[lbo-talk] NYT on French unions

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

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> [lbo-talk] NYT on French unions
>
> Nathan Newman nathanne at nathannewman.org
> Wed Mar 29 10:00:50 PST 2006
>
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>
> How about you can't fire people in France for political strikes, but
> political strikers can be fired without a hearing in the United  
> States?
>
> One of the key parts of the 1947 Taft-Hartley Act was to specifically
> undermine "political strikes":
>
> "There can be no doubt that Congress may, under its constitutional  
> power to
> regulate commerce among the several States, attempt to prevent  
> political
> strikes and other kinds of direct action designed to burden and  
> interrupt
> the free flow of commerce. We think it is clear, in addition, that the
> remedy provided by § 9(h) bears reasonable relation to the evil  
> which the
> statute was designed to reach."
> -- upholding anti-Communist provisions of the Act,  American  
> Communications 
> Assn. v. Douds, 339 U.S. 382 (1949)
>
> Folks on the list seem to engage in almost mindless union-bashing  
> without
> even a nod in the direction of the legal reality under which US unions
> operate.
>
> If a similiar strike happened in the US, every major shop floor  
> union leader
> would be told the next day that there was no job for them to return  
> to.  And
> the courts would not only uphold that decision but issue an injunction
> against any other union member threatening to strike in solidarity  
> over
> those firings.

Just last year, TWU Local 100 defied the Taylor law and TWU  
International, went on strike, and came out ahead, despite the huge  
fines and threats to jail the leaders (the leaders have had trouble  
selling the new contract to the members, but that's another story).

It seems to me that defiance pays, and you don't even have to look to  
France to see evidence of that.

Yoshie Furuhashi
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