In the campaign to make Americans believe that if the Employee Free Choice Act passes, the economy will collapse and workers will be forced against their will into the pay raises and improved benefits of unions, corporate conservatives are campaigning on a bold, fresh message...straight out of 1935's unsuccessful fight against the Wagner Act.
Can you tell which quote is from the 2000s and which is from the 1930s?
- "Specifically, the provisions of the bill will operate to provoke and encourage labor disputes, rather than diminish them . . . Its real effect will be to serve as a vehicle for the advancement of the selfish interests of minority labor organizations."
- "Unions want it because it would make it easier to recruit dues-paying members, not because it would somehow defend workers' right to choose freely to unionize."
- "To support labor in this objective by enacting this bill would permanently close the door to recovery."
- "The act is a poison pill for our ailing economy, which is why every major business organization from every industry sector has come out in strong opposition to it."
- "My general criticism of the . . . bill is not so much that it supports unionization as that it will in operation result in enforced unionization."
- "Labor unions are supposed to protect workers’ rights, yet union bosses want Congress to pass a law that actually robs workers of their democratic right . . . through a forced unionization process."
Answers at LaborNerd.
And about that Wagner Act and its relationship to the Employee Free Choice Act:
"In 1935, we passed the Wagner Act that promoted unionization and allowed unions to flourish, and at the time we were at around 20 percent unemployment. So tell me again why we can't do this in a recession?" said Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), invoking the pro-labor changes of the New Deal. "This is the time to do it. This is exactly the time we should be insisting on a fairer playing field for people to organize themselves."