1965 or 2005: Different Subject, But Same Stuff

Labor Day 2005

By: Fr. Sinclair Oubre, J.C.L.

As the thirtieth anniversary of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 approached, C-Span broadcasted President Lyndon Johnson’s powerful speech before a joint session of Congress on March 15, 1965.

President Johnson spoke a terrible and dark truth to the Congress and the nation, which both had chosen to ignore for decades. The truth was that throughout the Old South, African-American citizens, though possessing the right to vote, were systematically denied the vote through capricious and arbitrary practices by local officials, and local and state laws which made it impossible for Blacks to exercise their constitutional rights.

To really appreciate the power of President Johnson’s truth-talk, a few paragraphs of that great speech are needed:

“Yet the harsh fact is that in many places in this country men and women are kept from voting simply because they are Negroes.

“Every device of which human ingenuity is capable has been used to deny this right. The Negro citizen may go to register only to be told that the day is wrong, or the hour is late, or the official in charge is absent. And if he persists, and if he manages to present himself to the registrar, he may be disqualified because he did not spell out his middle name or because he abbreviated a word on the application.

“And if he manages to fill out an application he is given a test. The registrar is the sole judge of whether he passes this test. He may be asked to recite the entire Constitution, or explain the most complex provisions of State law. And even a college degree cannot be used to prove that he can read and write.

“For the fact is that the only way to pass these barriers is to show a white skin.

“Experience has clearly shown that the existing process of law cannot overcome systematic and ingenious discrimination. No law that we now have on the books -- and I have helped to put three of them there -- can ensure the right to vote when local officials are determined to deny it.”

Thirty years after the Voting Rights Act of 1965, only a handful of folks would imply that the egregious and systematic discrimination that prevented a significant portion of our American citizens from voting continues to persist.

However, our country still struggles with egregious and systematic policies and procedures that are designed to frustrate, if not out right deny Americans their rights under the First Amendment Bill of Rights (the rights of free speech and to peaceably assemble), which are codified in the National Labor Relations Act.

When an American worker tries to join together with his or her co-workers, and participate in collective bargaining with management, in almost every case, he or she faces weeks of harassment, firings and pressure to drop their efforts to exercise their legislatively guaranteed rights.

Recently, we saw this at Wal-Mart in Jacksonville, Texas. When a handful of meatcutters voted to be part of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, Wal-Mart chose not to participate in collective bargaining, but dissolved the position of meatcutters in hundreds of their stores. The de facto result on the Jacksonville meatcutters was that they were fired for union organizing.

Some examples of what will happen to a worker in 2005 if he or she tries to organize are:

•Before workers even begin to organize, they are threatened by management not to even try.

•If an organizing drive beings, the leaders are often fired. Every 23 minutes a worker is fired or otherwise sanctioned for exercising the basic freedom to decide whether to form a union.

•Employers may threaten to shut down the workplace

•Once the election takes place, management may participate in bad-faith bargaining to prevent a first contract.

•Management may encourage workers to start decertification campaigns.

When the pundits on tv talk about the decline in union membership, they imply that workers are rejecting unions. What is actually the case is that we are seeing the same results in organizing that existed in 1965, with access to voting. It is possible to organize, but it is so hard that very few people even try, and even fewer are successful.

Thirty years after the Voting Rights Act was signed, America has an opportunity to take a courageous step against the power and the status quo by giving a large part of its citizens the right to form and join unions. To secure and protect this right, Congress is considering the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA).

Some of the effects of EFCA will:

•A union will be certified as the bargaining representative once a majority of workers have signed cards designating their desire for a union.

•First-contract mediation after 90-days, and binding arbitration after 30-days of mediation.

•Stronger penalties for anti-union actions by employers during organizing drives.

In 1965, many White Southern citizens claimed that Black Southern Citizens did not need the right to vote. However, Black Southern citizens were systemically prevented from expressing what they truly wanted. Today, many organizations like the Association of Building Contractors and the National Right to Work Committee tell us that workers don’t want “forced” unionism. When will we let the workers speak for themselves though?

Side Bar:

(For more information on EFCA, one can go to Interfaith Worker Justice: www.iwj.org, and click the link.

Leading religions and faith traditions are clear on this issue. For instance in the 1986 Catholic Social Teaching and the U.S. Economy, the United States Catholic Bishops said, “The Church Fully supports the right of Workers to form unions . . . to secure their rights to fair wages and working conditions . . . No one may deny the right to organize without attacking human dignity.”

The Christian Methodist Episcopal Church stated, “Free collective bargaining has proved its values in our free society whenever the parties engaged in collective bargaining have acted in good faith to reach equitable and moral solutions of problems dealing with wages and working conditions.”)