Pa. Workers Mobilize Against Right-to-Work
January 28, 2013 While gridlock reigns in the legislative halls of Washington, D.C., states are churning with anti-union bills, including Pennsylvania, where activists are fighting back.The Central Pennsylvania Building and Construction Trades are “showing a united front and getting word out to business managers and members to keep them abreast of right-to-work bills and other legislation that would hurt our members,” says Harrisburg, Local 143 Business Manager Robert Bair. While Republican legislator Rep. Darryl Metcalfe has introduced right-to-work bills in the state legislature for 14 years that failed to pass, the Ed Show quotes Rick Smith, host of the regionally-syndicated radio program The Rick Smith Show about the challenge presented by several new bills that would undermine collective bargaining. Describing a bill that would allow unionized public employees the option to leave their unions whenever they choose, Smith says:
Mike Kwashnik, business manager of Wilkes Barre Local 163, agrees with Smith’s assessment, taking his warning from last year’s legislative session.
Bills are also introduced in the current session, says Kwashnik, to gut the ability of employers and unions to negotiate project labor agreements. As local unions across Pennsylvania brainstorm to stop anti-worker legislation, Robert Bair draws hope from the success of unions during the November 2012 election cycle in turning members out to vote in Central Pennsylvania, helping elect three new friends of working families to the state senate. He says:
Kwashnik, who recently hosted a presentation by his local union’s attorney explaining the damage being wrought by the state’s more restrictive unemployment compensation program, says his local is focusing on educating members to the real facts on right-to-work. He says:
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