The article below was re-posted in its entirety because it was no longer archived. It defined the failed policies Washington is now pursuing that have brought us Casino Capitalism and the global economic crisis that continues and threatens --
Tinker Bell Pinochet and the Fairy Tale Miracle of Chile
The Anti-Union movement, supported and promoted by the Republican Party threatens to drive down wages and create a Banana Republic. Is this really where we want to be?
Collective bargaining rights are under
attack - again
http://www.ble.org/pr/news/newsflash.asp?id=5292
CLEVELAND,
June 21 - An anti-union bill currently making its way through
Congress seeks
to undermine the rights of workers to bargain collectively
under the guise
of higher wages.
The cynically-named Rewarding Achievement and
Incentivizing Successful
Employees Act, or RAISE Act, would amend Section
9(a) of the National
Labor Relations Act (NLRA) to allow employers to ignore
what they agree to
in collective bargaining agreements. Introduced by
Senator Marco Rubio
(R-FL) as S. 3221, the bill would take away employees'
rights to negotiate
contracts that create a uniform, fair process for
granting wage increases.
The dubious logic behind the bill is that employers
are benevolent and
generous supporters of their workers, and should be
allowed the freedom to
reward favored employees with higher raises. In
reality, the legislation
would give employers the ability to discriminate
against employees by
arbitrarily showing favoritism to one worker over
another.
This legislation undermines the fairness that collective
bargaining
agreements bring to the workplace, opening the door to favoritism
or
discrimination based on race or gender.
In a letter to all members
of the Senate, Teamsters General President
James P. Hoffa wrote: "Make no
mistake. The goal and purpose of this
legislation is to end collective
bargaining.. Nothing in the bill ties pay
or benefit improvements in any way
to individual achievement or success.
The RAISE Act does nothing to
guarantee an improvement of pay or benefits
for workers. Rather it
eliminates current built-in protections against
favoritism and arbitrary
action by companies. The RAISE is a green light
for employers to violate
contracts and ignore agreed upon wages and
benefits for any reason. It is a
ploy to divide workers.
"Let me be clear. This bill is not about giving
American workers a raise.
The RAISE Act should be recognized for what it is
- another in a long line
of devices, thinly veiled and sophisticated, to pit
workers against each
other, to weaken unions, and to destroy collective
bargaining."
BLET National President Dennis R. Pierce blasted the
proposal. "This is
just the latest act of aggression in the War on Workers
and the unions
that represent them, and it is shameful that it comes from a
man openly
running to be his party's nominee for the Vice Presidency of the
United
States," Pierce said. "While S. 3221 in its current form would not
apply
to railroad workers, who are not subject to the NRLA, it would require
only an amendment to expose BLET members to the bill's 'bosses' pet'
provision."
General President Hoffa's letter can be
read/downloaded/printed from the
following link:
http://www.ble-t.org/pr/pdf/Hoffa_RAISE_Act.pdf