Criminalizing the Rights of Labor

In: Dissent: a journal devoted to radical ideas and the values of socialism and democracy, Band 42, S. 363-367

Abstract

A review of the impact of judicial decisions & legislative measures on US labor relations & the rights of workers to organize as a trade union chronicles the problems faced by southern CA drywall installers since the early 1990s. Drywallers were marginalized in the construction trades as area home building declined in the mid-1980s & the union lost its control. In 1992, grass-roots organizing led to a strike by drywallers, later supported by the regional labor movement & the carpenters' union. Following settlement of the strike, a lawsuit was brought against organizers of the strike, citing violation of the Racketeer Influenced & Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO). Features of the RICO lawsuit are examined, focusing on the insidious use of this legislation originally targeted at organized criminal activities in legitimate business to undermine the preemptive status of federal labor law over conflicting law. J. Sadler