WHEREAS:
The National Labor Relations Act no longer delivers on its promises: "to protect the exercise by workers of full freedom of association" and to "encourage the practice and procedure of collective bargaining;" and
WHEREAS:
Private sector employers, in nearly every case, conduct campaigns to threaten workers with lost jobs and lost benefits if they dare to exercise their legal rights to form a union and take the concerted action "protected" by federal labor laws; and
WHEREAS:
Thousands of workers seeking AFSCME representation have been subjected to this union-busting, including hospital workers at Charter in California, Sacred Heart in Oregon, and Audubon in Kentucky; and
WHEREAS:
The default of the labor laws threatens both the social and economic fabric of society. Without strong, free trade unions, there is no equity for working people. Where workers are stripped of trade union protections, wages stagnate or fall and inequities grow. Without free trade unions, pension and health care benefits deteriorate, workers' interests in safe and healthy workplaces and in stable employment go unheard and unheeded by employers and by the government alike; and
WHEREAS:
More and more workers, particularly those employed by contractors, fall outside the legal interpretation of "employee" under the NLRA and at the same time, fall outside public employee relations boards' definitions of "employee;" and
WHEREAS:
In May, the U.S. Supreme Court threatened the exclusion of millions of nurses and other professionals in its 5-4 decision in NLRB vs. Health Care and Retirement Corporation of America, ruling that certain LPNs were not "employees" because they directed nurses' aides and thereby were "acting in the interest of the employer;" and
WHEREAS:
A high-wage, high productivity economy requires high-performance workplaces in which front-line workers participate in decision making at all levels of the enterprise; and
WHEREAS:
The Clinton Administration has taken an important first step toward restoring fairness to the labor laws by its appointment of the Dunlop Commission on the Future of Worker-Management Relations and by making a commitment to sign the Workplace Fairness Act into law. AFSCME welcomes the interim Fact Finding Report of the Commission and awaits its final recommendations.
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED:
That AFSCME, together with the AFL-CIO, will work closely with the Commission on the Future of Worker-Management Relations to demonstrate the inadequacies of the current law and to put forth a positive program of comprehensive reform; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED:
That AFSCME calls upon the Commission to issue a timely report reaffirming the core principles on which our labor laws rest and setting out concrete recommendations to transform those principles into reality once again; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED:
That AFSCME commits itself to doing all that can be done to securing legislation which amends the National Labor Relations Act to:
- Restore the right to organize by allowing card check recognition and restraining employer union-busting campaigns;
- Allow no group of workers to fall through the cracks between public employee relations boards and the NLRB;
- Assure the full coverage of nurses and other professionals; and
BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED:
AFSCME commits itself to doing all that can be done to secure the passage of the Workplace Fairness Act in the United States Senate. Now that it has been passed by the House of Representatives, President Clinton will have the opportunity to sign it into law.
SUBMITTED BY:
INTERNATIONAL EXECUTIVE BOARD