ALEC's "Right to Work" - Dishonest Words

A good read over on Alternet on “Right to Work for Less’ 

  

The only fault I can find with this historically heavy article – is that the write does not recognize or acknowledge the huge influence that ALEC legislators have had on getting this legislation distributed, introduced and passed throughout the US> 

The Most Dishonest Words in American Politics: 'Right to Work'

June 7, 2013  | 

“Right to work” is the most dishonest phrase in American political discourse. It sounds like it’s defending people’s right to earn a living. But as used by its supporters, it means making it impossible for workers to form an effective union, couched in the language of “freedom” and “choice.”

SNIP

“Absolute horseshit,” responds Ed Ott, former head of the New York City Central Labor Council. “This is a total offensive against workers. They don’t want workers to have any say. After workers vote for a union, they don’t want them to maintain membership.”

SNIP

In 1961, the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. called “right to work” a “fraud,” saying that it “provides no ‘rights’ and no ‘works.’ ...Its purpose is to destroy labor unions and the freedom of collective bargaining.” In 1965, the high-water mark of liberal power in Congress in the last 70 years, the House voted to repeal Section 14(b) of the Taft-Hartley Act, but a filibuster in the Senate preserved the provision.

SNIP

National Right to Work, the Mackinac Center, the Center for Union Facts, and the Coalition for a Democratic Workplace, says Erin Johansson, are all “part of the web” of groups funded by the five main far-right foundations—the Waltons of Walmart’s Walton Family Foundation, the Coors family’s Castle Rock Foundation, the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, the Sarah Scaife Foundation, and the John M. Olin Foundation.

“They’re an arm of companies,” she says. “Their intent is to destroy unions.”

Almost all of them can be directly affiliated with ALEC in some way, at some time.

They have had access to ALEC legislators to push the RTWfL agenda.

ALEC legislators have mindlessly and tenaciously pushed this legislation for the benefit of their ALEC corporate benefactors, in the name of the “free-market” – which ALEC legislators manipulate for their ALEC corporate patrons, using ALEC copy/paste legislation.

Other major backers include Charles and David Koch, ALEC , and the Chamber of Commerce, which has become “much more militant, committed to eradicating the New Deal” since the Reagan era, says Ed Ott.

One mention – such a disservice to voters across the United States.
This is proof positive - that we are not doing a good enough job of educating others on the nastiness of ALEC legislators.

They didn’t even touch on how the process of ALEC  and ALEC legislators is tantamount to the forward motion of the RTWfL legislation.

SNIP

“There’s a wing of the conservative business community that will accept no opposition,” says Ed Ott. “They’re not committed to democratic forms. It’ all about profit and privilege.”

Yep - ALEC legislators, intentionally manipulating the free-market using ALEC legislation for the sole purpose of increasing ALEC corporate members profit and revenues.

Shorey is more optimistic. “Our members’ understanding of this issue has gotten really clear,” she says. “It’s really about going after everyone in the middle class, driving down wages, creating unsafe working conditions.”

“This fight ain’t over,” says John Armelagos.

Let's hope not.

We don't need any more ALEC legislators pushing the extremist, pro-corporate agenda of the American Legislative Exchange Council.