They say that 49 percent should be invited into the labor movement to, for example, lobby on pro-worker legislation or to get out the vote.
As long as we promote anti-worker legislation and policies, the real cost of work-related injuries will be shifted to Social Security, and workers will suffer.
The state was the first to dismantle its Department of Labor, and the Republican-dominated State Legislature has been such a staunch defender of business that any pro-worker legislation has little if any chance.
In Washington, Republican lawmakers are pushing the biggest temporary-worker legislation since the Bracero program, which brought in waves of Mexican workers in the 1940's and 1950's.
In 1970, as legislative director of the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers Union, he played a crucial role in securing passage of the Occupational Safety and Health Act, which is often called the most important pro-worker legislation of the last 50 years.
With respect to worker legislation, downstream users have to identify further workplace-specific conditions and hazards in their risk assessment.
Such seemingly pro-worker legislation can have a perverse effect: knowing that they cannot dismiss workers in the event of a business downturn or unsatisfactory job performance, firms are reluctant to hire workers in the first place.
Advocates in five other states are launching similar campaigns for domestic worker legislation.
"The defeat of this poisonous anti-worker legislation is a victory for all workers across the country," Richard Trumka, the federation's president, said in a statement.
The next battle in the struggle for workers' rights is the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), the most important pro-worker legislation since the original National Labor Relations Act was passed in 1935.
