Strife over Labor in the German Left | 24 comments (24 topical, editorial, 0 hidden)

Locomotive drivers hold critical jobs, other professions stopping work can't cause such widespread effect.

Two words: General strike. The power of labour unions is ultimately contingent upon their ability to simply shut down an entire country for about a month. Naturally, no general strike will be permitted to actually last a month, but there is a sharp upper limit to how frequently and how heavy-handedly politicians can interfere in the organisation of labour without losing legitimacy. A limit that most politicians are fully aware of.

- Jake

Friends come and go. Enemies accumulate.

by JakeS (JangoSierra 'at' gmail 'dot' com) on Tue Oct 16th, 2007 at 06:39:13 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: What if questions (none / 1)

Has there ever been a general strike in the US?

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.

by ceebs (ceebs (at) eurotrib (dot) com) on Tue Oct 16th, 2007 at 07:11:51 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: What if questions (4.00 / 5)

In the US, sympathy strikes are illegal. In other words, people are not allowed to strike for reasons unrelated to their own contracts of employment. I think the Taft-Hartley Act (1947) makes a General Strike illegal.

The last time there was a general strike in the US was in 1934, but the US has never had a strike affecting the whole country. The 1934 strikes were localised.

We have met the enemy, and it is us — Pogo

by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Tue Oct 16th, 2007 at 07:17:51 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: What if questions (4.00 / 2)

I see that the UAW trained you well ;)

Taft Hartley prohibits a secondary boycott, which is to say that the reason we you're going on strike can only be economic not political.

You can't for example go on strike to protest the government, that's illegal under Taft Hartley.

And I'll give my consent to any government that does not deny a man a living wage-Billy Bragg

by ManfromMiddletown (manfrommiddletown at lycos dot com) on Tue Oct 16th, 2007 at 09:27:45 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: What if questions (4.00 / 3)

It wasn't the UAW, it was mostly chats with my office mate Toby. We were both in CASE-UAW, of course, he quickly took on the union representation in our department and I believe he ended up being a Steward for the Union. I was in the Graduate Student Government. Together we ruled the campus. Well, no. But we did have the professors in our department scared shitless. And I was a supporting witness in a dispute he had with the Campus Labour Relations.

We have met the enemy, and it is us — Pogo

by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Wed Oct 17th, 2007 at 05:00:32 AM EST
[ Parent ]

I'll be d... (none / 1)

I knew that labour unions had been nerfed de jure stateside, but it never occurred to me that they had been nerfed quite that badly... I guess I'm going to have to add another thing to the checklist of provisions that I want in a European constitution: The right of labour to organize and engage in labour conflicts - including but not limited to strikes and blockades - shall not be infringed.

(I must admit that neither did I imagine that such a ban would be constitutional under the US constitution - I fondly imagined that such a ban would violate the right to peaceable assembly.)

But trying to get back on topic (kind of), surely the Germans have not hamstrung their labour unions that way?

- Jake

Friends come and go. Enemies accumulate.

by JakeS (JangoSierra 'at' gmail 'dot' com) on Wed Oct 17th, 2007 at 05:03:36 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: I'll be d... (4.00 / 2)

This has nothing to do with the right to peaceful assembly. It has to do with the right to fire an employee for breach of contract.

We have met the enemy, and it is us — Pogo

by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Wed Oct 17th, 2007 at 05:17:25 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: I'll be d... (none / 1)

Oh, ok, that makes more sense. I though that the law was against strikes. From what you write it's a lack of a law protecting employees from being fired as a result. Subtle difference. My bad.

- Jake

Friends come and go. Enemies accumulate.

by JakeS (JangoSierra 'at' gmail 'dot' com) on Wed Oct 17th, 2007 at 01:02:50 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: I'll be d... (none / 1)

I am pointing out thet "the right to peacefully assemble" is not the same as "the right to strike" (you need to assemble to plan a strike and to picket or demonstrate, but striking can just mean not showing up for work and that bears no relationship whatever to peaceful assembly) and that "illegally striking" might be a breach of contract and grounds for termination. Also, picketing might be construed as trespassing, etc.

There are lots of ways to get you if they want to.

We have met the enemy, and it is us — Pogo

by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Wed Oct 17th, 2007 at 01:36:12 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Strife over Labor in the German Left | 24 comments (24 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

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