Warning on US states' plan to severely restrict workers' rights

[JanDutchy]

Source: AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL PRESS RELEASE

Amnesty International has urged several US states to abandon planned legislation that would drastically restrict workers' rights.

States including Colorado, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, New Mexico, Ohio, Oklahoma and Tennessee have proposed bills severely limiting the collective bargaining rights of trade union members. A similar bill was passed in Wisconsin on Friday.

"State governors must withdraw support for these measures which, if adopted, would violate international law," said Shane Enright, Amnesty International’s trade union adviser.

“The US has an obligation to uphold the rights of American workers - including the specific right to organize and bargain collectively."


Read more: http://www.amnestyusa.org/document.php?id=ENGPRE011412011&lang=e

[Sabriel]

1. Great...once again, we're the subject of AI's intervention

How much lower can the U.S. sink? Torture, unlawful incarceration, death penalty, human rights violations....

We're the country our leaders warned us about.

[yellowcanine]

4. The U.S. has rightly been critical of other countries in the past for not protecting the rights of

workers to organize. So this criticism by AI is justified.

[JanDutchy]

5. And under attack of the UN Charter Human RIghts

'The Secretary General of the UN praised this song' : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zk69e1Vcmvg


And so do I

[mwb970]

8. I've told my 17-year-old niece to start choosing a country to live in.

This one is pretty much shot to hell. By the time she is 30 we may well have what amounts to a fascist police state here - if we don't already. Sadly, the American Experiment is over; the American Dream is dead. Young people should get out when and if they can.

[JanDutchy]

9. We have nothing to offer than blood, sweat and tears? ; cheer up!

[Selatius]

13. I hate to say, but the US is, best described, a proto-fascist state.

Corporations have very powerful influence over the legislatures, but in a true corporate (or fascist) state, there aren't any open and fair elections, or there are elections, but the results are plainly rigged against the opposition. Corporate dictatorships are said to be things of the past, of the last world war, but some argue that we never really won that war.

[Pacifist Patriot]

18. I'm not convinced we still have open and fair elections.

Not with corporations counting digital votes.

[emcguffie]

20. You honestly trust those black boxes?

Would you trust an ATM that was designed to never give you a receipt?

Or would you trust it if it did give you a receipt, but you never got a bank statement?

Wouldn't you worry about precisely what it was recording?

[glinda]

21. Died at such a young age too.

I am encouraging my little cousin to check into if she has a possibility of duel citizenship in Romania. That way she might be able to relocate to a few places. Not sure but hopeful she can.

[CoffeeCat]

24. and middle aged people too!

I am 46, and afraid to grow old here! I don't want to live in a Fascist country
that could care less about anyone who isn't an able-bodied billionaire. At least
now, I'm still scrappy and I have my health and what's left of my youth. I can
at least fight back or get a job, or two or three.

But what happens when I'm 75? 85?

It's scary!

[CoffeeCat]

23. So true...we've become the country...

...that I used to read about--and believe that I was lucky to live in the United States.

This country has become shameful, perverse, corrupt shadow of its former itself.

[Tx4obama]

2. K & R n/t

[fascisthunter]

3. We are being Oppressed by the rich and wealthy classes

[wick]

6. still

[hay rick]

7. The shoe fits. nt

[NorthCarolina]

10. Sweet. nt

[truth2power]

11. Not to keep harrassing everybody about this, but this is about

ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council), which works with state legislatures across the country to enact laws written by corporations, taking away workers' rights, deregulating, privatizing state services, i.e. the private prison industry etc.

I'm just in process of researching this, but what I've found so far is very scary. Can you say fascism?

Here's a website: www.alecwatch.org Please, whoever can look at the site and post a fact or two, it would help get the word out.

[Hector Solon]

16. ALEC getting attention from Unions

Thanks for staying on this American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) trail, the Environmental community is starting to get hot on it (they were into ALEC in 2002-2003, but back to it now), but still a look of pushing to do to get more national attention.

RECENT DEVELOPMENT - UNIONS Getting MSG on ALEC
http://ilcaonline.org/content/unions-build-coalition-combat-state-governments%E2%80%99-aggression

CLIP START:
That anti-union anti-worker nationwide drive, state by state, is fueled by millions of dollars in Right Wing money, AFL-CIO staffer Naomi Walker, who tracks state and local developments, told the Fire Fighters Legislative Conference on March 14.

