Sarah Jaffe, AlterNet’s tireless labor reporter, takes an in-depth look at the consequences of stripping public sector workers of their collective bargaining rights in Wisconsin and Ohio. These laws sparked national outrage when they were passed. Now the dire predictions are coming true.

Wisconsin and Ohio, where industrial democracy goes to die:

“For all its faults, the National Labor Relations Act established that it is the policy of the US government to encourage collective bargaining,” Jacob Remes, assistant professor of public affairs and history at SUNY Empire State College, told AlterNet. “The New Deal established collective bargaining as a fundamental part of democracy–what they called industrial democracy. We talk about how the New Deal era has ended, but I think one of the great things about these fights is that they reminded people–politicians, pundits, the populace–that despite the decline of the rest of the New Deal, we still believe in at least this element of industrial democracy.”

A typical Wisconsin state employee earning $40,000 a year has seen a wage cut of over $3000. Under the new law, unions must vote to recertify every year and the law stacks the deck against recertification. At least 51% of the workers in each bargaining unit must vote to recertify, 51% of the votes in the election isn’t good enough. In principle, 100% of the voters could vote “yes” and the union would still be decertified if less than 51% of the workers voted.

Without collective bargaining rights, Wisconsin’s teachers are facing increasingly intrusive dress and conduct codes from administrators bent on rooting out “moral turpitude,” a vague term that encompasses everything from wearing jeans and skirts above the knee to “friending” their students on facebook.

Some prison guards have lost their bathroom privileges when they accompany inmates to the hospital.

The assault on the collective bargaining rights of public sector workers is just the beginning. The enemies of labor know that the public sector is the last bastion of high union density in the United States. If the public sector unions are decimated, the labor movement will lose political power and become an less effective advocate for the rights of private sector workers.

[Photo credit: Self-portrait on the first day of the term, by Cathdew, a teacher from the Netherlands. Creative Commons.]