Via Jerry Becker: Labor vs. Legislatures: Wisconsin's attack on collective bargaining may spread
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From the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette [PA], Monday, March 28, 2011. See http://www.post-gazette.com/
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Labor vs. Legislatures: Wisconsin's attack on collective bargaining may spread
The path of unions may be set by how closely other states -- including Pennsylvania -- emulate Wisconsin's stance
By Gabrielle Banks, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The much-debated Wisconsin law dissolving collective bargaining rights for public workers remains in limbo since a judge blocked its implementation this month. But, however the drama plays out, both labor and management agree the outcome may reverberate in the American workplace -- and in this still-recovering economy -- for years to come.
If the law succeeds -- and perhaps even if it doesn't -- the Wisconsin debate has provided a road map for other state legislatures, and may mark an important crossroads in the decades-long slide in union heft and enrollment.
Ohio and Indiana, for example, have bills pending in their legislatures that would end collective bargaining.
Republican lawmakers in Harrisburg, who hold majorities in both bodies of the General Assembly, are seeking support for a handful of bills that would weaken unions' reach and rein in their organizing power. Rep. Todd Rock, R-Franklin, plans to try again this session with a bill that would make teacher strikes illegal.
Rep. Daryl Metcalfe, R-Cranberry, will sponsor a corresponding constitutional amendment to nail down the language about teacher strikes.
Rep. Curt Schroder, R-Chester, is reintroducing a bill that will abolish the prevailing wage for government workers, which he and fellow conservatives think is inflated. And finally, Mr. Metcalfe plans to bring back his proposal to make Pennsylvania a "right-to-work" state, which would be something of a geographic milestone should it pass.
Mr. Metcalfe said he believed all of these bills would be submitted in the next several months. "I believe we have more momentum this year than any other year that I've served in the legislature. If we're going to move things forward and turn around our economy, these policies need to be in place," he said.
The passage of such a law in Pennsylvania would mark a geographic shift because, after the passage of Taft-Hartley Act amid the post-World War II boom, nearly every Southern state passed a right-to-work law, letting workers decide whether to join existing unions.
But most Northeastern and West Coast states have retained union security, and have not passed right-to-work laws.
Gov. Tom Corbett said he would sign Mr. Metcalfe's Freedom of Employment Act if it made it to his desk. However, the governor pitched a bipartisan approach to labor relations in his budget address earlier this month, saying, "The recession doesn't have a political party. It has hit Democrats and Republicans alike. And just as the recession knows no political creed, the solution must be all-embracing."
Mr. Corbett has indicated he does not plan to seek Wisconsin-style concessions when contracts expire in June for 17 of the 20 unions representing state employees. "We enter collective bargaining fully aware of the hard realities of this economy. We are counting on our unions to recognize those realities as well," he said.
Veteran Pittsburgh labor attorney Mike Healey said he doubted Pennsylvania unions were at risk of losing as much power as the rank-and-file may lose in Wisconsin because "there is greater union density in this state and because the Republicans here have historically been more moderate."
Labor's shift in focus
The public sector debate is a reflection of what has happened in the private sector since the 1970s, and, as a result, labor organizers have had to refocus on different job sectors. With higher-paying industrial jobs on the decline, the labor movement put more effort into organizing low-wage earners -- the janitors, security guards, casino workers, hotel workers and non-professional staff at hospitals.
These are people who often receive the minimum wage and have no health benefits or pensions, Mr. Healey said. "They need this."
Over the past decade in Pennsylvania, courts have not tackled any watershed labor cases, nor has any significant legislation changed the state of labor relations. What has happened instead is a chipping away at rights, said Howard Grossinger, an attorney who has represented labor unions for 40 years.
"It's been more or less a downward spiral that's affected business and labor. I think whatever hurts business, hurts labor," he said.
For example, he said, "Not that long ago, we had a thriving textile manufacturing sector. NAFTA (the North American Free Trade Agreement) caused a tremendous shift in manufacturing in a number of industries.
"It wasn't an overnight shift but, within a decade or two, we lost a good bit of it, both in areas like textiles -- clothing and shoes -- and in heavy industries. ... Clothing and textiles are almost always made overseas now," Mr. Grossinger said.
On the federal level, after President Barack Obama's inauguration, labor groups nationwide rallied around the Employee Free Choice Act, which would allow workers to organize through a card check and require binding arbitration if a company and a union cannot agree to a contract 120 days after the election. The legislation has hit several road bumps in Congress, though.
Among the landmark labor cases of the past decade was last year's U.S. Supreme Court ruling regarding campaign finance in the Citizens United case, which made it possible for corporations as well as unions to contribute large sums to televised ad campaigns, despite limitations on contributions by individual citizens.
Mr. Obama said the ruling gave "a green light to a new stampede of special interest money in our politics" and called it "a major victory for big oil, Wall Street banks, health insurance companies and the other powerful interests that marshal their power every day in Washington to drown out the voices of everyday Americans."
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumpka said the justices "wrongly treated corporate expenditures the same as union expenditures, contrary to the arguments we made in our brief in this case. ... Unions, unlike businesses, are democratically controlled, nonprofit membership organizations representing working men and women across the country, and their independent speech should accordingly be given greater protection."
Economic ripples
While courts and state legislatures can impact the way unions do business, the economy affects labor, as well. A good economy means a bump in construction projects. But a bad one can mean that companies and governments cut funding for capital improvements. That often affects labor because, with limited money for roads and bridges and buildings, construction jobs decline.
The faltering economy can affect unions in less obvious -- but no less important -- ways: The plunge in stocks caused pension funds to plummet, for example. And that affects how politicians and voters feel about such plans for public sector unions.
In Pennsylvania and elsewhere, state and municipal governments don't have the funds to pay workers what they promised to pay them upon retirement. The crisis has been a regular talking point for Mr. Corbett, who supports a "lockbox" to cover the gap in money for retired workers but also wants the current workforce to contribute more toward their own pensions. Two years ago, lawmakers pushed to establish a public pension authority in Harrisburg that could take over badly funded plans.
"In these times, everything is suffering from lack of funding, at the state, local or federal level," said Pittsburgh City Councilman Doug Shields. Politicians in any municipality may come up with short-term pension fund solutions, but they often end up "kicking the can down the road," said Mr. Shields.
There are no easy fixes: If you cut the active workforce for budgetary reasons, as Pittsburgh did in 2004, he said, then you have a contractual obligation -- you immediately owe more in pensions.
Rising health care costs have led some employers to shift more of such costs to workers, a trend that Mr. Grossinger sees as foreboding:
"If Wisconsin takes away things like retirement benefits and health care from their workers, certainly other public employers as well as private employers will think that's an appropriate way to relate to their employees."
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PHOTO SIDEBAR: Demonstrators at the Wisconsin State Capitol Building earlier this month. John Hart/Wisconsin State Journal via AP
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Gabrielle Banks: gbanks@post-gazette.com.
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