State Battles Update

By Cathy Sherwin, Midwest AFL-CIO Communications

So far this year, similar bills have been filed in statehouses across the country aimed at limiting workers’ voices and unions, restricting access to voting and privatizing public services. The timing and similarities of these bills aren't any coincidence at all—the legislation is based on model bills written by extremist special interest groups like the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and the National Right to Work Foundation.

The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is a corporate-funded conservative association that develops draft legislation and policy recommendations to state legislators and businesses. More than 98 percent of ALEC's revenues come from sources other than legislative dues, such as corporations, corporate trade groups and corporate foundations, including the Koch family’s Charles G. Koch Foundation, the Koch-managed Claude R. Lambe Foundation, the Scaife family’s Allegheny Foundation and the Coors’ family Castle Rock Foundation. On each of the nine ALEC task forces, corporations sit on the committees and vote with legislators to approve "model" bills, then conservative legislators take the bills home to file in their state capitols. Source: ALECexposed.org

The National Right to Work Foundation was formed in 1955 after a failed effort to enact a national law aimed at weakening unions, to focus on pushing so-called "right to work" laws in individual states. The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. gave what is perhaps the best description of the purpose of these laws:

‘right to work’…provides no ‘rights’ and no ‘works.’ …Its purpose is to destroy labor unions and the freedom of collective bargaining…”

These laws are all about politics, not economics. These laws attempt to undermine collective bargaining rights by requiring unions devote resources to nonunion members, in the hopes that it will prove too expensive for unions to function.

Source: American Rights at Work, “The Anti-Union Network”

Despite overwhelming public opposition, a "Right to Work" law was rammed through in Indiana in early February and signed into law by Governor Mitch Daniels. Politicians in New Hampshire are again pushing a so-called "Right to Work" bill, identical to the one defeated in the state last session. In Minnesota, a "Right to Work" bill seeks to put the issue on the statewide ballot. In Ohio, Tea Party extremists have announced a ballot initiative that seeks to put "Right to Work" on the ballot there. "Right to Work" bills have been filed or are expected to be filed soon in Maine, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. Since passage of the Indiana law, when over 20,000 workers turned out to show their opposition, Republican governors have been distancing themselves from this unpopular legislation.

In Georgia, there's a bill that not only seeks to eliminate unions in the state by eliminating dues deduction and requiring anti-union notices be posted and criminalizes picketing. The attacks on the collective bargaining rights of teachers, firefighters and other public workers continue as well. A particularly egregious bill in Arizona would take away all collective bargaining rights for public service workers. A similar one being pushed in South Dakota lost supporters when legislators started hearing from the community, particularly teachers and first responders. Bills in Kansas, Maine, Minnesota, Michigan, Missouri and New Jersey have also been filed attacking public workers' collective bargaining, particularly teachers' rights at work. Despite the overwhelming public opposition to these sort of attacks, demonstrated by voters in recalls in Ohio, Wisconsin and Michigan, these bills continue to surface.

Teachers and public education are under attack all over. Experimental ideas like 'virtual charter schools' and vouchers for private schools have been introduced in states including Florida, Maine, Michigan, Missouri, Mississippi, New Jersey and Wisconsin among others. Attempts to eliminate teacher tenure - due process rights and seniority protections for classroom teachers - and attacks on the pensions public workers have been paying into and are counting on for a secure retirement.

Voter suppression remains a major issue in states across the country-Voter ID bills that would make it more difficult for many young workers to vote. From Nebraska, KMTV report details the link between ALEC and Voter ID bills. http://www.kmtv.com/news/local/140379323.html. Workers rights and wages are also under attack, with attempts to reduce or eliminate prevailing and minimum wage protections, gut protections against workplace discrimination and restrict access to jobless benefits.