Laura Chapman, a retired educator and frequent contributor to the blog, posted this analysis of anti-union legislation across the nation. Unions helped to create the middle class in the United States.
I know that followers of this blog have mixed feelings about teacher unions. But here are some red-flags to think about.
The campaign to keep public employees from collective bargaining about working conditions, pay, and due-process rights is expanding. The method: Right to Work laws.
Currently, 26 states and Guam have Right to Work laws. The laws guarantee that no worker can be compelled, as a condition of employment, to join or not to join a labor union or pay unions dues. Although labor unions still operate in these 26 Right to Work states, the ability of workers to organize and negotiate with employers is compromised by the laws.
The new top down approach to killing unions:
In 2015, Republicans in the 114th Congress introduced bills to establish a federal Right to Work law. If passed, this legislation would be a giant leap forward in dismantling unions in all states. For the present, the proposed House bill (HR 612) and Senate bill (S-391) are stalled in committees. Both are framed around model legislation offered by the National Right to Work Committee and the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).
For readers who are uninformed, ALEC is devoted to limited government, free markets, and federalism. It provides corporate-friendly model legislation to elected state officials. ALEC is one reason why the same basic legislation seems to pop up in multiple states at about the same time. ALEC’s model Right to Work law for state legislators is not different from the proposed federal version.
But, there is a new union-busting kid on the block, working from the bottom up.
Unlike ALEC’s focus on state policies, ALEC’s new baby, the “American City County Exchange” produces model ordinances for local self-governing jurisdictions such as a county, city, town, village, borough, parish, or district. When an ordinance is passed and included in a larger set of laws, it may be called a “chapter.”
Members of the ACCE are pushing their preferred ordinances/chapters into local government, but without seeming to be heavy-handed.
Here is part of the ACCE pitch to local elected officials: “As municipal leaders, you make daily decisions that directly impact your neighborhood roads, schools and property taxes. (Note that schools are mentioned).
How much more effective could you be if you had access to ground-breaking research and the nation’s top industry experts, or if you could share ideas and experiences with your counterparts from around the country so you can learn what works without repeating others’ mistakes?”…
“Members of the American City County Exchange receive academic research and analysis from policy experts who work with issues, processes and problem-solving strategies upon which municipal officials vote. Provided with important policy education, lawmakers become more informed and better equipped to serve the needs of their communities. Join us today.”
ACCE has tiers of membership. Elected officials pay a small fee to join and receive propaganda and perks. In 2014, the fee was only $100 for a two-year membership. Membership gives them reduced rates for conferences, free publications from ALEC, and ready-to-use model ordinances/chapters that comport with ALEC’s market-based view of all things wonderful.
In contrast, corporations pay $7,000 to $25,000 for ACCE membership. This gives them a seat at the local governance table, where they propagate their talking points, white papers, and ”expert” opinions, and ready-made ordinances to the wined and dined elected officials. Higher fees give corporations a role in making decisions about which model legislation to push.
Here is a lightly edited version of the American City County Exchange’s “Local Right to Work Ordinance,” with a few notes I have added in parentheses.
Summary: No employee need join or pay dues to a union, or refrain from joining a union, as a condition of employment. The ordinance establishes penalties and remedies for violations of the ordinance’s provisions.
Model Policy:
Section 1. This ordinance may be cited as the Local Right to Work Ordinance.
Section 2. It is hereby declared to be the public policy of the (Insert City or County), in order to maximize individual freedom of choice in the pursuit of employment and to encourage an employment climate conducive to economic growth, that the right to work shall not be subject to undue restraint or coercion. The right to work shall not be infringed or restricted in any way based on membership in, affiliation with, or financial support of a labor organization.
Section 3. The term “labor organization” means any organization of any kind, or agency or employee representation committee or union, that exists for the purpose, in whole or in part, of dealing with employers concerning wages, rates of pay, hours of work, other conditions of employment, or other forms of compensation.
