workers who support union drives risk losing their jobs.

Wal-Mart and other anti union companies take a more direct approach. In the rare case when local employees manage to organize a union, Wal-Mart simply closes the store. Fully 49 percent of employers threaten to move or close the worksite during the course of a union organizing campaign, according to a study by Chirag Mehta and Nik Theodore of the University of Illinois.

Punishing workers who opt for unions is illegal under the 1935 Wagner Act. But the federal government has stopped meaningfully enforcing the Wagner Act's guarantee that employees may form unions free from harassment or retaliation. Generally, fired workers who do win reinstatement orders have to wait for years, and punishments against offending companies are minor slaps on the wrist.

MY COUNTRY, RIGHT OR WRONG

Today's Fresno Bee has a letter from a fairly consistent right-wing correspondent to The Bee chanting the old "my country, right or wrong" mantra. That seems very similar to what Nazis said in their allegiance to Hitler. When my country is right I will support it to the hilt. When it is wrong I will criticize it and seek to change its course. I'm reminded of what Nobel laureate Albert Camus said about wanting to love his country and also wanting to do what is right. Despite what Mr. Right-Winger said, our first allegiance isn't to country and flag; our first allegiance is to conscience.