UE Convention Resolutions
Labor Law Reform
The Bill of Rights has never been applied in the workplace, where employers are empowered to maintain near-absolute control. With our constitutional rights shredded by our employers, our modern day rights to organize into unions are also ignored by bosses. Our freedom to be protected from unreasonable searches and seizures ends at the gate or front door. Our freedoms of speech and assembly are virtually nonexistent while at work – unless you have a union.
The passage of the Wagner Act in 1935 was the closest that labor would get to a "bill of rights." This was immediately attacked by the employers through their legislatures and courts. The Wagner Act provided labor the right to organize, to bargain, and to strike without interference from the employer. For the first time employers were required to recognize and bargain with a union of the workers choice.
In response to the Wagner Act, Congress passed the Taft-Hartley Act in 1947. This restricted the ability of organized labor to organize and deal effectively with the problems that labor faced. The law took away the right of labor to challenge the employer with the use of secondary boycott, made closed shops illegal, allowed states to pass "Right to Work laws," allowed the President to interfere in strikes, and gave employers the ability to prevent workers from organizing.
The UE has been in the forefront of calling for reform of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). No significant progress has been made on the labor rights front in decades, and today employers brazenly violate the law and victimize working people who dare to challenge their complete control by attempting to unionize. In the public sector, many workers are prohibited from bargaining collectively and those who may bargain more often than not lack the right to strike. We are faced with a labor and human rights emergency here in the U.S.
The facts are shocking. Almost ten percent of workers who engage in organizing are fired by their employers, amounting to tens of thousands every year. Of those union drives that manage to navigate the minefield of employer lawbreaking, only half are won by working people. And of those lucky enough to win, only half will obtain a first union contract. The ranks of those reaching this nearly unattainable pinnacle are then cut in half once again, as only half of those unions winning first union contracts ever win second contracts. Since 1979, the percentage of unionized workers in the U.S. has declined from 24 percent to 12 percent and the percentage is now less than 8 percent in manufacturing.
The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), charged with protecting our rights, too often merely frustrates our ability to organize, bargain and strike. The Bush administration’s appointments to the NLRB have created a board that is the most anti-worker in history. In UE organizing campaigns and strikes over the past two years, the NLRB has allowed employers to appeal decisions that follow clear precedents, in order to stall union recognition, and has made rulings on clear unfair labor practice charges which effectively remove the right to strike.
Despite the magnitude of the labor rights crisis here in the U.S., and despite the fact that it remains the most pressing issue challenging the very existence of our multiple unions, the labor movement has been slow to address the problem. For many decades the AFL-CIO ignored this human rights debacle here at home and instead joined with our government all over the globe to promote the myth that American workers enjoyed perfect democracy.
In order to really safeguard workers, the right to associate - the right of working people to have the ability to say under what conditions they will or will not labor - must be enshrined in our understanding of U.S. citizenship. Labor laws must be grounded in the Constitution and specifically in the Bill of Rights. Workers whose rights were fully protected under the First Amendment would be free to assemble, speak and associate anywhere and at all times, to organize without employer intervention, bargain collectively, strike, boycott, or refuse to handle goods where workers are on strike or those that have been boycotted.
The Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) was passed by the House of Representatives in this Congress, but stalled in the Senate after Bush veto threats. This legislation provides for automatic recognition of a union when a majority of workers have signed union cards, replacing the existing broken and employer-corrupted "election" process. The bill also provides real penalties for bosses who break the law and fire or harass workers trying to join a union, as well as facilitating the negotiation of first union contracts on a rapid basis. It will almost certainly be revisited after the 2008 presidential election. Now is the time for a law that protects workers and grants all rights and freedoms under the Constitution. .
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED THAT THIS 70th UE CONVENTION:
- Calls on Congress to amend the constitution to include worker rights; and in the meantime to pass legislation giving workers the same constitutional rights to organize without restriction or limitation in the workplace that we enjoy outside the workplace, including substantial penalties for employers who violate these rights;
- Calls on Congress to support the Employee Free Choice Act (S.1041/H.R.800), despite the failure of Congress to pass this important legislation in this session;
- Urges all UE locals to share information with other unions about the labor rights emergency and the need for real labor law reform;
- Calls on our membership to engage in all forms of aggressive struggle including, where appropriate, civil disobedience in order to obtain workplace justice;
- Calls on Congress to repeal the Taft-Hartly act.