BroadSnark

In honor of labor day, I’d like to bring your attention to Senate bill 1184.  It is titled the Rewarding Achievement and Incentivizing Successful Employees Act and its purpose is

S. 1184
To amend the National Labor Relations Act to permit employers to pay higher wages to their employees.

That doesn’t sound so bad. I mean who is against higher wages? Ah, that’s where this gets interesting, because it is exactly the people who are against higher wages who support this bill. Huh?

The bill was introduced by Republican Senator David Vitter of Louisiana.  You’ll remember him as the guy who was caught up in the D.C. Madam scandal and reportedly has a diaper fetish (eeeeeewww).

Vitter doesn’t exactly have a stellar labor rights record (although he did support the recent minimum wage hike).  His answer to the auto crisis was, of course, we need to decrease wages.  So why would he be supporting a bill that aims to give workers more pay.  He’s not.  The bill’s aim is to crush the ability of unions to do collective bargaining.

Notwithstanding a labor organization’s exclusive representation of employees in a unit, or the terms and conditions of any collective bargaining contract or agreement then in effect, nothing in either–(A) section 8(a)(1) or 8(a)(5), or (B) a collective bargaining contract or agreement renewed or entered into after the date of enactment of the RAISE Act, shall prohibit an employer from paying an employee in the unit greater wages, pay, or other compensation for, or by reason of, his or her services as an employee of such employer, than provided for in such contract or agreement.”

Divide and conquer. The power of a union is that all employees are in the same boat. The aim of this bill is to make those employees competitors rather than collaborators. The aim is to break up the union. And since unionized workers, and workers in more unionized industries, get better pay and benefits, breaking up unions means lowering wages.

The Alliance for Worker Freedom is a big supporter of this bill.  They sound very pro-labor.  They even have this vaguely 1930s labor movement feel to their website.  Then you find out that they are against even a minimum wage and are run by Americans for Tax Reform. Americans for Tax Reform is headed by Grover Norquist, a virulently anti-tax, uber-right, Republican-connected activist.

The bill is supported by a list of other right wing, anti-tax, anti-people organizations and was co-sponsored by Republican Senators John Barrasso, Jim Bunning, Richard Burr, Jim DeMint, John Ensign, Michael Enzi, John Isakson, Pat Roberts, John Thune, and Roger Wicker.

Booooooo.  Boooooo for the kings of putrescence.