The Assault on Workers’ Rights

The November 2010 election in the USA resulted in a wave of conservative candidates winning in local and national contests, and taking office in January 2011. Most analysts argued that this election result was due to a combination of typically small voter turnout for by-elections, a strong turnout by zealous advocates of the now well known Tea Party, and general voter dissatisfaction with the sluggish state of the economy and relatively high unemployment levels. Progressives and those who made up the ‘Obama coalition’ were discouraged after two years of tepid political action and a general disappointment over the positions and programs of Obama’s presidency to that point. All reports indicated that the key issue for voters was the economy and unemployment, and yet after the election, to hear conservative politicians tell it, it was this mantra that government was too big, spending exceeded revenues, and the voters have voiced their desire to put an end to government regulations and reduce the national debt. The neoliberal agenda is now in full swing, Republicans at all levels of government speak with one voice, and social programs are on the radar to be eliminated. Emboldened conservatives are demanding major cuts in social programs to the tune of over $60bn in the current budget, and are attacking the favorite targets of the Right. Programs like National Public Radio and Headstart programs for children are on the chopping block, and even the Obama administration is climbing on the bandwagon by proposing to cut funding for LIHEAP (Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program) designed to subsidize fuel costs for the indigent. With no sense of embarrassment, and with the rhetoric pouring out about the need to curtail the deficit even as these targets hardly put a dent in the problem, critical services long opposed by conservatives are in line for defunding. Regulations designed to protect consumers or curtail the actions of corporations in finance, pharmaceuticals, mineral extraction, oil exploration, food production and all the rest are called ‘job killing’ restraint, and either the regulations are being dismantled and altered or the enforcement arm of government agencies are having budgets slashed. A feeding frenzy has begun on the right, and the target is all those programs and policies that enable workers to fight for a decent life. What cannot be done on the Federal level is being done in many of those state governments recently captured by conservatives. Governors of many states have announced cutbacks on Medicaid and a reduction in the number of weeks unemployed workers can receive benefits, all the while cutting business and other taxes. Perhaps the most transparent of these efforts are seen in Wisconsin and Ohio, where any semblance of a rationale to cut costs has disappeared. The recently elected Wisconsin governor and state legislature announced that in order to balance the state budget, concessions from state workers are necessary and the only way to ensure these concessions is to legislatively deny public sector workers the right to collective bargaining. Never mind that a business tax cut passed in the opening of the legislative year in Wisconsin resulted in a loss of Critical Sociology 37(5) 507 –511 © The Author(s) 2011 Reprints and permission: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/0896920511408343 crs.sagepub.com 408343 CRSXXX10.1177/0896920511408343FasenfestCritical Sociology