Martin Luther King on “right to work”

January 15, 2019

“In our glorious fight for civil rights, we must guard against being fooled by false slogans, such as ‘right to work.’ It is a law to rob us of our civil rights and job rights. Its purpose is to destroy labor unions and the freedom of collective bargaining by which unions have improved wages and working conditions of everyone…Wherever these laws have been passed, wages are lower, job opportunities are fewer and there are no civil rights. We do not intend to let them do this to us. We demand this fraud be stopped. Our weapon is our vote.” —Martin Luther King, speaking about right-to-work laws in 1961

There are things in this world, that are deceitful, and IMO, the so-called "right to work" is one of the worst. If anything, it is more of a "right to fire." In those r2w lies, the truth is that a company can fire you for no reason, whatsoever. I've talked with men and women, and it's wrong. One woman, her mother died, and she had to take time off from work. About a month later, she couldn't meet quota at her sales job, so was let go. Of course her quota will be lower, due to "unscheduled time off," to deal with family issues.

More than anything, the r2w prevails in making it hard for unions to exist, which are there to help protect the workers. The corporate media, of course, loves to portray "evil union bosses," like in the 90s Spider-man. They also like to portray them as overpaid and lazy scum, like in the original Flintstones.

Yet many seem to forget that there were long working hours, often +12 hours a day. Not only that, but they often applied to kids. Factories were (and maybe in some cases, still are) very dangerous. Adults, as well as kids, could be killed, or maimed for life. This is one of the big things unions helped to protect workers from.

I really liked reading about The Battle of Blair Mountain, which was the largest labor uprising in United States history and one of the largest organized armed uprisings since the American Civil War. From the beginning, the miners perceived the enforcement of martial law as one-sided. Hundreds of miners were arrested; the smallest of infractions could mean imprisonment, while those on the side of "law and order" were seen as immune.

Miners along the Little Coal River were among the first to militarize, and began actions such as patrolling and guarding the area. Sheriff Don Chafin sent Logan County troopers to the Little Coal River area, where armed miners captured the troopers, disarmed them and sent them fleeing. [This is one of many reasons we have The Second Amendment, for when we have a corporate owned government, that oppresses the people, and we must defend ourselves from the tyranny, especially when it allows outright murder, and doesn't punish the murderers].

At Blizzard's trial, the unexploded bomb was used as evidence of the government and companies' brutality, and he was acquitted. [To get what they want, the big money bought from local county up to federal government thugs, and was even willing to use bombs to force their ways on people. If a company is having to resort to evictions, guns, and bombs, there's something wrong with them, and what they're doing.]

John Sayles' 1987 film Matewan depicts the Matewan Massacre, a small part of the Blair Mountain story. [I would highly recommend finding the film, online or off. Instead of paying workers, they were given scrips for "the company store." "Live for the company, die for the company."]