Labor Day and the Fat Cats: Repeal Taft-Hartley Act By Ralph Nader

[Better Believe It]

Now try to be nice and stay on subject, which is Nader's proposal to repeal the anti-union Taft-Hartley law. As a union member I happen to support the repeal of the Taft-Hartley Act. So please save the Nader bashing for posts in the General Discussion Presidential board that might be related to his
presidential campaign.


September 3, 2008
Labor Day and the Fat Cats
Repeal Taft-Hartley
By RALPH NADER

Labor Day just isn’t what it used to be. The parades are smaller, the unionized workforce is smaller, the share of the economic pie available for working people in the United States is smaller and the demands by organized labor on Congress and the presidential candidates are embarrassingly smaller than the times demand.

Last year I issued a Labor Day statement noting that the Taft-Hartley Act, one of the great blows to American democracy, had been in effect for 60 years. Well another year has come and gone and this law is still in place. Taft-Harley continues to: impede employees' right to join together in labor unions; undermine the power of unions to represent workers' interests effectively; and authorize an array of anti-union activities by employers.

Union officials should speak out for abolition of Taft-Hartley, and not concede this monumental employer usurpation of worker rights. Against the backdrop of the assault on labor that has included aggressive employer demands for concessions, the downward pull of international low-wage workers, weak and barely enforced labor and workplace safety laws, most workers have seen wage rates almost stagnate over the past several decades—even as CEO salaries have skyrocketed.

Major union leaders in the United States do vocally support the Employee Free Choice Act (H.R. 800, S. 1041) which according to the AFL-CIO will: “Establish stronger penalties for violation of employee rights when workers seek to form a union and during first-contract negotiations. Provide mediation and arbitration for first-contract disputes. llow employees to form unions by signing cards authorizing union representation” On March 1, 2007 H.R. 800, which has introduced by Congressman George Miller, D-CA, and which has 233 co-sponsors, passed on a roll call vote with 241 votes in favor of the bill and 185 opposed. On June 26, 2007 the Senate tried to pass the Employee Free Choice Act, but the Republicans, with the exception of Republican Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania filibustered the bill. The Employee Free Choice Act should, however, be but one battle in the fight to restore worker rights in the United States. ·

Please read the entire article at:

http://www.counterpunch.org/nader09032008.html