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Bill: Freedom to organize II
Details
Submitted by[?]: Cooperative Commonwealth Federation
Status[?]: passed
Votes: This is an ordinary bill. It requires more yes votes than no votes. This bill will not pass any sooner than the deadline.
Voting deadline: January 2044
Description[?]:
| The government shall make no law infringing upon the right of workers to organize a trade union. A union shall be established when agreed upon by the majority of the employees in a workplace. Unions shall be registered with the government and must operate under a democractic constitution. No worker may be fired for trying to organize a union. |
Proposals
Article 1
Proposal[?] to change Government policy towards labor unions.
Old value:: Trade unions are illegal.
Current: Trade unions may exist and worker membership is voluntary.
Proposed: Trade unions may exist and worker membership is voluntary.
Debate
These messages have been posted to debate on this bill:
| Date | not recorded | From | Chorus of Amyst | To | Debating the Freedom to organize II |
| Message | The Amystian Council stands by its earlier concerns that demands made by unions are often the culprit behind inflation, rises in cost of living, and many other economic woes. |
| Date | not recorded | From | Cooperative Commonwealth Federation | To | Debating the Freedom to organize II |
| Message | (for new parties, this is identical to the bill defeated early in the last parliament.) |
| Date | not recorded | From | CNT/AFL | To | Debating the Freedom to organize II |
| Message | The LSU will naturally support this bill, and see it as a victory for the working classes against the capitalist oppressors. |
| Date | not recorded | From | Chorus of Amyst | To | Debating the Freedom to organize II |
| Message | See it as a step backwards! As soon as unions begin to demand things of employers, what do you think will happen? Prices will increase, inflation will occur, and the union workers will end up with less spending power than they started with. |
| Date | not recorded | From | Lodamun Centre-Left Coalition | To | Debating the Freedom to organize II |
| Message | The MLP concurs with the LSU, and will fully back this bill. The Amystian concerns are unfounded. |
| Date | not recorded | From | Chorus of Amyst | To | Debating the Freedom to organize II |
| Message | Unfounded only if you ignore economics. Is the left wing so deluded that they don't expect businesses to raise prices all around if unions start to affect their profits? The union is the cause of the spiraling decline of the economy! |
| Date | not recorded | From | Cooperative Commonwealth Federation | To | Debating the Freedom to organize II |
| Message | How does the Amystian Council square its well-known support for civil rights with its current stance in favour of banning freeddom of associaiton in the workplace? The Council's current arguments appear to show that their civil-rights rhetoric is merely a smoke screen. Please note that the bill is calling only for VOLUNTARY trade unions, not the unionization of all employees. On the economic arguments: it is a demonstrable fact that workers with freedom to organize and with, yes, higher wages at times, are more productive. This will boost the overall profitability of unionized workplaces and also give workign people the ability to buy more products, a boost to Lodamun's eceonomy. |
| Date | not recorded | From | Chorus of Amyst | To | Debating the Freedom to organize II |
| Message | The Council supports civil AND economic freedom. In this particular case, the damage to economic freedom is far worse than any possible benefit to civil freedom. Claiming that because the Council does not support a single civil "freedom" means that it does not support ANY civil freedom is a ridiculous accusation. Forcing businesses to pay higher wages will harm the economy, not help it. Minimum wage (or higher wages in general) will lead to a rise in prices as the companies seek to regain the profits lost because of the new wages. The workers then have LESS spending power, or at the most, an equal amount of spending power, than before the wage increase. If wage increases are really the solution to economic problems, then why not pass legislation raising the minimum wage to one thousand dollars an hour? Certainly even the Left can see the ridiculousness of this idea when taken to its conclusion. The only way the Council would support voluntary trade union formation is if there are well-documented methods for businesses to break up such unions once their demands become unreasonable. Of course, to satisfy this, one would need to define "unreasonable" in this context in addition to the aforementioned methods, and at that point it becomes too much of a bureucratic burden to be worth it. |
| Date | 06:46:26, April 27, 2005 CET | From | To | Debating the Freedom to organize II |
| Message | The SAP supports the views of the Amystian Council. It seems obvious that a buisiness would raise prices to compensate for having to spend more - it doesn't make sense for them to just accept the fact that their net revenue will be lowered significantly when they have to pay workers extra fees. The fact that the union is voluntary has nothing to do with this, because there will still be a union that will drive up prices. If this happens, then why would business want to stay and not go somewhere else where they can find workers for cheap who are willing to put in more effort than union members. |
| Date | 18:18:45, April 27, 2005 CET | From | Cooperative Commonwealth Federation | To | Debating the Freedom to organize II |
| Message | No claim has been made that the Amystian Council does not support ANY freedom. However, it is clear that the Amystian Council supports economic freedoms first and foremost, even if that means infinging on civil rights. That is objectively acting as a voice for big business. No one has suggested FORCING businesses to pay higher wages (indeed higher wages are a much lower concern for the CCF than issues of worker rights, security of contract, and workplace safety). The only people being FORCED to do anything are those workers facing criminal charges merely for trying to exercised their right to freedom of association. Why do we arrest union organizers? Is it not up to the the conscience of the individual to decide if they want to be part of a union or not? The CCF would be willing to codify a compromise to address the concerns expressed, However, since the Council has stated there is no condition under which it will support this bill, there seems no point in trying to reach further compromise. Therefore we call for a vote. |
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Voting
| Vote | Seats | |||
| yes | Total Seats: 45 | |||
| no |
Total Seats: 20 | |||
| abstain | Total Seats: 0 |
| Random fact: References to prominent real-life persons are not allowed. This includes references to philosophies featuring the name of a real-life person (eg. "Marxism", "Thatcherism", "Keynesianism"). |
| Random quote: "The moral justification of capitalism does not lie in the altruist claim that it represents the best way to achieve 'the common good.' It is true that capitalism does, if that catch-phrase has any meaning, but this is merely a secondary consequence. The moral justification for capitalism lies in the fact that it is the only system consonant with man's rational nature, that it protects man's survival qua man, and that its ruling principle is justice." - Ayn Rand |