Worker Rights and Consumer Rights

Limiting Worker and Consumer Rights, Privatizing Government Services, and Pushing "Free" Trade Through the corporate-funded American Legislative Exchange Council, global corporations and state politicians are voting behind closed doors to try to rewrite state laws. Bills on this page limit workers rights and drain labor unions of resources for protecting employees, undermine consumer protections, favor the Wall Street financial agenda, limit the ability to cap exorbitant interest rates on credit cards and big bank fees. The bills and resolutions here also attempt to funnel tax dollars to for-profit corporations through privatization schemes and push the "free trade" agenda that has shipped good-paying American jobs overseas. Through ALEC, corporations have both a VOICE and a VOTE on specific state laws to change worker and consumer rights. Do you?

READ the "Model Bills" HERE Click here for a zip file of Worker's Rights, Trade, Pensions & Privatization bills Click here for a zip file of Banking, Consumer Rights & Housing bills Click here for a zip file of Property/Auto Insurance & Transportation bills Click here for a zip file of Telecommunications & IT bills For a full list of bills from this section, click here For descriptions of some of these bills, scroll down or click here. Joel Rogers on ALEC & Worker Rights Watch Joel Rogers, professor of law, political science, public affairs, and sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Director of the Center on Wisconsin Strategy, discuss ALEC and the corporate efforts to undermine worker rights. Watch other ALEC Exposed experts here. Read Joel Rogers' and Laura Dresser's article in The Nation here.

How YOU Can Expose ALEC & Share What You Learn SPREAD THE WORD. Share information about ALEC through Facebook, e-mail and Twitter. Concerned groups and people in every state need this to investigate how ALEC corporations are rewriting laws for their own advantage. And, please join the conversation on Facebook! EXPOSE ALEC LEGISLATORS. Demand the truth about which politicians in your state are in ALEC. Uncover whether YOUR tax dollars are paying ALEC "dues." Expose politicians who accept “scholarships” from ALEC's corporate-funded coffers for fancy trips. EXPOSE ALEC'S ROLE IN YOUR STATE HOUSE. Read these corporate-backed "model bills" NOW and cross-check them with bills in your state legislature. Ask your local media to report on what you have found and write your local newspaper. SHARE YOUR DISCOVERIES. Tell us what you uncovered! Tweet what you learn with the hashtag #ALECexposed, join a discussion on this site or email us a confidential tip via editor AT ALECexposed.org. And, follow our tweets on Twitter!

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Learn MORE about the "Model Bills" ALEC Corporations Are Backing to Rewrite YOUR Rights The Center for Media and Democracy analyzed the bills ALEC politicians and corporations voted for. More analysis is available below and also at ALEC Exposed's sister sites, PRWatch and SourceWatch.

