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Article: HARD-WON LABOR RIGHTS ARE WELL WORTH PROTECTING.(Editorial)
- Article from:
- Seattle Post-Intelligencer
- Article date:
- August 23, 2002
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2002 Seattle Post-Intelligencer. All rights reserved. Reproduced with the permission of the Dialog Corporation by Gale Group. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Byline: MICHAEL HONEY Professor
Nothing is more fundamental to America's conception of itself than the freedom of speech and assembly. Unions, declared illegal in the early years of the republic, have fought for those rights for three centuries. But unionists have still not entirely won the most basic right: to organize at the workplace and to protest bad conditions by refusing to work.
Ever since President Reagan terminated 11,000 striking air traffic controllers, existing unions have been under attack and workers organizing on the job have faced harassment and firing. The worker's right to freedom of speech and action, won in the Wagner Act of ...