http://www.startribune.com/stories/1519/4068687.htmlPublished August 31, 2003
LOS ANGELES --
Here's a Labor Day question for all the budding law students out there. What federal right has inspired the creation of an entire industry dedicated to its destruction? Need a few clues? Congress enacted landmark legislation protecting this right almost 70 years ago, but that law is now routinely violated with virtual impunity. And the industry committed to undermining this right is worth hundreds of millions of dollars per year, yet operates practically unhindered by regulation.
The federal right in question is, of course, the right to choose a union, enshrined in law in 1935 when Congress passed the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). And the industry dedicated to undermining that law is the antiunion consultant industry.
The NLRA attempted to extend a degree of democracy to the American workplace by allowing workers to form unions free from employer interference. For the first few decades of its operation, the law functioned fairly well. Starting in the 1970s, however, American employers became much more aggressive in resisting workers' efforts to form unions. And an increasingly sophisticated army of consultants and lawyers that specialize exclusively in defeating workers' campaigns has helped them remain "union-free."<snip>
So why is it that something accepted as a routine aspect of everyday work life (workers forming unions) in virtually every other democratic country is so bitterly contested in the United States? Listen to how the consultants market their antiunion services to employers. They tell employers that an organizing campaign is a "declaration of war," and that when dealing with attempts by employees to form unions, "War is Hel . . . pful." Consultants promise to protect employers' "right" to operate union-free (no such right exists in law), assuring them that they will "defeat this attack on your company and send the union packing." And listen to one immigrant worker's description of what it's like to face a consultant campaign: "It was political terror . . . . I thought this was a democratic country. You {should be able} to exercise the right to organize -- successful or not."(more...)
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