Subsidized Union-Busting

Josh Eidelson at Salon recently reported that Federal contracting firms are using taxpayer money for anti-union activities. In just one more stunning demonstration of class warfare on working people, a company called Serco that runs one of many government services for a profit is using part of its contract to force employees to watch anti-union films and listen to anti-union speeches on the clock. Serco doesn't own the facilities or equipment used for these disgusting activities, and using the same rationale right-wing reactionaries use on us, they are using taxpayer money to bring in a professional union-busting lawyer for $350/hour.

Sickening is all I can think. Not only has the business class effectively muscled into government as a for-profit middleman to do work formerly accomplished just fine by actual non-profit government workers, but now they steal taxpayer money to infringe on the freedom of contract workers to organize. And in violation of the law. Not simply the old and practically forgotten, unenforced NLRB regulations but an executive order passed by President Obama early in his administration.

Is it even possible to count all the ways the bosses screw us with government help? Tax benefits for shutting down factories here and shipping them overseas are old news. But this contracting scam is really dispicable. Not only can we not choose to buy from these parasites, but they get to siphon off public funds to recycle into right-wing politicians' campaigns and keep the profits rolling in for the union-busting industry. Only in a society completely dominated by relentless class warfare is this possible. Democracy is a pretty thin reed when so many functions of government have simply been infected by contracting viruses.