Section 4. No person shall be required, as a condition of employment or continuation of employment:
(A) to become or remain a member of a labor organization;
(B) to pay any dues, fees, assessments, or other charges of any kind or amount to a labor organization;
(C) to pay to any third party any pro-rata portion of dues or charges regularly required of members of a labor organization; or
(D) to be recommended, approved, referred, or cleared by or through a labor organization.
Section 5. It shall be unlawful to deduct from the compensation of an employee any union dues, or other charges to be paid over to a labor organization, UNLESS the employee has first presented, and the employer has received, a signed written authorization of such deductions, which authorization may be REVOKED by the employee AT ANY TIME by giving written notice of such revocation to the employer. (Nothing requires the employer, or the worker opting out of dues, to notify the union’s financial officer. This is an easy path to destabilize union financing and financial records).
Section 6. Any agreement, written or oral, implied or expressed, between any labor organization and employer that violates the rights of employees as guaranteed by this chapter is hereby declared to be unlawful, null and void. Any strike, picketing, boycott, or other action by a labor organization for the sole purpose of inducing or attempting to induce an employer to enter into any agreement prohibited under this chapter is hereby declared to be for an illegal purpose and is a violation of the provisions of this chapter. (Union members who protest this ordinance are automatically judged “unlawful.” Free speech and freedom of assembly are steamrolled.).
Section 7. It shall be unlawful for any person
—to compel or attempt to compel an employee or prospective employee to join, affiliate with, or financially support a labor organization or to refrain from doing so.
—to cause or attempt to cause an employee to be denied employment or discharged from employment because of support or nonsupport of a labor organization,
—to induce or attempt to induce any other person to refuse to work with such employees.
—to intimidate or threaten to intimidate an employee’s or prospective employee’s parents, spouse, children, grand-children, or any other persons residing in the employee’s or prospective employee’s home,
—to damage or threatened damage to an employee’s or prospective employee’s property.
(The ordinance is framed as if hostile acts, threats, and intimidation could only come from workers or prospective workers, never from employers).
Section 8. Any person who directly or indirectly violates any provision of this chapter shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof shall be subject to a fine not exceeding (insert amount) or imprisonment for a period of not more than (insert time period), or both such fine and imprisonment. (Unlike most state Right to Work laws, this local version criminalizes violations. The model ordinance does not stipulate the severity of misdemeanor. Typical misdemeanor classifications are: Class 1 or A, fines of up to $5,000, and/or a jail sentence of up to 12 months; Class 2 or B, fines up to $1,000, and/or a jail sentence of 6-9 months; Class 3 or C, fines up to $1,000 and/or a jail sentence of up to 3 months; Class 4 or D, fines up to $500 and/or a jail sentence of up to 30 days. ).
Section 9. Any employee harmed as a result of any violation or threatened violation of the provisions of this chapter shall be entitled to injunctive relief against any and all violators or persons threatening violations and may in addition recover any and all damages, including costs and reasonable attorney fees, resulting from such violation or threatened violation. Such remedies shall be independent of and in addition to the penalties and remedies prescribed in other provisions of this chapter. (I think that Section 9, in itself, is an act of intimidation: Comply or else).
Section 10. It shall be the duty of the prosecuting attorneys of each county to investigate complaints of violation or threatened violations of this chapter and to prosecute all persons violating any of its provisions, and to take all means at their command to ensure its effective enforcement.
Section 11. The provisions of this chapter shall apply to all contracts entered into after the effective date of this chapter and shall apply to any renewal or extension of any existing contract.
Section 12. An emergency existing therefore, which emergency is hereby declared to exist, this ordinance shall be in full force and effect on and after its passage and approval.
(Section 12 is a real kicker. Typically, an “emergency ordinance” can be passed without formal reading or publication prior to passage and by a simple call for the yeas and nays, recorded in the minutes of the meeting. It is effective immediately upon passage and approval by the county judge. In other words, the ordinance can be on the books before there is any opportunity for questions, objections, or negotiation. The language is the ordinance is carefully crafted for rapid and low visibility action before opposition to it can be organized.)
