Offering frequent news and analysis from the majestic Evergreen State and beyond, The Cascadia Advocate is the Northwest Progressive Institute's unconventional perspective on world, national, and local politics.

Monday, March 28, 2005

BIAW bent on seeking revenge

Just the fact that Democrats considered tying off some of the udders on the BIAW'S state sponsored cash cow has the association up in arms.

In the Seattle Times today, reporter Ralph Thomas tells us the BIAW is considering its own proposal to "get even" with the unions. It is considering sponsoring a so-called "right-to-work" initiative that would prohibit mandatory union dues.

"Right to work" is in quotes for a reason, because it is a conservative frame. It's an attempt to give more power and control to the big businesses and megacorporations. It's a proposal that the leaders of Wal*Mart are very much in favor of.

This country has come a long way from the Gilded Age largely in part because of America's union movement. To roll back the progress we've made would be like returning to a modern Gilded Age.

Companies such as Costco, which coexist peacefully with unions, have shown that business does not have to be anti-union to be successful. What goes around, comes around. Consumers are shooting themselves in the foot by patronizing stores like Wal*Mart. They're hurting our own workers and our own economy by making us dependent on foriegn goods, foriegn services, and foriegn workers.

The BIAW will go to any end to push its hardline agenda. It would like nothing more than to see Washington State's unions dissolve. The BIAW wants to destroy the power of our states' workers and enlarge their own power of their own homebuilding clique.

We cannot allow Washington State to turn into a Texas. We cannot afford to allow the BIAW to get away with tricking voters into buying this plan. They sold voters with their deceptive campaign for I-841 and the "Workers Against Job Killing Rules" committee. That was an outright lie, because the BIAW doesn't represent workers at all. I know plenty of Democrats who voted for 841 because they thought the union was for it!

They've gotten away with it in the past, but it must not happen again. Unions must mobilize early to show the BIAW any such effort to pass this dastardly junk will be met with an overwhelming show of force.

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