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from Dave Zirin at The Nation: http://www.thenation.com/blog/171665/its-not-just-anti-union-its-anti-worker-nflpa-and-mlbpa-join-fight-against-michigan-righ
'It's Not Just Anti-Union. It's Anti-Worker.' NFLPA and MLBPA Join Fight Against Michigan Right-to-Work
Michigan, the cradle of the union movement in the United States, is poised to join the ranks of so-called right-to-work states. The Koch Brothers meat puppet Governor Rick Snyder says that this attack on the political power of unions would be a victory for freedom. Unless hes talking about the freedom to gut the wages of Michigans workers, hes not telling the truth. The bill Snyder poised to sign this week is about restricting the freedom of working people to organize. It even blocks the freedom to challenge the bill in a referendum. This is an outrage and the unions are fighting back. Amongst their ranks are the Major League Baseball Players Association and the National Football League Players Association. This might shock some people. Sports unions are often criticized, incorrectly, for not caring about issues off the field. Its a piece of conventional wisdom that stretches back to the first chief of the AFL-CIO George Meany who said, I have no use for ballplayers as union men. Youd never see the day when one of those high-priced bozos would honor a picket line.
I spoke with DeMaurice Smith, executive director of the NFLPA, about his thoughts on the right-to-work issue in January when Indiana became the first Rust Belt state to pass their own version of the bill. He said, When you look at proposed legislation [called] right-to-work lets just put the hammer on the nail. Its untrue. If [you want] right-to-work have a constitutional amendment that guarantees every citizen a job, thats a right-to-work. What this is instead is a right to ensure that ordinary working citizens cant get together as a team, cant organize, cant stand together and cant fight management on an even playing field. From a sports union, our union, our men and their families understand the power of management and understand how much power management can wield over an individual person. So dont call it a right to work. If you want to have an intelligent discussion about what the bill is, call it what it is. Call it an anti-organizing bill. Fine. If thats what the people want to do in order to put a bill out there, lets cast a vote on whether or not ordinary workers can get together and represent themselves, and lets have a real referendum.
I also asked, DeMaurice Smith how he responded to people who say that this is just unions standing up for other unions with no care for workers. His answer stands as a terrifically important response to those standing with Snyder and the Koch brothers on this issue.
Smith answered, I used to say that we have forgotten a lot of the lessons from organized labor over the last 100 years, but Im now convinced that we never learned them. Whether your talking about fire escapes outside of buildings or sprinkler systems inside of buildings, fair wages for a days work, laws that prevent child labor, things that led to the abolishing of sweatshops in America, let alone management contributing to healthcare plans or a decent pension.
all those things over the last 100 years were not gifts from management. Someone in a corporate suite didnt decide one day that they would bestow that wonderful right upon a working person. The way those rights were achieved was through the collective will of a group of workers who stood together and said, This is what we believe is fair, and we are all going to stand together and demand that those things be provided to us. Well do it as a collective group. You may be able to pick off one of us or two of us or five of us, but you will not be able to pick off all of us. When you look at legislation that is designed to tear apart that ability to work as a team
that is not just anti-union. That is antiworking man and woman, and thats why we weighed in.
read more: http://www.thenation.com/blog/171665/its-not-just-anti-union-its-anti-worker-nflpa-and-mlbpa-join-fight-against-michigan-righ
- member 30 years
Solidarity.
lastlib
(23,239 posts)...by the First Amendment. Therefore these "Right to work"--for less; really anti-organizing laws--are a violation of the First Amendment. They need to be struck down by the courts as such.
UNION YES!!
I stand with America's working men and women!!!
Blanks
(4,835 posts)There is a certain group of people who are easily manipulated by these 'buzz words'.
If you ever want to make any progress against these 'movements'; you'll have to expose the fact that they use these tricks to make people believe they are fighting for rights and freedoms. So that these 'tea party types' will recognize such things as a way to manipulate them into fighting against their own best interests.