A South Dakota House committee has reportedly killed the bill that would have taken collective bargaining rights from public workers in the state. The bill's Senate sponsor had previously reversed himself, not just withdrawing support but announcing his opposition, and, according to the Associated Press, its House sponsor "says no lawmakers will speak in favor of his bill because they fear getting attacked in their next election."
But while there's good news for working people in South Dakota, elsewhere, anti-union Republicans are showing just how determined they are to chip away at workers' rights.
In November, Ohio voters overwhelmingly rejected a bill that would have taken collective bargaining rights from public workers. Later that month, New Hampshire Governor John Lynch's veto of a right to work free rider bill was upheld.
Now, just months after New Hampshire's RTW bill went down, the state House Labor Committee is holding a hearing on another, similar bill. And in Ohio, the anti-union drive announced by tea party activists just two days after the defeat of Issue 2, is progressing: Last week, the state attorney general certified the language for the "Workplace Freedom" (right to work by another name) initiative they hope to put on November's ballot. They shouldn't look for much support from Ohio Gov. John Kasich, though, who seems to be a little gun-shy after November's defeat of his own anti-union initiative. Asked about right to work, he recently said:
[I]f you’re going to bring about massive change, that’s going to cause great unrest – I mean, I've learned this – is you've got to prepare the way. I mean, I've learned it. You take a look at our record, you know, you go out deep-sea fishing, you catch a lot of sharks. We've caught 'em. Once in a while the shark eats you, OK? [...] I don't think the public understands it, I don't think they're prepared for it, and I would say that anybody that wants to move this thing forward needs to do that before anything else.In other words, "Pushing an anti-union bill got me eaten by a shark once and I don't want to repeat the experience."
While Republicans in New Hampshire and Ohio are trying to resurrect anti-union efforts that seemed dead a few months ago, other states are just launching their own major campaigns. In Arizona, where Senate Republicans began to push a set of bills attacking public workers in ways even Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker didn't try, unions are lobbying legislators and finding that some Republicans are uncomfortable with the bills. Minnesota Republicans are still pushing to get a right to work initiative on their state's November ballot, to join the anti-gay marriage amendment they have already qualified for the ballot. Republicans in Michigan, Maine and Missouri are similarly pushing anti-union bills. Basically, anywhere workers still have union and collective bargaining rights and Republicans control a branch of government, they are waging war on workers.