Outrageous attack on workers’ rights
Imagine that one person had the power to unilaterally throw out your contract and its hard-won gains, and immediately cancel all union leaves. What if the union-management structure that had been in place for years in your worksite was suddenly and totally dismantled?
It is a shameful day in America when any worker is denied the fundamental right to join with co-workers to form a union and bargain for good wages, decent benefits and fair working conditions. It is particularly outrageous when a group of workers are denied these basic rights solely because they happen to be public employees.
But that’s what happened when three governors used a stroke of a pen to abolish collective-bargaining rights for state employees. In early 2005, Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels and Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt rescinded their states’ executive orders granting bargaining rights to highway workers, clerical employees, social workers, prison guards and tens of thousands of other hard-working employees who deliver the everyday services that citizens rely on for their community’s safety and quality of life. Gov. Ernie Fletcher of Kentucky took similar action last year.
Is it a coincidence that in these states three Democratic governors granted state employees collective-bargaining rights and three Republican governors abolished those rights? We don’t think so.
This is a stark reminder that what unions gain at the bargaining table can be taken away through the ballot box, and it is a powerful illustration of why the UAW through its Community Action Program (CAP) must be involved in political action.
The UAW represented state employees in Kentucky and Indiana. Bargaining for a first labor agreement was still under way when Fletcher’s action stopped negotiations in Kentucky. The Missouri state employees, whose bargaining rights were taken away by Blunt on his first day of office, are represented by unions other than the UAW.
However, UAW Local 9212 has represented 14,000 Indiana state employees for nearly 15 years.
Daniels ended that his second day in office. His actions are undemocratic, bad public policy and morally indefensible. Daniels and the other politicians have the power of their elected offices to enact their anti-union and anti-worker policies, but they will face the voters again.
Ron Gettelfinger
