Unions Are Under Siege, Again
Republicans, in a thoughtful and coordinated attack, have opened up another front in their war on labor unions. Remember that unions are a source of money and organization for liberal causes and the Democratic Party. As such, Republicans hate unions. They hate them above and beyond the union’s ability to negotiate wages and safe working conditions. The first battlefront was in Wisconsin. Consequences of the anti-union legislation continue to reverberate today as signatures for Scott Walker’s recall election were turned in just a couple weeks ago. Then the battlefront moved to Ohio. The Republicans passed anti-union legislation. The unions organized and won a referendum to kill the flawed legislation at the ballot. Now, attention turns to Arizona.
This attack on unions is particularly well-timed. The legislation is extremely anti-union. It goes further than Scott Walker ever thought he could. Fighting this legislation will require unions to divert their attention away from the national election and local elections. They will have to focus almost entirely on this assault on their very existence. Thus, this assault will probably deprive Democrats of much-needed money and organizational strength. I look at this as a last and desperate effort to crush progressive causes.
More from TPM:
Union members were searching for a way out of the wilderness on Wednesday in Arizona as the Republican-controlled Senate moved ahead quickly on several bills that could devastate organized labor in the state.
The measures caught many union leaders by surprise, being introduced on Monday night and passed in committee less than 48 hours later.
At issue is a sweeping series of restrictions that would, among other things, ban unions that represent workers in state, county or city governments from engaging in any type of negotiations that affect the terms of their employment. That includes teachers, prison workers and the state’s powerful police and firefighters unions. The move would take away much of the power those unions have and turn them into something more akin to trade groups.