Section 13. {Severability clause.} Section 14. {Repealer clause.} Section 15. {Effective date.} Approved by the ALEC Board of Directors January 9, 2015. https://www.alec.org/model-policy/local-right-work-ordinance/
For activists who want to protest the 3rd ACCE Annual Meeting in Indianapolis, the dates are July 27 – July 29. In the past some major speakers have been Governor Scott Walker, Dr. Ben Carson, and U.S. Senator Ted Cruz.
See also http://www.prwatch.org/news/2015/02/12738/acce-city-subsidize-alec-style-corporate-lobbying
Unapprove | Reply | Quick Edit | Edit | History | Spam | Trash
I find it interesting how people have been fooled to think labor unions are the enemy when those unions represent the interested of millions of working Americans versus a handful of CEOs and billionaires on the other side that want to do away with unions so they don’t have to deal with the interests of their workers anymore.
Without support from the workign fools that fell for this propaganda and lies, they few funding this war on labor unions wouldn’t stand a chance to win.
It’s painfully obvious what the anti-unionists want. They want a return to the era of the Robber Barons of the industrial age where 40% of Americans lived in poverty and owed their souls to the company store and too many of the children of these desperate workers were often sold into a form of slavery to work for slave wages in factories, coal mines and even whore houses as young as 7.
I come to the education debate not as a teacher but as a member of the Trade Union movement. The Exxon PISA commercials reminded me of the assault on America’s construction trades orchestrated in the 1970s by the newly formed Business Round Table. Make no mistake Rex Tillerson and the Round Table have no concern for American children. If they have to grow gills they “will adapt “to the disaster of climate change he is creating . Alice Walton and family, a fine example of America’s billionaire philanthropists, the largest employer in America could stop paying her employees poverty level wages and allow unions to organize her employees . Instead I have to subsidize her wealth by my tax dollars providing food stamps for a large portion of her employees. Alice Walton does not care a hoot about America’s children . Bill Gates and the the other Tech billionaires who have outsource production and research to cheaper labor markets while bemoaning the decline of American students in computer sciences ,who cry of a fictional STEM shortage to import foreign labor on H1b’s so as to hold wages down ,does not care about Americas children.
The vulture capitalists and Hedge fund crew who have done so much to destroy the corporate structure of America in the early 70’s that used to place workers into the equation. With 50% of profits going into R&D , Capital Investment and increased worker wages and benefits ,that figure today is 8% . They do not care about America’s children.
And as for 40% poverty rate ,we are in reality already there.
http://www.alternet.org/economy/real-numbers-half-america-poverty-and-its-creeping-upward
Most simply put, make America “great” again…for the 1%.
There is an all out war against unions in this country. Reagan really (re)initiated the (new) war on unions and it has been ongoing for more than 30 years. They want to reduce workers to obedient serfs who will not dare to even challenge their “betters.” In the 1950s, the unionization range was about 30% to 35%. Now the unionization rate is 11.2% and falling all the time because of the anti-unionism of the GOP. The Democrats pay lip service to unions but don’t back up their words with actions. The unionization rate in Finland is above 69%, in Iceland it is an amazing 86%, Canada’s is 26%+.
When a Democratic President and Democratic Governors are front and center in this assault on the lowly teacher, as if Mrs Luca (my first grade teacher in 1957) is responsible for poverty in America. It is time for that party to change or be dissolved . The Republicans would be easy to defeat if Americans had a progressive alternative .
I have no illusions about the “good intentions” of corporations and their associated wealthy surrogates, but I also have seen the underbelly of unions. Too many union activists end up like mini-me clones for their corporate overlords. That being said unions are essential as a voice for workers even though it is distorted on too many occasions. We all know that a worker has no power without a collective voice.
Being in one of the most powerful yet autocratic local unions in America, which fortunately serves as a benevolent dictatorship.
I like to say the members get the leadership they deserve and the leaders get the membership it deserves.
