Charles Brown
Detroit
>>> "Michael Hoover" <hoov at freenet.tlh.fl.us> 05/24/99 05:47PM >>>
> I can't remember if the right to strike is
> guaranteed in the US constitution as it was in the one drafted by the
> Sadinistas.
> yours, rakesh
right to strike is not guaranteed by constitution, although one might excuse - and by doing so, give the framers benefit of doubt given their class interests - original omission given that only about 10% of labor force was wage-earning at the time...late 18th century radicals - which the framers were not - did generally argue that property rights were social convention and, thus, the laborer should be fully paid (Marx would later criticize idea of 'fair distribution' even as he supported reforms like the Ten Hours Bill)...
to what extent is there a right to strike in US?...aren't most public employees prohibited from doing so?...did Section 7(a) of the National Industrial Recovery Act, which guaranteed the right employees to organize and to bargain collectively also establish a right to strike?...after all, 7(a) was not result of labor union agitation or union leadership advocacy, but culmination of efforts by corporate leaders who favored economic regulation and stability (their model was WW1 War Industries Board)...NIRA, in effect, also legalized cartels in US industry...
did Wagner Act (a boon, no doubt, to US labor movement), which made 7(a) permanent when Recovery Act expired, guarantee a right to strike?...National Labor Relations Board may have been authorized to issue cease and desist orders to employers committing unfair labor practices as defined by law and to certify bargaining reps for unions, but wasn't principal purpose of legislation to safeguard interstate commerce from interruption by kind of strike wave that erupted (unexpectedly) following passage of 7(a)?...in other words, institutionalize and regulate capital-labor relations...
isn't Wagner is the 'liberal' side of labor-management relations to Taft-Hartley's 'conservative' side outlawing jurisdictional strikes & secondary strikes, and providing for use of injunction and other 'cooling-off' procedures where strike or threat thereof threatens the 'national welfare'... Michael Hoover