Labor & Employment Law

Attacks on Workers Threaten Public Safety, Economy, Democratic Values

By James Parks

The initiatives by some governors and state legislators to dismantle workers? rights threatens our economy and the democratic values that built it, working people and experts told a congressional panel today.

In a hearing before the Democratic Steering and Policy Committee, workers from Wisconsin, Ohio and Indiana said it is clear that politicians in their states are intent on destroying the middle class.

Janice Bobholz, a deputy sheriff from Beaver Dam, Wis., said Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker has defied the labor laws and shown his true colors.     

He spent the first 30 days in office passing tax cuts in excess of 150 million dollars to big corporations. Then he blames the entire state?s economic problem on public servants. Clearly he has another agenda.

Tom Guyer, a parole officer from Wellington, Ohio, and a registered Republican who admits voting for Ohio Gov. John Kasich, said these attacks on workers jeopardize public safety.

Politicians in my home state of Ohio and many other states are making proposals for so-called “budget repairs” that are really a toolkit for not only shattering our fragile economic recovery, but for putting our public safety at risk, too.

?I certainly understand the need for government to get a handle on its finances, said Ryan Fagg, an electrician from Plainfield, Ind.

But being fiscally responsible does not mean that it has to come at the expense of standards that protect American workers and strengthen the U.S. construction industry.

Harley Shaiken, a professor of social and cultural studies at University of California, Berkeley, said the key to a broadly shared economic recovery is a strong and vital union movement.

We need to strengthen ? not weaken unions ? as America?s most important counterbalance to the corporate influence that led to financial deregulation, Wall Street scandal, and our current fiscal crisis

Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), co-chair of the Steering and Policy Committee, ended by saying the struggle for workers? rights will determine the character of the country.

I firmly believe that workers rights built our nation?s middle class in the last century and made the United States the greatest economic power in the history of the world. In these fights over workers? rights, our economic future is at stake. Indeed, the character of our country is at stake.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on March 08, 2011 (boomark / email).