G. WORKPLACE DEMOCRACY
The fundamental goal of democracy is to ensure that people have a voice in the decisions that affect them, whether those decisions come from a government or an employer.
Those affected by the decisions of a more powerful entity should have a voice in those decisions, not just through informal participation in the process, but by direct vote.
There is no rational reason for any organization chartered by a democratic government to be allowed to defy this principle.
- The employees of a corporation should have half the number of representatives on the board of directors of that corporation, along with the investors, who now wrongly enjoy a monopoly on corporate board seats.
- We support card-check union recognition. If a majority of bargaining-unit employees sign union cards, the employer should be required to recognize the union without any additional election or process.
- We advocate the repeal of the Taft-Hartley Act, which strips organized labor of the right to the secondary boycott, deprives it of tactics that are legal in many other countries and allows employers unfair advantage in opposing union organizing.
- We oppose so-called "right to work" laws, which greatly weaken organized labor in many southern states, including North Carolina.
- We oppose the legal precedent of "corporate personhood," which classifies corporations as individuals having all the constitutional rights of citizens, including equal protection under the 14th Amendment. Such entities are inimical to democracy, because they are untouchable corporate super-citizens which cannot truly be held accountable to the people.
- Union organizers and employers should have equal time to make their pitches to workers, even if that requires that union officials talk to workers on the shop floor.
- All unions should have the following:
- the right to access areas in which employees work;
- the right to use employers' bulletin boards, mailboxes, and other communication media; and
- the right to use the employer's facilities for meetings that exercise any of the rights guaranteed by the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA).
- The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) should be reformed to do the following:
- upon finding that an employee was discharged as the result of an unfair labor practice, award back pay equal to three times the employee's wages from the time
- allow employees to file civil actions for punitive damages when they have been discharged as a result of an unfair labor practice;
- notify any employee wrongfully discharged of the right to sue for punitive and compensatory damages under the Labor Management Relations Act, 1947 (LMRA); and
- give unions the right to establish mediation if an employer and union cannot reach agreement on a contract within 60 days after certification of a new union.