Is the invisible hand choking the workers?

Pray for the Dead, Fight Like Hell for the Living – Mother Jones

146 workers died in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire. The manager locked the doors, leaving the factory’s victims to choose between burning to death or jumping out the windows. Adding to the tragedy is the previous year unions tried to negotiate for safer working conditions, but the strikes were not supported and eventually their efforts failed. The deadliest disaster in industrial history could have been prevented if unions were given their deserved voice.

This occurred on March 25, 1911. Today, workers are fighting against the political right wing, who are determined to fix the budget deficit by cutting benefits from the social class that has suffered the most from the economic crisis. To achieve this mission, Republicans are targeting the voice of the workforce: unions. Over a hundred years later, we still are protesting for the same basic rights.

There is a war against workers. In 2009, the richest 5% of the US population owned 65% of the nations wealth while the bottom 80% of the population only owned 12.5% of the pie. Cutting benefits from the middle class is not a viable solution to balance the deficit, but that is exactly what Republicans are trying to do.

Last month, Republican Governor Scott Walker attempted to remove the collective bargaining rights from Wisconsin State employees, sparking outrage that the United States has not experienced in decades. People stormed the state’s capital in peaceful protest, evoking a similar spirit in Tahrir Square. Yet while dictators in the Middle East are falling in the wake of cries for democracy, Republicans are doing what they can to destroy the democratic process. Without one Democrat present (all the Democrats fled the state to avoid the bill from being passed), Scott Walker pushed through his bill to annihilate collective bargaining, and ultimately weaken the unions’ voice. Yet the voice of the middle class could still be heard throughout the capital’s walls, as they were locked outside of the building. Sound familiar?

We are one

To Walker’s dismay, the story didn’t end with his unilateral actions. Since the scandal in Wisconsin on March 10, people have become energized to fight back. Recall initiatives have begun, targeting Republicans in Wisconsin who stripped collective bargaining rights from workers. Currently, enough signatures have been collected to demand a recall election for Republican Senator Dan Kapanke, although there are still 7 more Republicans who are on the recall hit list. Unfortunately other states are following in Wisconsin’s foot steps: Ohio just signed a tough anti-union legislation, and almost every states in the US has put anti-union laws on the agenda.

On April 4, the American Federation of Labor – Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) assisted in organizing over a thousand rallies. The date is especially significant, because its the anniversary of Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech. Martin Luther King III explains why his father would have supported the workers:

Forty-three years ago my father, Martin Luther King Jr., was assassinated while he was in Memphis, Tenn., supporting a strike of municipal sanitation workers. It was, in his eyes, more than a quest for a few more dollars in a paycheck. He saw the strike as part of the great struggle of his time—a struggle for democracy, for truth, for justice and for human dignity.

These are the same basic reasons that my father would be joining with millions of other Americans today in supporting public employees in Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio and other states, where collective bargaining is now under attack.

Across the nation, ordinary citizens showed their solitary let Republicans know they will not take these anti-union initiatives lying down. Will the efforts on April 4 be enough to prove that the working class is too big to fail?

“Wisconsin is the victim of a nation wide strategy”

OWNI contacted Penny Schantz, currently the International Representative for the American Federation of Labour and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), to discuss the situation in the United States. Ms.  Schantz was local president of AFL-CIO in Madison 30 years ago when the legislation that eventually granted collective bargaining rights to teaching assistants in Wisconsin was introduced.

Owni: How are the rallies in the United States different from the demonstrations in North Africa?

Penny Schantz: The protests are of very different natures. In Egypt and Tunisia for example, there are fundamental changes in the society itself. There are grassroots movements by people who want democracy and an end to decades of dictatorship. What is occurring in the United States is in reaction to the initiatives taken by the right-wing Republicans, who are taking on the public sector workers and their rights to have unions.

Wisconsin is the victim of a nation-wide strategy by politicians who are determined to pay back their CEOs and additional corporate campaign funders in every single state where they have political power. The strategy that they’ve embarked on is extremely well-coordinated and financed, and it’s backed up by a very huge propaganda machine. They are making these initiatives under the guise of budget cutting.

Can you further explain how this right wing propaganda works?

PS: Republicans are using budget cutting as an excuse. They are trying to take away services for working families, at the same time they are giving out major tax cuts to corporations and the rich. So, it’s difficult to actually believe that this is really related to budget cutting. If you look at the 2010 elections – and as we all know, it gave major victories to a number of Tea Party candidates – the largest contributors to the Democratic party were public sector unions. This was not just in money but also in voters and manpower. The fact that we are seeing this fight now is much more about political power, and it’s really not about public sector finances. What Republicans are trying to do is target and weaken the strengths of workers and their unions.

Is there a link between the strength and power in the financial markets and the weakness of union’s ability to negotiate?

A major problem is the concerted effort on the part of corporate America to weaken unions. Unions were at their height between the post WWII period and the early 70s. At that time we saw an organized and very well funded – and unfortunately quite successful- attempt at taking away the power of unions and making it much more difficult for workers to form a union. In terms of globalization and the growth of the financial markets, the attack on the trade union movement in the US preceded some of the major globalization efforts that are more recent.

There has been a lot of frustration over Walker’s unilateral actions, but not much in terms of a solution. How do you suggests the middle class moves forward?

The middle class can move forward through organization and through trying to change the fundamental politics. If people work for someone else and they aren’t currently in a trade union, then they should join one. They should be holding politicians accountable. We should be looking at a recovery that is based on the creation of decent work and jobs. Unfortunately the economic recovery we’ve been having in the United States, to the extent we’ve been having one, it has been a jobless recovery. That’s not serving the middle class, the working class, or the working poor’s interests at all.

Can you explain what type of laws you would like to see in the US to improve the legislation?

One major step forward would be passage of the Employee Free Choice Act. It’s a labor legislation which would allow for having a union if the majority of workers at a work site want one. It’s as simple as that. Even this bar that is higher than what you see in most of the industrialized world. So if the majority says “yes, we want to sign authorization cards and have a union,” why shouldn’t they be able to have representation on the job? Currently in the United States this is not easily possible due to employer intimidation of workers, long delays in holding fair election and a range of other anti-union tactics.

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Photo Credits: Flickr CC Dave Hoefler; wisaflcio