Robert Reich: GOP war on workers' rights threatens middle class

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http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/06/26/INRJ1K0LIL.DTL


GOP war on workers' rights threatens middle class

Robert Reich, © 2011 Robert Reich


The battle has resumed in Wisconsin. The state Supreme Court has allowed Gov. Scott Walker to strip bargaining rights from state workers.

Meanwhile, legislators in New Hampshire and officials in Missouri are attacking private unions, seeking to make the states so-called "open shop," where workers can get all the benefits of being union members without paying union dues. Needless to say this ploy undermines the capacity of unions to do much of anything. Other Republican governors and legislatures are following suit.

Republicans in Congress are taking aim at the National Labor Relations Board, which is proposing relatively minor rules changes allowing workers to vote on whether to unionize soon after a union has been proposed, rather than allowing employers to delay the vote for years. Many employers have used the delaying tactics to retaliate against workers who try to organize, and intimidate others into rejecting a union.

This war on workers' rights is an assault on the middle class, and it is undermining the American economy.

The American economy can't get out of neutral until American workers have more money in their pockets to buy what they produce. And unions are the best way to give them the bargaining power to get better pay.

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The only way back toward sustained growth and prosperity in the United States is to remake the basic bargain linking pay to productivity. This would give the American middle class the purchasing power they need to keep the economy going.

Part of the answer is, as in Germany, stronger labor unions - unions strong enough to demand a fair share of the gains from productivity growth.

The current Republican assault on workers' rights continues a 30-year war on American workers' wages. That long-term war has finally taken its toll on the American economy.

It's time to fight back.