RIGHT TO STRIKE IN PUBLIC EMPLOYMENT

WHEREAS, the right of workers to join together in a union and collectively negotiate regarding their wages, hours and working conditions is the foundation of the American Labor Movement. Equally fundamental is the right of workers to withhold their services as an economic lever in the collective bargaining process. The right to strike ensures that the collective bargaining process remains workable, a guarantee to which all workers are entitled; and

WHEREAS, many public workers, however, have no guarantee of a viable collective bargaining process, as they have long been deprived of the right to withhold their services. Denial of this moral right makes public workers second class citizens, and collective bargaining for these workers becomes an empty process; and

WHEREAS, withholding labor under certain conditions is a basic human right and working for a public em­ployer should not preclude workers from exercising this right; and

WHEREAS, most states have, to some degree, enacted collective bargaining legislation for public workers. Generally, however, public workers are denied the basic right to which all workers are entitled:

RESOLVED, that the AFT supports the enactment of legislation to give public employees the right to strike.