How do we solve the "Fear" factor for workers?

I often heard the same refrain when I headed the U.S. Department of Labor. When we sought to impose a large fine on the Bridgestone-Firestone Tire Company for flagrantly disregarding workplace safety rules and causing workers at one of its plants in Oklahoma to be maimed and killed, for example, the community was solidly behind us - that is, until Bridgestone-Firestone threatened to close the plant if we didn't back down.

The threat was enough to ignite a storm of opposition to the proposed penalty from the very workers and families we were trying to protect. (We didn't back down and Bridgestone-Firestone didn't carry out its threat, but the political fallout was intense.)


http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/274-41/21528-fear-is-why-workers-in-red-states-vote-against-their-economic-self-interest

(Saw this a bit late, but playing catch-up to many RSN stories since being off-line. But still revelant).