The 2014 national elections produced a platform for the anti-labor forces to pursue their Right-to-Work-For-Less agenda in several key states. Republicans in New Mexico have already said that they’re pushing for Right-to-Work-For-Less in 2015, and Wisconsin and Ohio are still in the cross-hairs for the worker-crippling legislation as well. Colorado, Missouri, and New Hampshire are rumored to be among the states that ALEC and the Right-to-Work-For-Less minions are focusing on. Pennsylvania has also been hit pretty hard by the Right-to-Work-For-Less push, but with right-winger Corbett losing the governor’s seat Pennsylvania will get a brief reprieve. What you’ll notice about the current battlegrounds is that a lot of the states being talked about are strong labor states and had formerly been at the heart of manufacturing in the U.S.
Thinking strategically, it makes sense for ALEC and the Right-to-Work-For-Less Committee (and their legal arm, the Right-to-Work-For-Less Legal Defense Fund) to target states that have the strongest labor support and the best conditions for workers. If Right-to-Work-For-Less gains ground in one of those key states (as it did in 2012 for Michigan and Indiana), it strikes a mighty blow to the power that workers have to make positive changes in their workplaces. A win in a strong union state also strikes a blow to the morale of progressives who fight day in and day out to keep the rights for which so many have fought.
So how does Right-to-Work-For-Less and similar legislation that attack workers’ rights gain ground among working Americans? First and foremost, ALEC is a think-tank funded by billionaires and international corporations. Billionaires and international corporations stand to gain a lot of money by cutting workers’ wages, benefits, and voice for positive change. This means that the richest in our country funnel hundreds of millions of dollars into ALEC, which pays really smart people to come up with very sneaky ways to pull one over on the working class. An easy-to-grasp example of this sneakiness is the branding of Right-to-Work-For-Less. The phrase “Right to Work” brings about connotations of positive working conditions, workers having a free voice, and other bold-faced lies. Once ALEC convinces working people that they should favor right-to-work-for-less, it becomes a lot easier to bribe (make campaign contributions) politicians to introduce and support anti-worker legislation like Right-to-Work-For-Less.
As all good activists know, the most sure-fire way to change a regime is to gradually wear it down and introduce small changes. As Bob likes to say, how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. Small changes add up over time to a massive erosion of the working class. After a few decades of small changes adding up, working people look around and have no idea what happened to get them to this new point. The richest of the rich have waged a multi-decade war against working people one small increment at a time. The end result is that by 2015 several states that were union strongholds are now leaning toward Right-to-Work-For-Less. Of course, working people have diminished rights, their earning power has fallen drastically, and all of this while the stock market has been doing quite well and big business has continued to thrive.
What we know now is that many of the rights that organized labor won over the years are not guaranteed to us. Unless we are willing to stand up for each other and demand more for the working class we will continue to see our way of life pass before our eyes.
The scariest new tactic that Right-to-Work-For-Less proponents are attempting to use is to turn Right-to-Work-For-Less laws onto cities and counties. All of us need to get educated on this new attempt, reach out to our legislators and friends locally, and make sure that we band together to halt this new attack in its tracks. For more information on the new local Right-to-Work-For-Less strategy, check out Moshe Marvit’s article in the Nation.
Until next time,
Amanda
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