News / Human Rights

GOP presidential candidate seeks draconian restrictions on unions

Monday, 14 September 2015 2:59 PM [ Last Update: Tuesday, 15 September 2015 1:37 PM ]

US Republican presidential candidate Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker fields questions at The Family Leadership Summit at Stephens Auditorium on July 18, 2015 in Ames, Iowa. (AFP photo)

US Republican presidential candidate Scott Walker is seeking draconian restrictions on labor unions in the United States, a new report has revealed.

According to an exclusive report by the Associated Press published on Sunday, the Wisconsin governor will propose eliminating unions for employees of the federal government during a town hall meeting in Las Vegas.

Walker, who has only 2 percent support in a poll released on Monday, is attempting to replicate across America what he did as governor in Wisconsin to curb the power of unions, the report said.

The 47-year-old has suffered the steepest decline over the past two months, falling from 13 percent to 2 percent.

Walker is trying to scrap the US federal agency that monitors unfair labor practices across the country and making it almost impossible for unions to organize.

Labor law experts said Walker's proposals, if implemented successfully, would significantly reduce the power of organized labor in the United States.

Walker, however, said the goal of his efforts is "to achieve fairness and opportunity for American workers."

"This will not be easy," Walker told the Associated Press. "Many — including the union bosses and the politicians they puppet — have long benefited from Washington rules that put the needs of special interests before needs of middle-class families."

Experts have slammed Walker's proposals, which they say seek to undo decades of law and would destroy the historic National Relations Labor Act, which was adopted in 1935 and signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt during the Great Depression.

"I've never seen anything like this," said Ann Hodges, a professor at the University of Richmond who has studied labor law for over four decades.

"This will take the breath away from anyone who's worked in labor relations for any length of time. ... It's pretty draconian," she added.

Walker's proposals also demand prohibiting automatic withdrawal of union funds to be used for political purposes and disallowing union organizers to access employees' personal information.

Lee Adler, a labor law expert at Cornell University, said the Wisconsin governor’s plan would sabotage workers' rights and weaken the American middle class.

"Mr. Walker could only be making these type of proposals to satisfy his most backward-looking, wealthy contributors, just as he pursued, as governor, policies advanced by these people that sought to destroy school teachers and other public employees' rights in Wisconsin," Adler stated.

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