Green Party Platform:
Unions
Employees in the U.S. and around the world have the right to organize and operate a democratic, member-run union to assure their rights in the workplace.
Present practices permit or encourage unorganized labor to undercut organized labor. This came about largely due to the Taft-Hartley Act which allowed the creation of "right to work" states and restricted the ability of unions to act in solidarity. The affect of this Act was to severely weaken the effectiveness of labor strikes, which are the unions' primary source of influence on management decisions.
Various types of employee involvement programs have been tried with varying degrees of success. Too frequently, these programs are superficial and serve management efforts to deter union organizing. Attempts to achieve sustained and strong participation by the workers without unions have had marginal results. Nor have unions that are not democratically controlled achieved increased productivity, much less faithful representation of workers' interests.
Plant closures and safety issues are also major concerns. As capital becomes more mobile, jobs become easily transferable to states, or other countries, with ineffective labor and safety laws (see Global Fair Trade plank for related topic). Recent tax laws have encouraged this migration. Simplistic retraining programs have come to be recognized as institutionalizing downward mobility by transitioning workers from the disappearing high-pay jobs to the remaining low-pay jobs.
The Green Party calls for:
- Halting the undercutting of organized labor by repealing the Taft-Hartley Act and other "right to work" laws that make it legal to permanently replace striking workers, and opposing any similar existing or proposed legislation in California.
- Controlling unions directly by their membership. Unions should have access to company financial records for bargaining purposes. Labor should be represented on corporate boards.
- Organizing unorganized workers into democratically controlled unions. Establishing international labor networks to coordinate responses to multi-national corporations.
- Eliminate tax laws that encourage employers to relocate in other countries. Support plant closure warning laws and establish a comprehensive plan for displaced workers. This plan would be funded by corporate money similar to unemployment insurance, and government funding similar to the GI Bill of Rights. This would allow workers to enter college degree programs to fill the need for high-end, white collar jobs.
- Passing legislation to facilitate workers and/or communities taking over closed plants and forming employee-owned businesses, or organize consumer and worker cooperatives. [see the Creating Jobs plank]