The "okay-to-leech" laws

[TexasTowelie]

It is long past time for the labor movement to stop using the pejorative language of its opponents. Labor must forswear using "right to work." Labor does not call workers who cross picket lines and break strikes "replacement workers"--those workers who aid and abet the exploitation of other workers are called "scabs," because they are scabs, not "replacement workers."

Those who set themselves against the right to choose abortion have the wherewithal not to call themselves "anti-choice." They use their language, their words, to express their viewpoint. Or, to restate this point in the reverse, those who are pro-choice do not refer to themselves in the language of their opponents; that is to say, they do not refer to themselves as "anti-life."

Labor and its allies, however, use "right to work." They bemoan, for instance, that Michigan has become a "right to work" state. By so doing, they are using the language of capital, of the Chambers of Commerce, of the abusers and exploiters of workers.

There is no such thing as "right to work." It is the right to freeload. The right to get something for nothing. To benefit without paying. To be enriched by a harvest that one has neither sown nor reaped. It is akin to calling shoplifting the "right to shop"; of calling being a stowaway, the "right to travel."

Read more: http://socialistworker.org/2015/03/11/the-okay-to-leech-laws

Cross-posted in the Labor Movement Group.

[Demeter]

1. Leeching is the corporate way of life

Corporations use and abuse public resources: infrastructure paid for by taxes, and the commons given a nation by Nature.

Corporations leech the profits out of the workers.

Then, with all the stolen wealth, they leech the power from the People to their chosen few.

Corporations need a LEASH, so they cannot LEECH any longer.

[Android3.14]

2. Removed

Last edited Wed Mar 11, 2015, 10:35 AM - Edit history (1)

Starry Messenger pointed out this was a protected group, so I am deleting my comments. My apologies.

[deancr]

3. Nope

No one in America can be forced to join a union. At issue is if a non-union member who chooses to work under and benefit from a collective bargaining agreement should be required to pay an agency fee which covers the costs of negotiations and contractual enforcement.
No one can be forced to join or work in a workplace where they gain the increased wages, benefits, and working conditions of a democratically-elected union workplace. They have the right to choose work in the 85% of American workplaces that are wholly non-democratic and financially less rewarding.
Sad to see the anti-union propaganda repeated here.

[blackspade]

4. Exactly

That anti-Union rhetoric runs deep even here at DU.

[yallerdawg]

6. My momma warned me about people like you!

Watch out for "The Fifth Column!"

[Starry Messenger]

7. This is a protected group.

Please read the SOP pinned at the top of the forum. I consider anti-Union rhetoric to be anti-working class and will block you from this group if you post another one. Thanks in advance.

[Android3.14]

8. Whoops. You are right

I apologize, and I will remove my posts immediately. I wish there was some way to make it more obvious when responding to the special interest groups.

Have a good day.

[yallerdawg]

9. Collective bargaining is an essential human right...

based on the right of association and freedom of assembly, Constitutional rights in the US. This 'anti-labor' movement by right wing corporatist forces is another attack on democratic principles and values.

If we hold to democratic values, then we also hold to majority rule. This is fundamental in a democracy. When a group of workers make a collective vote for union representation, and we have determined 50% plus 1 as the deciding factor, then we are acting in the essence of BIG D Democracy.

It is a collective. It includes everyone. It is mystifying why anyone would want to 'opt out.'

Of course, Republicanism is mystifying! So, I am sure there are some number of workers who are ignorant, who don't understand the power of the collective. Who buy the right wing selfishness and personal greed.

The Republican war on America and democracy rolls on!