REFORM LABOR LAW

WHEREAS, no other countries in the industrialized world allow scab labor to replace permanent employees in strike situations; and

WHEREAS, to all intents and purposes, the democratic right to strike guaranteed by the 1934 Wagner Act has been dismantled and a new post-PATCO corporate program of systematic union busting has emerged; and

WHEREAS, since 1981, the use of permanent replacement workers (scabs) during strikes has shifted the balance of collective bargaining so as to be heavily weighted in favor of management and has provoked violence and intimidation between striking workers and their replacements; and

WHEREAS, the AFT and the AFL-CIO are among the legitimate representatives of professionals and other workers in the United States and have a primary responsibility to aggressively maintain a level playing field at local, state and national bargaining tables:

RESOLVED, that the AFT support national legislation (HR-2320) that designates as an unfair labor practice the granting or offering of permanent status to replacement workers (scabs) engaged in bargaining unit work for an employer during a strike or lockout; and

RESOLVED, that until such law exists, the AFT support and urge the AFL-CIO to develop additional comprehensive, pro-active local, state and national strategies to prevent the firing of striking union workers.