Why Collective Bargaining Is a Fundamental Human Right

Why Collective Bargaining Is a Fundamental Human Right

by Robert Creamer | Huffington Post | Posted: 07/09/2014 9:59 am EDT
Excerpts:

"The ability for ordinary working people to organize and collectively bargain over their wages and working conditions is a fundamental human right. It is a right just as critical to a democratic society as the right to free speech and the right to vote.

Over the last 30 years many in corporate America and the big Wall Street banks have conducted a sustained attack on that human right. Unionization dropped from 20.1 percent of the workforce in 1983 to 11. 3 percent in 2013 -- and the results are there for everyone to see.

The simple fact is that absent government regulation and collective bargaining agreements, the market by itself does not assure that everyone shares in the fruits of society's increased economic productivity. In fact, we know that just the opposite is true.

America needs a massive new social movement to demand that every worker in every job have the right to organize collectively. Every worker should have the right to be in a union in exactly the same way that every American has the right to vote. That is the only way to empower ordinary people to effectively demand their fair share of the fruits of our economy."


read more:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-creamer/why-collective-bargaining_b_5570047.html
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IMO: That fact that all of the productivity gains went to the top 1 percent is not the result of an immutable law of nature. When unions represented a quarter of the private sector workforce, a larger and larger percentage of the total economic pie flowed into the pockets of ordinary Americans - and the result was the world's most vibrant middle class.

The share of income of the top one-thousandth of the population increased from 2 percent to nearly 10 percent in the last several decades. The portion of income received by the top 10 percent went from 33 percent in 1970 to 47 percent in 2010. These are the highest levels of income inequality since the '20s.

It is of course true that organized labor not only massively increased salaries for ordinary employees through collective bargaining. Unions also organized for - and won - the minimum wage, the 40-hour work week, the weekend, paid sick days, vacation pay, and an end to child labor. In other words, labor unions brought America the middle class.

Now the middle class is in jeopardy, precisely because of the Wall Street's war on collective bargaining. America is richer now than at any time in its history. It is the wealthiest society in the history of humanity. But the wages of most ordinary people have not increased for 30 years. Time to wake up and smell the coffee - and do something about it.

 

I am 100% alright with Private Unions.

But, public unions are incredibly dangerous to the Republic and even FDR was 100% against them. They end up negotiating with themselves and the thieve the tax payers for enormous sums bankrupting the whole system.

 

I'm not 100% against, them, if only because they tend to be first on the chopping block for political expediency, but there is a definite conflict of interest when it comes to bargaining with those who have the power(votes) to help you into office

 

I do wish there was a way to have them bargain without the politics involved...but scumbag politicians afraid to do their jobs, should not cancel out their rights.

 

Mob rule... sure....... great... that'll work.

 

Calling collective bargaining a "Fundemental Human Right" is the most absurd thing I have ever heard.

 

When unions put money into a business, then they can dictate how the business will be run. How many businesses both big and small have been run out of business by union demands. Union fools price American business out of the market, and so the Companies move to a foreign country.

 

The far left Huffington post and agent_286 have the mistaken impression that workers are not allowed to form unions if they want to.

They can.

But most workers in America have voluntarily turned their back on the union.

Only the lowest and least valuable workers embrace unions today.

 

mac, your apparent loathing and disdain for the common working man does not become you. Remember, you didn't build that alone.

 

Government employees are anything but common.

They are the scum of society.

Joining a union is the only way for them to be so lazy and overpaid yet still keep their job.

 

Why do you hate the military so much? They are the largest group of government workers. Their boss is your President. I never would've figured you for a military hater. Wow. Guess it just shows one should never assume too much.

 

Public unions make the mafia blush. Private sector beware.

 

Which is why liberal overlords push unions. Because they remove the threat of termination less the worker improve therefore limiting success which leads directly to the liberal elite's master plan for us all....

The Permanent Underclass.

 

Great post and true.....but the "We hate the American middle class" repubs will be in here claiming NO one is lazy or overpaid but union workers.

Plus all the other Corporation Worshipping tunnel visioned idiots who want all Americans to make less than minimum wage so their ONLY gods, executives, can keep getting those huge raises...

 

Wrong.

Civil service employees are treated entirely differently than the military.

Civil employees are exempt from the reduction in force that is taking place in the military.

 

Unions are exactly the reason business has moved overseas. Enjoy the free fall liberals, you blindly support one more reason for destroying our nation. We should be at the level of third world status in the next two decades, and I have no doubt how happy that makes you liberals feel. The good news is, I'll be dead by then.

 

First of all, the government has the same potential to exploit its workforce as any other company. Secondly, as a teacher, I bargain only with the local board of education, whose officials I'm not allowed to vote for since I don't live in the town where I work. Every union bargains only with their own district.

 

Ya, and it nothing to do with worker abuse(incredibly obscenely low wages) in other countries that corporations took full advantage of rather than support America and Americans. ...

Anyone who believes lower wages for Americans will help the economy or stop the slide to Third World status hates America and Americans...

 

With the very narrow exception of a handful of jobs (sunch as the military) every worker already has the right to form a union. That is part of the natural human right of free association. If all of the McDonalds workers in a given restaurant or town wanted to unionize, they could do so tomorrow.

So why don't they? Why is it that only in states with very strong union protection laws do unions survive?

 

Is there a law against workers forming unions?

 

No.

What big government libs are complaining about is workers exercising their freedom of choice to not join a union.

 

Correct. It borders on lunacy to argue collective bargaining is a fundamental human right, but now days it seems ever liberal cause is wrapped in the "human rights" package.
Here's the deal....private sector unions in and of themselves are fine, but lib's have used abused the union brand and turned into nothing but a protection racket & money laundering tool for the DNC. What the huff piece is attempting to do is make the union racketing scheme into a human right. Pretty dumb, but what else is new.

 

Why can't we use contractors and private companies to fill the roles in government now currently occupied by public unions?

 

The common working man does not work for government. The tradeoff of lower pay for security is what government has always been about. It is near impossible to get fired from a government job. The Federal Government has the right idea for public employee unions.

No strikes allowed.
No collective bargaining for pay (a legislative function)
No forced union dues.

Unions in the Federal Government can only represent for workplace environment.

 

Freedom to assemble and freedom of association. I actually agree with agent somewhat on this. Workers have the right to band together and demand more from their employers. Where we run into problems is when the government steps in and plays favorites.

Where I think Agent and I completely disagree is that I also see the corporation as having the rights. What is a corporation? Just a person or a group of people who freely assembled together, put capital and investment together to start a business. The owner, owners and investors are freely associating together to make the company. They have just as much right as the workers.