The CTA will have to become the new model of Unions for the fight ahead. That I have to battle countless Union members on Trump is not just a failure of Clinton but the failure of top down Unionism.
Through the corporate-owned major media today, a real hatchet job has been on unions, convincing many people that unions were the cause of America’s manufacturing industries decline instead of the real culprit, which was and remains Wall Street greed for ever-greater stock dividend payouts that killed capital investment in modern factories and equipment needed to keep America competitive. Moreover, today’s corporate and political opposition to workers’ First Amendment right of Free Association in unions is not only unconstitutional, it also is against the teachings and official positions of mainstream Christian and Jewish churches and organizations that have taken strong official stances in support of workers’ rights to incorporate in unions and to conduct collective bargaining, as shown in the following official church statements and position papers:
CATHOLIC CHURCH — UNITED STATES CONFERENCE OF CATHOLIC BISHOPS, Pastoral Letter “Economic Justice for All,” 1986: “The [Catholic] Church fully supports the right of workers to form unions or other associations to secure their rights to fair wages and working conditions. This is a specific application of the more general right to associate [this makes unionizing a constitutional right under the First Amendment right of freedom to form associations]. No one may deny the right to organize without attacking human dignity itself. Therefore, we firmly oppose organized efforts — such as those regrettably seen in this country — to break existing unions or prevent workers from organizing.”
POPE BENEDICT XVI, “Caritas in Veritate,” 2009: “Governments, for reasons of economic utility, often limit the freedom or the negotiating capacity of labor unions. The repeated calls issued within the Church’s social doctrine, beginning with Rerum Novarum, for the promotion of workers’ associations that can defend their rights must therefore be honored today even more than in the past.”
AMERICAN BAPTIST CHURCHES in the U.S.A. Resolution, 1981: “We reaffirm our position that workers have the right to organize by a free and democratic vote of the workers involved.”
CENTRAL CONFERENCE OF AMERICAN RABBIS, Preamble to the Workplace Fairness Resolution, adopted at the 104th Annual Convention, June 1993: “Jewish leaders, along with our Catholic and Protestant counterparts, have always supported the labor movement and the rights of employees to form unions for the purpose of engaging in collective bargaining and attaining fairness in the workplace. We believe that the permanent replacement of striking workers upsets the balance of power needed for collective bargaining, destroys the dignity of working people and undermines the democratic values of this nation.”
DISCIPLES OF CHRIST, Resolution on the Church and Labor, 1938: “We believe in the right of laboring men to organize for protection against unjust conditions and to secure a more adequate share of the fruits of the toil.”
CHRISTIAN METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH Discipline doctrine, adopted 1982: “Free collective bargaining has proved its value in our free society whenever the parties engaged in collective bargaining have acted in good faith to reach equitable and moral solutions of problems dealing with wages and working conditions.”
EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CHURCH IN AMERICA, Resolution adopted at Churchwide Assembly, 1991: “The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America commits itself to advocacy with corporations, businesses, congregations and church-related institutions to protect the rights of workers, support the collective bargaining process, and protect the right to strike.”
PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH U.S.A, “Principles of Vocation and Work,” adopted at General Assembly, 1995: “Justice demands that social institutions guarantee all persons the opportunity to participate actively in economic decision making that affects them. All workers — including undocumented, migrant and farm workers — have the right to choose to organize for the purposes of collective bargaining.”
UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST ASSOCIATION OF CONGREGATIONS, adopted at General Assembly, 1997: “The Unitarian Universalist Association urges its member congregations and individual Unitarian Universalists in the United States… to work specifically in favor of mechanisms such as: reform of labor legislation and employment standards to provide greater protection for workers, including the right to organize and bargain collectively, protection from unsafe working conditions and protections from unjust dismissal.”
UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST, “Resolution Affirming Democratic Principles in an Emerging Global Economy,” adopted at 21st General Synod, 1997: “The 21st General Synod reaffirms the heritage of the United Church of Christ as an advocate for democratic, participatory and inclusive economic policies in both public and private sectors, including … the responsibility of workers to organize unions for collective bargaining with employers regarding wages, benefits and working conditions, and to participate in efforts further to democratize, reform and expand the labor movement domestically and abroad.”
——————————————
EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CHURCH IN AMERICA, Resolution adopted at Churchwide Assembly, 1991: “The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America commits itself to advocacy with corporations, businesses, congregations and church-related institutions to protect the rights of workers, support the collective bargaining process, and protect the right to strike.”
UNITED STATES CONFERENCE OF CATHOLIC BISHOPS, Pastoral Letter “Economic Justice for All,” 1986: “The [Catholic] Church fully supports the right of workers to form unions or other associations to secure their rights to fair wages and working conditions. This is a specific application of the more general right to associate [this makes unionizing a constitutional right under the First Amendment right of freedom to form associations]. No one may deny the right to organize without attacking human dignity itself. Therefore, we firmly oppose organized efforts — such as those regrettably seen in this country — to break existing unions or prevent workers from organizing.”
POPE BENEDICT XVI, “Caritas in Veritate,” 2009: “Governments, for reasons of economic utility, often limit the freedom or the negotiating capacity of labor unions. The repeated calls issued within the Church’s social doctrine, beginning with Rerum Novarum, for the promotion of workers’ associations that can defend their rights must therefore be honored today even more than in the past.”
CENTRAL CONFERENCE OF AMERICAN RABBIS, Preamble to the Workplace Fairness Resolution, adopted at the 104th Annual Convention, June 1993: “Jewish leaders, along with our Catholic and Protestant counterparts, have always supported the labor movement and the rights of employees to form unions for the purpose of engaging in collective bargaining and attaining fairness in the workplace. We believe that the permanent replacement of striking workers upsets the balance of power needed for collective bargaining, destroys the dignity of working people and undermines the democratic values of this nation.”
PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH U.S.A, “Principles of Vocation and Work,” adopted at General Assembly, 1995: “Justice demands that social institutions guarantee all persons the opportunity to participate actively in economic decision making that affects them. All workers — including undocumented, migrant and farm workers — have the right to choose to organize for the purposes of collective bargaining.”
DISCIPLES OF CHRIST, Resolution on the Church and Labor, 1938: “We believe in the right of laboring men to organize for protection against unjust conditions and to secure a more adequate share of the fruits of the toil.”
UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST, “Resolution Affirming Democratic Principles in an Emerging Global Economy,” adopted at 21st General Synod, 1997: “The 21st General Synod reaffirms the heritage of the United Church of Christ as an advocate for democratic, participatory and inclusive economic policies in both public and private sectors, including … the responsibility of workers to organize unions for collective bargaining with employers regarding wages, benefits and working conditions, and to participate in efforts further to democratize, reform and expand the labor movement domestically and abroad.”
When they start excommunicating parishioners for union busting give me a call.
I remember being on a picket line in support of teachers at Christ of King HS which had just left the Brooklyn Diocese in 1981+ – The Board of directors was headed by Stephan Maltese head of NYs conservative party . A papal smack down didn’t happen . Not even a public rebuke from the Cardinal. Of course they did bless the workers at the Labor day parade .
Laura, as always your research is amazing, both in its breadth and its detail. Thank you.
It was noted in the OP that some followers here are against teachers’ unions, but it’s not what I’ve seen. As we see in comments above, unions are at worst a necessary evil – even if they do bad things, things would be a lot worse without them – are a lot worse without them.
I have many problems with teachers’ unions (not in principle, in practice only), and particularly with teacher education. But what the testing maniacs are trying to do is many times worse.
With a total dickhead running on the elephant ticket in the US election, there is a possibility of a sea change in state legislators. Soon might be the time to ban contracting out of ‘educational services’ to corporations. Do it for America.
I thank Ms. Chapman and others for their efforts to resist privatization of education.