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A daily, pocket-sized history of America's working people, brought to you by The Rick Smith Show team.
Friday Dec 11, 2020
On this day in labor history, the year was 2012.
That was the day Michigan Governor Rick Snyder signed Right-to-Work legislation into law.
The birthplace of the United Auto Workers union had just become the 24thstate to pass legislation that guaranteed the open shop and the prohibition of mandatory dues collection.
More than 10,000 trade unionists gathered in Lansing that day to express their outrage.
The only source of income unions have is their dues base.
Without it, unions can’t adequately represent their members.
Work of the unions isn’t just about effectively negotiating a contract.
It also includes fighting contract violations, excessive discipline and wrongful discharges and enforcing safety and good working conditions on the job.
All this suffers under Right-to-Work.
But this is nothing new.
Right to Work laws have their roots in fighting the Wagner Act and CIO organizing drives throughout the South in the 1940s.
The Texan businessman and lobbyist Vance Muse fought hard against child labor laws, the eight-hour day and even the right for striking workers to picket.
Pro-segregationist Democrats, cotton brokers, Fred Koch, the DuPont brothers, Gerald Sloan of GM and others, supported him in his efforts.
His organization, the Christian American Association was closely aligned with the Ku Klux Klan.
Muse argued that segregation could only be maintained by enforcing the open shop.
Otherwise whites would be forced to interact with blacks.
He said, “From now on, white women and white men will be forced into organizations with black African apes whom they will have to call ‘brother’ or lose their jobs.”
The wealth class has spent millions of dollars over over sixty years to defeat working people and reverse hard fought gains.
Now is the time for workers to stand in solidarity against their No Rights at Work agenda.
May 4 - UE Beats Back HUAC in Dayton
May 3 - First Workers Compensation Law is Passed
May 2 - Our Thing is DRUM!
May 1 - Mayday Marchers Attacked in Cleveland
April 30 - Refinery Workers Walk Off the Job
April 29 - Allis-Chalmers and the Road to Taft-Hartley
April 28 - OSHA Goes Into Effect
April 27 - Disaster in West Virginia
April 26 - National Guard Ousts Montgomery Ward CEO
April 25 - UAW Mobilizes Against Taft-Hartley
April 24 - The California Spinach Riot
April 23 - Sitting Down for Dignity at Ford
April 22 - The Red Jacket Mine Explosion
April 21 - The Hated Taylor Law Takes Effect
April 20 - Deepwater Horizon Explosion Kills 11
April 19 -The Daughters of Mother Jones
April 18 - We Have Fed You All A thousand Years
April 17 - Fatal Explosion in West, Texas
April 16 - Jacob Coxey is Born
April 15 - Telephone Girls Cripple New England Bell
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