|
The platform adopted at the Republican National Convention in Tampa shows how far the leaders of the GOP have gone in embracing the corporate agenda of destroying unions and giving unrestricted power to employers. It also reveals their legislative program for getting rid of workers' unions - including two pieces of legislation that could wipe out unions in private industry.
The section of the GOP platform dealing with labor does not have the word "labor" or "union" in its title. Instead, it's entitled "Freedom in the Workplace." But once you begin reading, it's clear that the party is not interested in liberating workers from oppressive bosses or low wages, but rather in freeing bosses from having to negotiate with workers, answer grievances, and respect employees' rights. (With a Google search, you can find and read the entire 31,000-word Republican platform online. At the end of this article, we attach the labor section of the GOP platform.)
In the space of just three paragraphs and 360 words, the labor plank of the Republicans' platform endorses a wide range of anti-worker measures. They "salute" the Republican governors who have "reformed" their states by taking away public employees' bargaining rights, and they "urge elected officials across the country to follow their lead." They say a Republican president will push legislation to make it illegal to spend union funds for political purposes. They hope to dry up the treasuries of public sector unions by abolishing union dues check-off everywhere: "...no government at any level should act as the dues collector for unions."
As expected, the platform attacks unions and decent wages in the construction industry by demanding an end to project labor agreements and repeal of the Davis-Bacon Act. The Republicans also renew their attacks on the National Labor Relations Board, with the laughable charge that the NLRB is "a partisan advocate for Big Labor."
They endorse making it more difficult for private sector workers to organize. Not satisfied that they blocked passage of the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), the Republicans want to make it illegal for an employer to voluntarily recognize and begin bargaining with a union on the basis of majority support for the union verified by card check. Union recognition through card check, as a result of voluntary agreement between the company and the union, has been legal under federal law since the passage of the original National Labor Relations Act in 1935. The GOP would outlaw that by passing something they call "the Secret Ballot Protection Act."
BUSTING PRIVATE-SECTOR UNIONS
But what is most surprising about the GOP platform's labor plank is its plan for destroying private sector unions in existing bargaining units. Republican convention delegates endorsed states passing "Right to Work laws and encourage them to do so to promote greater economic liberty." (They mean the "liberty" to lose your union and work for lower wages.) The platform calls for "enactment of a National Right-to-Work law" that would instantly make every state a right-to-work state and make the U.S. a right-to-work country, where union members are encouraged to quit their unions, resulting in an even weaker labor movement.
But to magnify the union-busting impact of right-to-work legislation, the Republican National Convention also endorsed a little-known piece of legislation called "the Raise Act." Its full name is the "Rewarding Achievement and Incentivizing Successful Employees (RAISE) Act." The "Raise Act" would allow the employer in a unionized workplace to grant selective pay raises, above the negotiated wage rates and without union approval, to any individuals it chooses. Combined with a national "right-to-work" law that would do away with all union security clauses, the "Raise Act" would enable companies to bribe workers to quit the union by giving them an extra raise. And it's not hard to anticipate that bosses would grant even bigger raises to those workers who start a decertification petition to get rid of the union!
The "Raise Act" was introduced last spring by Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio, and promptly defeated by Senate Democrats. But if, on November 6, Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan are elected, the Republicans gain a majority in the Senate and keep their majority in the House of Representatives, we can expect quick passage of their national anti-union agenda, including a national right-to-work law and the "Raise Act." When and if that happens, employers across the country will seize the chance to gain their "freedom" from collective bargaining in the workplace, and the survival of private sector unions will be in grave danger.
Regardless of where you may stand on any other issue that divides Democrats from Republicans, this is an issue you need to seriously think about. Every member of UE, and every union member in the U.S. who cares about his or her union, needs to carefully consider the consequences of voting for candidates who are committed to destroying all unions and taking away our fundamental rights.
Below we reproduce the entire labor section of the Republican Platform, adopted at their National Convention in Tampa, August 27-30.
"Freedom in the Workplace" (Labor Section of the 2012 Republican National Platform)
The current Administration has chosen a different path with regard to labor, clinging to antiquated notions of confrontation and concentrating power in the Washington offices of union elites. It has strongly supported the anti-business card check legislation to deny workers a secret ballot in union organizing campaigns and, through the use of Project Labor Agreements, barred 80 percent of the construction workforce from competing for jobs in many stimulus projects. The current Administration has turned the National Labor Relations Board into a partisan advocate for Big Labor, using threats and coercion outside the law to attack businesses and, through "snap elections" and "micro unions," limit the rights of workers and employers alike.
We will restore the rule of law to labor law by blocking "card check," enacting the Secret Ballot Protection Act, enforcing the Hobbs Act against labor violence, and passing the Raise Act to allow all workers to receive well-earned raises without the approval of their union representative. We demand an end to the Project Labor Agreements; and we call for repeal of the Davis-Bacon Act, which costs the taxpayers billions of dollars annually in artificially high wages on government projects. We support the right of States to enact Right-to-Work laws and encourage them to do so to promote greater economic liberty. Ultimately, we support the enactment of a National Right-to-Work law to promote worker freedom and to promote greater economic liberty. We will aggressively enforce the recent decision by the Supreme Court barring the use of union dues for political purposes without the consent of the worker.
We salute the Republican Governors and State legislators who have saved their States from fiscal disaster by reforming their laws governing public employee unions. We urge elected officials across the country to follow their lead in order to avoid State and local defaults on their obligations and the collapse of services to the public. To safeguard the free choice of public employees, no government at any level should act as the dues collector for unions. A Republican President will protect the rights of conscience of public employees by proposing legislation to bar mandatory dues for political purposes.