Fair play doesn't pertain in bargaining. What matters there is leverage.
When it comes to protecting workers, labour conditions, labour legislation, the rights for collective bargaining, when you look at our environmental standards, when you look at our public disclosure laws and accountability and securities regulations to ensure that companies abide by the law, we don't have a level playing field with China.
The question is always 'What is the role of a labor movement?' How much is about collective bargaining, how much is about social change for all workers?
You can much better have an influence on the debate when you sit at the bargaining table and you can give input.
Unemployment insurance, abolishing child labor, the 40-hour work week, collective bargaining, strong banking regulations, deposit insurance, and job programs that put millions of people to work were all described, in one way or another, as 'socialist.' Yet, these programs have become the fabric of our nation and the foundation of the middle class.
If we are going to reverse the race to the bottom, workers must have the right to engage in collective bargaining.
The only sound approach to collective bargaining is to work out an agreement that clarifies the rights and responsibilities of the parties, establishes principles and operates to the advantage of all concerned.
Many people do not realize that where unions have bargaining rights employers cannot raise wages or improve benefit plans any more than they can reduce them without of the consent of the union.
Unfortunately, in collective bargaining one party or the other too often tries to gain an advantage - a bargain, like buying something in a store for less than it is worth.
In 2010, conservatives won big majorities in the Wisconsin State Legislature, and I openly supported many of their reforms, including changes to collective bargaining and expansions of school choice.
