Today's TTR highlights the Right's latest complaints about the Employee Free Choice Act, the next steps in the U.S.- Latin American relationship, Mexico's descent into chaos, and the U.S.'s increasingly disturbing incarceration rates.
- More EFCA myths. They aren’t just opposed to “card check” anymore. As the struggle over the Employee Free Choice Act heats up, conservative politicians and business interests are expanding their attack on the bill. A new study released by the Heritage Foundation moves beyond routine accusations that “card-check” restricts workplace democracy to make the spurious claim that “EFCA would effectively create government-run workplaces.” The allegation refers to the third section of EFCA, which would allow either party in a first-contract negotiation to seek federal mediation after 90 days of fruitless bargaining. After a further 30 days, the federal arbiter can establish a binding contract between the parties if they have still not reached an agreement. Heritage claims the provision is a violation of the rights of both employers and employees because “EFCA replaces good faith bargaining with government imposed contracts.” But this claim assumes parity between the two sides, which is rarely, if ever, the case. Under current labor laws, employers dominate the process and may not bargain in good faith, indefinitely stalling contract negotiations until employees lose faith in their union, and vote it out; some 44 percent of newly-recognized unions fail to obtain their first contract. The Heritage report concludes by claiming that “workers would lose all say over working conditions,” but the truth is that many American employees already lack any control over their workplace, which is why EFCA is so important to begin with. -- JB
- List of things (we oughta do). Third in line to put its stamp on a new policy agenda for Latin America (after the Council on Foreign Relations and Brookings) is the Inter-American Dialogue. As radical as each report comes off, given the necessity of responding to Latin America’s new “independence, confidence, and competence,” as this report puts it, none is truly stitched from whole cloth. The Dialogue’s ten-point agenda, meant for Obama's eyes, echoes Brookings’, which echoed CFR’s. The Dialogue angle prioritizes the economic crisis -- of course -- and depressingly characterizes it as “a fresh source of resentment” for Latin America towards the U.S. A few U.S. gestures could alleviate the discontent: Ending fruitless sanctions against Cuba; resuming normal diplomatic relations with Venezuela; and ending the deportation of undocumented Haitians in order to respect “the most destitute and precarious nation in the Americas.” The report also covers drug policy towards Mexico (which, to the Dialogue, is “not in danger of becoming a failed state”), the importance of making friends with Brazil, the implications of comprehensive immigration reform, and the reasons to ratify free trade with Colombia and Panama. -- CP
- The economics of a drug war. Mexico is, quite literally, exploding. As the Brookings Institute reports, Mexico’s recent wave of drug-related violence has already surpassed the levels seen in Colombia during the drug wars there during the late 1980s and early 1990s. The statistics are startling. Brookings states that at least 6,290 people were killed throughout 2008. Over the past two months alone, more than 1,000 drug-related deaths have been confirmed. Alarming, absolutely. Surprising? Well, not when analyzed in context. Drug lords are facing the same recessionary pressures as everyone else. In crass economic speak, Mexican drug cartels are utilizing their largest comparative advantage -- abundant violence -- to lower their operational costs by significantly raising the stakes -- in terms of money and lives -- for Mexican law enforcement. The predictable cycle goes as follows: drug-funded militias overwhelm meagerly equipped police forces, precipitating community-wide unrest which leads to less (American) tourism, which leads to less municipal revenue, leads to budget cuts, leads to fewer officers, and on down the line. This psychological impact of off-duty police assassinations is also taking its toll, as they are not only increasing in regularity, but are ravaging the political landscape. And lest we falsely assume the moral high ground in these matters, consider this: 90 percent of the firearms used by the Mexican cartels were purchased in the U.S. Sobering, to say the least. But we’ll save a gun-policy rant for another day. -- JL
- Correcting corrections policy. One in one hundred adults in the United States is behind bars (leading the world's countries) and one in 31 is under correctional supervision, a report released last week by the Institute for Southern Studies shows. The Institute reveals that the South leads the nation in locking people up. Louisiana tops the list of states with high incarceration rates and Georgia has the highest percentage of its population under correctional control. While progressives have been drawing attention to the need to reform the correctional system for decades, the recession and the resulting budget crunch are causing many Southern states to rethink policies such as capital punishment, mandatory minimum sentences, and "three strikes, you're out" laws. Studies find that it costs less to imprison someone for life than it does to execute him or her, and that probation and parole are a lot less expensive than incarceration. -- MK
-- TAP Staff
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