"Right-to-work" lie exposed in '69

Officials in Kentucky who try enacting unconstitutional "right-to-work" laws at the county level are flat-out kooks. There's no ambiguity about that.

The "right-to-work" Taliban is usually careful nowadays to say the purpose of this law isn't to break labor unions. That's a lie. The law pulverizes unions - even criminalizes unionization - and what happened in South Carolina in 1969 proves it.

Back in 1969, hundreds of hospital workers in Charleston went on strike for months. The workers were trying to fight back against the racism they experienced in the workplace - racism that was ingrained in the city's right-wing, militantly antiunion business leaders. The workers also protested being illegally paid a subminimum wage.

Plus, the striking workers wanted a union, and a local union chapter asked the hospitals for recognition. But then the state of South Carolina stepped in and said that the state's misnamed "right-to-work" law prohibited the workers from joining a union. Many strikers were soon arrested. The National Guard was even called out to fan out through the city and arrest the strikers.

The strike ended with the workers' pay being increased only to minimum wage. They were not permitted to unionize, and the local union chapter folded. Over a quarter-century later, one of the hospitals was still being cited for discrimination and labor law violations.

To this day, South Carolina effectively criminalizes unionization in some industries. The state even bans public school teachers from joining unions. Of course, a ban on unionizing violates the U.S. Constitution and federal statutes - but South Carolina ignores the Constitution.

America can choose one of 2 paths. A stale corporatist path means taking marching orders from ALEC and being confronted with a future guided by a South Carolina-style war on workers. Or we can take a revolutionary path - a path that frees us from corrupt politicians and acts as a safeguard for working people. You know the right path.