What this is about? Why is this such a big fucking deal?

[nadinbrzezinski]

Collective Organizing was NOT legal in the US. Unions were NOT legal. Unions HAD to fight for the right to organize and to collectively bargain.

This did not become part of the law until the Wagner Act of 1935. The Wagner Act created the National Labor Relations Board, and allowed unions the right to collectively bargain and to organize. Understand, until that moment this was something that was punishable by prison time. This is what Governor Walker is after, this is what the right wants to destroy. They want to effectively destroy the NLBR by defunding it, and at the state level.

So this is what is at stake... nothing short of the Wagner Act of 1935... one of the crown jewels of the New Deal, the other being Social Secuirty.

Do you understand?

Oh and for some reading on it...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Labor_Relations_Act

Basic as can be, but if you have no clue what this is, a good place to start.

SOLIDARITY

To support the strike see my sig.

[kentuck]

1. Right on!

Thanks!

[nadinbrzezinski]

3. You welcome, it is amazing to me

just how few people understand this.

[RegieRocker]

2. Hmm were they Illegal?

[nadinbrzezinski]

4. Yes it was a prison offense in some places to organize one

why wild cat strikes were common.

There were black lists and if you were in one, forget about gettin' a damn job.. you were a trouble maker

Yes that went on after 1935 but far less, and you had the NLBR to help you.

[RegieRocker]

9. I knew they were illegal in some towns due to corporate

and government collusion. I didn't think they were across the board illegal.

[nadinbrzezinski]

11. Over the years they became tolerated

in some places, see the Teamsters in San Fran... but for the most part there were spies where they were tolerated. Any trouble maker was put in the blue book, that is the troublemaker book, for san fran, for example.

They were afraid of the radicalism of workers... and fought them at every turn.

[RegieRocker]

13. I imagine they still are

[nadinbrzezinski]

14. Right now is about getting rid of legal unions

period.

[RegieRocker]

15. Agreed. I was a UAW worker in the 70's. I am a die hard

union fan even though I am not in one now.

[RaleighNCDUer]

17. Typical republican short-sightedness.

Destroy the mainstream American unions, and what will they be replaced with? The radicals, the communists, socialists and anarchists who drove the first unionization movement. Take away the unions' power, the workers will claim the power for themselves without any of the checks or brakes, the structure, that unions provided.

Wildcat strikes. Sabotage. Riots. THAT is what the republicans are going to reap if they succeed with this.

[nadinbrzezinski]

18. agreed

[guruoo]

31. They have anticipated this, and are using expanded 'gun rights'

to send a message that goes something like: 'if "the government" fails to stop you, then "the people" will.'

e.g.,:


'A man who supports the U.S. Constitution's Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms carries a military style
AR-15 type rifle during a Obama opposition rally in Phoenix on Monday.'
Source: http://www.examiner.com/religion-culture-in-national/gun-lovers-become-bullies-at-political-rallies


Source: http://shelleytherepublican.com/2008/08/07/jim-david-adkisson-man-of-the-year.aspx

[Bluenorthwest]

29. I am a member of a Union organized and founded in 1933

So apparently the legal status varied from State to State?

[Faryn Balyncd]

5. K&R . . . . Thanks.

:hi:

[nadinbrzezinski]

6. You welcome

[onethatcares]

7. this may have no bearing on the Wagner act but

I did work for a man that had all his fingers broken by coal town police during the 30s as he was organizing. They just out and out broke the fingers at the first or second knuckle, snapped them right backwards.

This is what these ptb want to go back to, the pinkertons, the railroad hired cops, kids working 12 hour days. Sad thing is, too many in the country think it would be good to do away with all the rights that were fought so hard for.

[nadinbrzezinski]

8. Yep, that happened at the time

that and worst, people died.

Me better go make dinner. I got a labor action to go to.

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

10. Put another way

people died for the right to have a union. We cannot let that sacrifice be forgotten................... :mad:

[nadinbrzezinski]

12. There is a reason why I am usually reading

on it, not bloging on it. The knowledge of this is really very shallow, best case.

[TBF]

16. Texas does not allow collective bargaining by public employees (strikes prohibited too)

# Texas Government Code Section 617.002 - Collective Bargaining By Public Employees Prohibited
(a) An official of the state or of a political subdivision of the state may not enter into a collective bargaining contract with a labor ...
# Texas Government Code Section 617.003 - Prohibition On Strikes By Public Employees
(a) Public employees may not strike or engage in an organized work stoppage against the state or a political subdivision of the state. (b) A ...

http://law.onecle.com/texas/government/chapter617.html

[nadinbrzezinski]

19. It is one of the ten states where they don't

[malaise]

20. Great post

Solidarity Forever

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYiKdJoSsb8

[nadinbrzezinski]

21. kick

[spanone]

22. the ultimate gift to their corporate masters. cheap, disposable labor

[trayfoot]

23. Oh....I definitely support the strike!

Wish I could fly to Wisconsin to protest with those teachers! In Virginia, we have worked FOR Collective Bargaining Rights for years - no luck yet! I sincerely hope Wisconsin public employees are 100% successful!!!!!

[nadinbrzezinski]

25. Today I went to the support rally in San Diego

http://nadinbrzezinski.posterous.com/todays-meeting-in-support-of-wisconsin-in-san

Yes this is the rubber meets the road moment

[unkachuck]

24. K&R....and thank you....n/t

[nadinbrzezinski]

26. You welcome

people of the working families GET IT.

[Enthusiast]

27. K&R

I don't know why this OP doesn't have 400 plus recommendations.

[cali]

28. gee, a lecture from you. 99% of DUers are aware of these facts.

[Name removed]

30. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[bongbong]

33. Huh?

The OP gave me information I was not aware of, and I've been following politics since the late 1960s.

[w8liftinglady]

34. I live ina "Right-to-work" state. This is verboten here...

[bongbong]

37. Whenever possible

Whenever you get a chance to use the phrase "right to work state" in conversation, substitute "right-to-work AKA right for corporate fat cats & banksters to rape the middle class" instead.

[w8liftinglady]

40. lol... good idea!

[Pholus]

Great post! I didn't realize that I was supposedly talked down to....

Rhetorical flair can be misinterpreted sometimes. S'okay... ;)

[DU GrovelBot]

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[The Wizard]

35. Republicans don't want to own slaves

They want to rent them by the hour. It's one of their traditional values.

[nadinbrzezinski]

38. That was the original model of indentured servitude

in Jamestown... but the colony gave up on that and sold them within ten years.

[The Wizard]

39. Scottish philosopher and satirist

Thomas Carlyle said he couldn't understand the American Civil War because the South wanted to own their slaves while the North wanted to rent them by the hour.
The Confederacy is alive and well and still fighting for the same ideology.
The time has come to end reconstruction and let the Confederacy stew in its own juices.
It's always been about cheap labor.
The unwitting teabaggers are useful idiots for the shysters and scumbags who exploit the frightened and ignorant.

[nadinbrzezinski]

41. Yep it's always been about cheap labor

the US was founded on it... freedom, liberty, and the rest is the nice myth.

[grahamhgreen]

36. Kick