Wisconsin leads way in workers' rights war

Lihle Mtshali: It's become a familiar scene these past two weeks: thousands of protesters holding up signs, marching, chanting and sometimes even camping out overnight outside government buildings, demanding to be heard.

But this is not Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, Bahrain or Libya. No, these protests are happening in the US. Trade unions and their members are protesting what has been called "a war on workers" being waged by Republican governors.

States across the US - which, unlike the federal government, are required to balance their budgets every year - are struggling to do so. Governors are taking the drastic measure of tightening the purse strings on public workers' benefits. This has dismayed unionists.

Tens of thousands of government workers in Wisconsin, as many as 30000 at one point, have been packing the state Capitol building for two weeks, furiously protesting Republican governor Scott Walker's plans to make major cuts and close a $3.6-billion budget deficit.

State workers are being asked to pay more towards their pension fund and medical aid contributions and some unions have already agreed to this - effectively taking a 7% pay cut.

What they are refusing to budge on is a new budget repair bill that Republicans want to pass in Wisconsin, which would end collective bargaining by public-sector trade unions and limit it to local government employees such as police and firefighters. The bill would also prohibit unions from automatically deducting union fees from their members' salaries. If an agreement is not reached on the repair bill, the state says, it will be forced to retrench as many as 10000 public employees.

This week, 14 Democratic senators ran away from the Capitol building in order to stall the signing of the bill, and were hiding out in undisclosed locations. Seems childish, but desperate times call for desperate measures, right?

New York City unions say they will bus in hundreds of their members and leadership to support their comrades in Wisconsin.

There are 44 other states facing the same budget crisis, projecting budget shortfalls totalling $125-billion.

Just as Tunisia led the way in the uprisings in Arab states, Wisconsin has been dubbed the first domino in the spread of the latest protests by government workers, with protests taking place to two other states so far: Indiana and Ohio. Some in Wisconsin say they were motivated to march by the people of Egypt.

The number of unionised workers has been dwindling in the US, with 6.9% of all private-sector workers being members of unions in 2010, according to the Bureau of Labour Statistics. In the public sector, 35% of workers belong to unions.

Unions in the US have weakened significantly over the years, which is probably not a good thing considering that the country does not have the most exemplary workers' rights. For example, a new report from Human Rights Watch has found that 178 countries guarantee paid leave for new mothers and many for new fathers - as much as 16 months in Sweden. The US falls at the bottom of this list, with Swaziland and New Guinea.

In the US there are no labour laws that compel employers to give their employees annual leave. They do so by choice. In South Africa people complain about having only 20 days' holiday every year; in the US, some have to make do with 10 days.

Fewer than half the states have laws that require employers to give their workers a lunch break.

The worst thing for me is that there are no wrongful termination laws in the US. Your boss can effectively fire you because he doesn't like you.

An axed employee would have legal recourse only if the termination was considered illegal. This would be, among other things, if he was fired because he refused to break the law; if the employer violated discrimination laws; or violated First Amendment laws - which guarantee the right of free expression, including freedom of assembly and freedom of the press and freedom of religion and freedom of speech.

Last year the UN Human Rights Council said in a report that US labour laws were an area where the US fell short in protecting the human rights of its citizens.

Critics say US labour laws fall short of American values. I have to agree.