The Right Wing funders, she said, include the wealthy Koch brothers, a pair of Right Wing anti-union oil men from Kansas City who set up a front group called Americans for Prosperity. They also include Right-Wing foundations, the Chamber of Commerce, the American Legislative Exchange Council, and the new fund-raising machine established by chief GOP Bush political operative Karl Rove, she added.

The Right Wing coalition’s first shot, though not the one that caught the nation’s eye in Wisconsin, came in Alabama in December, Schaitberger said. The legislature, at the behest of retiring GOP Gov. Bob Riley, jammed through a law in the waning days of the year banning unions of public workers from collecting dues by paycheck deductions.

A GOP-run Florida senate committee approved a similar bill March 14, 5-4.

END CLIP

Very good job here on connecting the DOTS back to Karl Rove and GOP National Strategy.

Our team's original post on ALEC on Kos:
http://tinyurl.com/4pztle5

Thank goodness DU folks are picking this up! (going to have to spend more time on DU).

Keep plugging.

[truth2power]

17. Thanks. I found the ALEC info on DU. I think the link was from KOS...

I knew nothing about this. Still researching. People need to wake up.

[highplainsdem]

25. You're not "harassing" anyone. Here are links to my recent topics on ALEC,

which include lots of links.


The main topic, which has over 100 replies now, most with more info/articles on ALEC:

ALEC: Bringing the vast rightwing corporate conspiracy to a legislature near you

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x591230


Conservative Corporate Advocacy Group ALEC (linked to Kochs) Behind Voter Disenfranchisement Efforts

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x590917


ALEC: The Behind the Scenes Player in the States' Fight Against the Middle Class (Miles Mogulescu)

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x593161


Grist: Koch-funded group (ALEC) mounts cut-and-paste attack on regional climate initiatives

http://upload.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x660615


The GOP blueprint for state legislatures - ALEC's "State Budget Reform Toolkit"

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x658572


That "silly" FLA GOP law criminalizing taking photos or video of farms? This is what it's about

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x643719


ALEC is even involved in this: NPR: Bail Burden Keeps U.S. Jails Stuffed With Inmates

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x594171

[Just One Woman]

12. meant to rec and hit wrong button. I am so sorry.

This thread is fabulous and if anyone knows how I can right my wrong, please let me know. Again, I do apologize.

[JanDutchy]

14. Altiero Spinelli. 1907-1986 – co-author Ventotene Manifesto

Altiero Spinelli (31 August 1907 — 23 May 1986) was an Italian political theorist and a European federalist. Spinelli is referred to as one of the "Founding Fathers of the European Union" due to his co-authorship of the Ventotene Manifesto, his founding role in the European federalist movement, his strong influence on the first few decades of post-World War II European integration and, later, his role in re-launching the integration process in the 1980s. By the time of his death, he had been a Member of the European Commission for six years, a Member of the European Parliament for ten years right up until his death. The main building of the European Parliament in Brussels is named after him.

Manifest:


http://www.altierospinelli.org/manifesto/en/manifesto1944en_it.html

[JanDutchy]

15. The Supreme Court Sold Out Our Democracy

The Supreme Court Sold Out Our Democracy -- How to Fight the Corporate Takeover of Our Elections
Historian Thom Hartmann discusses the history of corruption that led up to the Supreme Court's Citizens United ruling.

October 25, 2010 |

Election 2010 is being fought on a wave of campaign dollars unleashed on the American people by the Supreme Court in its Citizens United v. FEC decision. The court, led by a majority of staunch right-wingers, struck down limits on third-party “electioneering” ads based on a tortured interpretation of the First Amendment guarantee of free speech.

http://www.alternet.org/books/148608/the_supreme_court_sold_out_our_democracy_--_how_to_fight_the_corporate_takeover_of_our_elections/


-----

A very interesting article, also in relation to Spinelli's Manifesto.

[DirkGently]

19. The U.S. is becoming a pariah nation. Bye-bye, supposed moral authority.

[Doctor_J]

22. Is this some kind of joke?

Amnesty International has urged several US states to abandon planned legislation that would drastically restrict workers' rights.

Uhhh...OK

"State governors must withdraw support for these measures which, if adopted, would violate international law," said Shane Enright, Amnesty International’s trade union adviser.

:rofl:

Like these wing nuts care about laws?