THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, June 25, 1994 TAG: 9406210016
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A10 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: Medium
DATELINE: 940625 LENGTH:
Senator Faircloth and all big business (as his constituents) are terrified to think that if SB 55 is passed, it will help to level the playing field between labor and management and make it unlawful for employers to permanently replace lawful strikers with other personnel.
{REST} The right of employees to strike is their legal, protected right, guaranteed by federal law - the National Labor Relations Act.
The right to strike without fear of reprisal is fundamental in a democratic society; however, when management can legally replace strikers with others, the scales are overwhelmingly tipped in favor of management. Workers' rights and dignity and genuine collective bargaining suffer.
Senator Faircloth insinuates - as does some anti-union big business - that one's right to work is in jeopardy.
The right-to-work law in states such as Virginia and North Carolina says that employees have the right to join a union or the right to not join a union, and that the right of an employee to be employed shall not be denied because of membership or non-membership in any labor union. It is understandable that Senator Faircloth would try to cloud the issue of the striker-replacement bill with the right-to-work law, which is not even at issue.
So when Senator Faircloth says to contact our senators to urge them to support his ``right-to-work filibuster'' against SB 55, he really means help him in the Senate to defeat a bill that would assure that the dignity of all workers' right to strike without being permanently replaced is denied and that the scales of labor-management relationships must stay tipped in favor of management.
BRUCE E. WOOLRIDGE
Norfolk, June 13, 1994 by CNB