07-25-2013, 06:17 PM
The US needs to update its laws that make unionization so difficult to accomplish. Theoretically it is not legal for employers such as Walmart to suppress efforts by workers to organize, but in practice employers will fire people on the least suspicion. If Walmart workers were provided a chance to vote on unionization, and the labor organizers had a fair chance to explain the expected results, the work force would vote in a union overwhelmingly. The result might be to even the playing field between Walmart and its competitors.
Another issue that we don't talk about much is the price advantage that comes from using near-slave labor in places that don't enforce environmental protection laws. There is a process going on between the US and Europe that promises to unify a lot of the trade rules, and this may ultimately provide some environmental and worker protections even in areas that are not signatories to the pact, because the import rules will specify some of these limitations.
Another useful approach would be for the NLRB to enforce rules against suppression of organizing efforts, and to do so rapidly. This, as much as anything else, would help the working class.
Another issue that we don't talk about much is the price advantage that comes from using near-slave labor in places that don't enforce environmental protection laws. There is a process going on between the US and Europe that promises to unify a lot of the trade rules, and this may ultimately provide some environmental and worker protections even in areas that are not signatories to the pact, because the import rules will specify some of these limitations.
Another useful approach would be for the NLRB to enforce rules against suppression of organizing efforts, and to do so rapidly. This, as much as anything else, would help the working class.