Restoring Workers’ Rights Has Always Been a Moral Value

By Stewart Acuff National AFL-CIO Organizing Director

We should not minimize the imminent, destructive
potential of a second George Bush term. We as
progressives should do some serious thinking and
listening about what happened on November 2 and what we
should do about it. But there are a few things that
occur immediately to me.

Before the election and now after it, I take hope and
encouragement from the great energy and activism on our
side. I cannot remember a national election where
progressives, working people and other average
Americans were so engaged and worked together. This
energy and action, coupled with so many elements of
popular culture speaking out, is a great foundation for
a new progressive movement.

It is absolutely essential that progressive leaders and
organizers not allow personal disappointment or despair
to keep us from continuing to engage and try to move
all those Americans who saw George Bush for the
reactionary that he is. At the AFL-CIO, we have
already begun a discussion about how to nurture and use
the infrastructure of our campaign and newly engaged
activists.

One lesson I believe we should take from the other side
is that values do matter. For the most part, the
policies and issues we talk about and advocate emanate
from our values. And for many of us, those values come
from our faith or our faith traditions.

Our commitment to gay rights and women’s rights comes
from our values of justice and freedom and respect for
all. Our commitment to racial justice comes from our
values. Our commitment to economic justice, especially
for working families, comes from our values. Our
opposition to the Iraq war comes from our values. Our
commitment to the common good and helping the underdog
or the oppressed comes from our values - and for many
of us directly out of our holy texts.

Though many might scoff, I think there is a neat and
convenient intersection where our values and political
pragmatism meet. We need an agenda that is big enough
that when enacted, it can change people’s lives, an
agenda big enough to fight for, that gives real hope.
The biggest danger we face is the call for us to follow
Bush to the right.

At this intersection of our values and practical
politics are universal healthcare, improving Social
Security - not just saving it so that all Americans can
retire with dignity — a global trading system that
lifts working families and not just corporations,
full-time work for living wages, liberty and justice
for all Americans, and the restoration of workers’
freedom to form unions and bargain collectively.

The right to organize and bargain collectively became
recognized internationally and domestically as a
fundamental human right in the 1930’s and 1940’s. That
right’s codification in this country in 1935 in the
Wagner Act led to the creation of the modern American
middle class. The evisceration of that right over the
last 25 years has contributed greatly to the pressure
on and the shrinking of that same middle class.

In independent polling, more than 40 million working
people say that they would form a union tomorrow if
they had the chance. Imagine if even a fraction of
those workers actually were able to form unions.
Imagine what a difference that would make in putting
working family-friendly candidates in office, building
power in our workplaces, and improving the living
standards of our communities.

Unfortunately, when workers do form unions to win
affordable health care, job safety standards and a say
in their working conditions, employers routinely
violate this fundamental human right by using
harassment, intimidation, and even illegally firing
workers. It has gotten so bad that even Human Rights
Watch - an internationally respected human rights
organization - called the denial of the freedom to form
unions in the United States a fundamental human rights
problem.

We need to bring this fight to our communities, and
build coalitions to put pressure on employers who
frustrate the will of workers when they attempt to form
a union. It is critical that wherever and whenever an
employer attempts to violate the rights of its workers
that a broad coalition of allies is there to hold them
accountable. In addition, we need to let our
legislators know from both sides of the aisle that they
must take a position in support of the Employee Free
Choice Act, federal legislation that would reduce many
of the grueling obstacles workers currently face when
they seek to form a union. Already more than 208
Members of Congress and 37 Senators back this worker
friendly legislation.

It is critical that the progressive community takes on
this issue as its own fight because it is a
comprehensive effort that brings together so many
issues important to us: affordable health care,
strengthening homeland security, protecting social
security, addressing poverty, and finding a remedy
against all forms of discrimination in the workplace.
We must remember that our best defense is a strong
offense. Restoring the freedom to form unions ties so
many of the issues and values we care about together.

AFL-CIO Voice at Work Campaign, Organizing Dept.