No Rights at Work

Two articles published today highlight the state of workers’ rights in America (I’ll give you a hint: they’re shit).  The New York Times reports in its labor section (or sorry, business section) that the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW), comprised of organized grocery store, meatpacking and retail outlet employees, must immediately cease picketing Walmart stores.  The reason?  A federal law bans groups of workers seeking a union from picketing an establishment for more than 30 days.  If you’re a corporate HR director, guess how long you’re waiting out those workers?

Meanwhile, the recently proposed Paycheck Fairness Act is attempting to legalize, amongst other rights, the rights of workers to discuss their salaries with each other.  That’s right, under current law, if Bob working over in the deli meat section reveals he just got a raise to $26,000 a year, his boss can not only fire him, but can also take his ass to court and sue him!  And if you let him know what you’re making, you can suffer the same fate.

These are two of a litany of US laws restricting everything from the size of stickers you can wear at work to the composition and dimensions of picket signs and banners you can hold out front.  Complain about your working conditions to your boss?  You’re fired.  Raise safety concerns about your own work?  You’re fired.  Talk to your co-worker about organizing a union during your shift?  You are fucking fired. Even the few workers’ rights that are protected, namely collective rights to organize and raise complaints about working conditions, are laxly enforced and penalized.

To give but one example, imagine a Walmart clerk is leading a successful organizing drive with her co-workers to raise their wages from the current $8.00/hour.  Walmart illegally fires her for these activities, she finds another job after a couple months and she sues.  Assuming she can defeat the cadre of seven figure lawyers Walmart trots out, the nation’s largest corporation would be hit with a whopping ~$2,800 fine for annihilating the leader of a workers group.  Anyone at Walmart want to organize?

Source: CEPR [2009]