PEP, March 2017: Editorials: . . . with help from those out to destroy us

Public Employee Press

Editorials
. . . with help from those out to destroy us

A network of right-wing extremists is behind the nationwide effort to destroy the labor movement through legal actions and legislation.

The National Right to Work Foundation and its legal arm, the National Right to Work Legal Foundation, are the attack dogs of the campaign to cripple labor.

This effort is two-pronged:

weakening the power of unions by bankrolling lawsuits that undermine their right to represent workers by convincing the courts to declare collecting dues to pay for services unconstitutional, and
providing national and state legislators with right-to-work model legislation.

Twenty-eight states now have right-to-work laws.

Missouri enacted the most recent one in February following Kentucky, which adopted a law in January. In February, legislators turned down a right-to-work bill in New Hampshire, which would have become the first right-to work state in the Northeast had it passed.

Besides the National Right to Work Foundation and the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, the right-to-work network includes the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), which provides state legislators with legislative prototypes. The Koch brothers are among its supporters.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the nation's most powerful business lobbying group, has long supported right-to-work legislation. This group spent nearly a century trying to destroy unions and opposing pro-labor legislation like minimum wage laws, legal protections for workers and fair labor standards.

Now, with the Republican takeover of Washington, these anti-labor interests are close to obtaining a national right-to-work law. Republicans introduced the Right to Work bill in February.

If we lose this fight, we will possibly be faced with the challenge of having to rebuild the labor movement from scratch. We must fight back.