Guardian UK: Workers' rights are under threat across the world

[marmar]

Dr Martin Luther King was assassinated in Memphis on this day in 1968. He was there to support striking sanitation workers, fighting for the right to have their union recognised by their employer; fighting for the right to collective bargaining.

Today is also a day of international solidarity with the public service workers of Wisconsin, whose right to bargain collectively has been stripped away by legislation sponsored by state governor Scott Walker, a man who has led the great state of Wisconsin to pariah status.

But as we stand in solidarity with brothers and sisters in Wisconsin, we do so in the knowledge that theirs is not a struggle confined to a single US state. Nor – as the neoliberal strategy of Governor Walker stretches to other states – is it a uniquely US problem. It is a global problem, demanding a global response.

European workers too are seeing the erosion of hard-won collective bargaining rights, also as a result of the greed of the bankers, who have emerged from the financial crisis unscathed. In the UK the erosion of bargaining rights is taking place by stealth. Although collective bargaining machinery still exists in local government for example, friends in public service unions tell me it is a long time since they had a collective agreement on pay or on other terms and conditions of employment. ..........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/apr/04/workers-rights-collective-bargaining

[defendandprotect]

1. Well, the last organized fascist attack bumped into FDR and concentrated on a

few countries --

This time round, I think they've got it right!!!

Yikes!

[Rosa Luxemburg]

2. strip the very wealthy of their assets

[leftstreet]

4. +1

[Rosa Luxemburg]

5. GE doesn't have to pay a dime!

[Hannah Bell]

3. kr