Assault on Collective Bargaining Illegal, Says International Labor Rights Group

[There Is No Spoon]

Assault on Collective Bargaining Illegal, Says International Labor Rights Group

Sunday 13 March 2011

by: Jeanne Mirer and Marjorie Cohn, t r u t h o u t | News Analysis

The International Commission for Labor Rights (ICLR) sent a notice to the Wisconsin Legislature, explaining that its attempt to strip collective bargaining rights from public workers is illegal.

Anyone who has watched the events unfolding in Wisconsin and other states that are trying to remove collective bargaining rights from public workers has heard people protesting the loss of their "rights." (For more on the record turnout, see this story.) The ICLR explained to the legislature exactly what these rights are and why trying to take them away is illegal.

...

In 1935, when Congress passed the National Labor Relations Act (also known as the NLRA, or the Wagner Act), it recognized the direct relationship between the inequality of bargaining power of workers and corporations and the recurrent business depressions. That is, by depressing wage rates and the purchasing power of wage earners, the economy fell into depression. The law therefore recognized as policy of the United States the encouragement of collective bargaining.

While the NLRA covered US employees in private employment, the law protecting collective bargaining in both the public and private sectors has developed since 1935 to cover all workers "without distinction."

The opening paragraph of the ICLR statement reads:

Quote: As workers in the thousands and hundreds of thousands in Wisconsin, Indiana and Ohio and around the country demonstrate to protect the right of public sector workers to collective bargaining, the political battle has overshadowed any reference to the legal rights to collective bargaining. The political battle to prevent the loss of collective bargaining is reinforced by the fact that stripping any collective bargaining rights is blatantly illegal. Courts and agencies around the world have uniformly held the right of collective bargaining in the public sector is an essential element of the right of Freedom of Association, which is a fundamental right under both International law and the United States Constitution.

Read more: http://www.truth-out.org/assault-collect...group68423

____________________________

[Joan Ruaiz]

The sad thing is, it appears that Republicans can always do what they want, and the media will help make the uninform understand it the way the GOP wants it understood.

[There Is No Spoon]

(03-13-2011 06:02 PM)Joan Ruaiz Wrote:  The sad thing is, it appears that Republicans can always do what they want, and the media will help make the uninform understand it the way the GOP wants it understood.

Let's hope the judges say "spin this!"

[Cha]

(03-13-2011 06:02 PM)Joan Ruaiz Wrote:  The sad thing is, it appears that Republicans can always do what they want, and the media will help make the uninform understand it the way the GOP wants it understood.

Exactly out of their playbook. Blame those under attack. Make sure it's the fault of the victim. "What?! Anything the fault of the vicious billionaires destroying workers right?! Not a chance."

Who are you going to believe..fox news or the salient facts? fox news!

[Velleity]

(03-13-2011 06:02 PM)Joan Ruaiz Wrote:  The sad thing is, it appears that Republicans can always do what they want, and the media will help make the uninform understand it the way the GOP wants it understood.

It's all political and, as we know, judges are politicians too. In theory they are beyond politics, but the reality falls a little short.

[Cha]

This is great news! The greedy repubs were so busy looking for loopholes they forgot to check the LAW.

[Sheepshank]

I learned something new today...somthing that probably most of you knew. In order to take a vote on collective bargaining in WI, the Senate had to take out all things fiscal. I did not know this.

But to extrapolate further, the bill as it stands has no reference to the imaginary balancing of a budget. I wonder if removing all ruse of it being budget related is what pushed it into the realm of constitutional issues related to the right of association?

Is there someone, some entity that is going to champion the illegality of this in court?

[Velleity]

(03-13-2011 09:01 PM)Sheepshank Wrote:  I learned something new today...somthing that probably most of you knew. In order to take a vote on collective bargaining in WI, the Senate had to take out all things fiscal. I did not know this.

But to extrapolate further, the bill as it stands has no reference to the imaginary balancing of a budget. I wonder if removing all ruse of it being budget related is what pushed it into the realm of constitutional issues related to the right of association?

Is there someone, some entity that is going to champion the illegality of this in court?

I understand that the Democratic Party has taken this up. I would assume that their complaint goes beyond the notice requirements.

[NJMaverick]

The key will be to start challenging these laws in the court systems.