How do these bills attack working people? Through this "model legislation," corporations are eroding the rights of workers. These bills: Limit union rights through "right to work" legislation, and specifically limit the rights of firefighters, police, teachers, and other public workers by: Prohibiting dues deduction from paychecks (or limiting dues deductions), and Allowing employees to opt-out of union dues but benefit from union negotiations with the employer (See also this bill), and Opposing release time for union activities from being negotiated as part of employment contracts, and Dramatically changing pension rights for public employees from defined benefits to defined contributions, transferring the management of pension funds to private companies, and even opposing socially conscious investments by those pension funds. Limit wages by: Repealing minimum wage laws or opposing increases in the minimum wage. Repealing the prevailing wage paid for government projects, which lowers wage standards, potentially lowers the quality of public works projects, and undermines the competitiveness of potential contractors that have union employees. Push international agreements that undermine the opportunities of American workers by: Favoring so-called "free trade" agreements that ship good-paying American jobs overseas to developing nations that pay workers subsistence wages. See the list here. Use tax dollars to subsidize for-profit corporations for work traditionally performed by government, such as: The Council on Efficient Government Act that outsources public services and weakens public employee unions, and The Competitive Contracting of Public Services Act and Public-Private Fair Competition Act, bills that require agencies to consider whether services can be provided by private entities at lower cost, which reduces the amount paid to workers while adding a profit margin in for corporate executives. Deter injured employees from making worker’s compensation claims by, for example, giving employers wide access to employees' medical records. To see a full list of these bills, click here. Union-Busting in Wisconsin Wisconsin Governor and ALEC alumni Scott Walker took a cue from ALEC's corporate wish list and introduced a radical bill in February, 2011 to cripple public employee unions. Wisconsin Act 10 inspired months of protests and has been subjected to a series of legal challenges. There is no ALEC bill that exactly mirrors Walker's proposal, but the Wisconsin bill does comport with ALEC's sweeping anti-union agenda, which includes decades of support for "Right to Work", Paycheck Protection" legislation and other measures to disempower and defund unions. On collective bargaining, ALEC's "Public Employee Freedom Act" declares that "an employee should be able to contract on their own terms" and "mandatory collective bargaining laws violate this freedom." This ALEC bill, and the "Public Employer Payroll Deduction Act", prohibit automatic payroll deductions for union dues, a key aspect of the Walker bill. Have any of these bills been introduced or enacted in YOUR state? --- Helpful Resources Additional resources on ALEC's corporate agenda: ALEC Funding, PRWatch (2011) American Legislative Exchange Council and other related articles, SourceWatch (2011) A Case Study in How Corporations Get What they Want, Nieman Watchdog, (2008) Ghostwriting the Law for Corporate America, American Association for Justice (2010) Climate Denial Report on ALEC and Exxon Funding for ALEC, Greenpeace (2011) Governing the Nation from the Statehouses, Progressive States Network (2006) Wolves in Sheep's Clothing, Common Cause (2006) Exposing ALEC, blogging group, Daily KOS (2011) ALEC: The Voice of Corporate Special Interests In State Legislatures, People for the American Way (2011) Corporate America's Trojan Horse in the States, Defenders of Wildlife and the Natural Resources Defense Council (2002) Ghostwriting the Law, Mother Jones (2002) ALEC Report, Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice (2011)

In what ways do these bills undermine consumer rights? These bills restrict the rights of consumers in favor of the big banks, predatory lenders, and others by: Opposing the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), created to help police Wall Street and protect consumers. Some politicians are also trying to block Elizabeth Warren from leading the the CFPB. (Also Encouraging pension fund investment in real estate securities.) Opposing limits on astronomical credit card rates, and thus opposing efforts to limit Americans’ credit card debt Opposing limits on ATM fees Allowing insurance companies to engage in "red-lining" by re-branding the practice as "territorial ratings" Prohibiting local governments from regulating unfair or predatory lending practices, such as prohibitions on backing high interest loans with car titles, detailed below. Eliminating building and maintenance codes for affordable housing under the guise of "increasing the construction of low-income housing" And among other things, limiting the ability to fund comprehensive transportation policies through a state Constitutional Amendment requiring that revenues from gas taxes and vehicle-related fees be used for highways, rather than investment in light rail, bike lanes or other options less profitable for oil companies. To see a full list of these bills, click here. Did You Know about these Bills? Telecom Deregulation in Wisconsin Bruce Kushnick, writing for Nieman Watchdog in 2008 (part of the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University), identified several Wisconsin "telecom" bills inspired by ALEC model legislation: The Broadband Deployment Act of 2003, which frees the telecom industry from oversight, resembled the ALEC Broadband and Telecommunications Deployment Act. The bill was introduced by Sen. Ted Kanavas (R) & Rep. Scott Jensen (R) (who was later charged with misusing taxpayer dollars), and passed. A Municipal broadband bill, co-sponsored in 2004 by Sen. Kanavas (R) & Rep. Phil Montgomery (R) (who was given an ALEC "legislator of the year" award in 2005), would block municipalities from competing with corporate providers of broadband services; it was based on the ALEC Municipal Telecommunications Private Industry Safeguards Act. The bill became law. The Video Competition Act, eliminating municipal cable franchises and freeing companies from their previously-negotiated contracts, was co-sponsored in 2007 by Rep. Montgomery (R) & Sen. Jeff Plale (R), and based on the ALEC Cable and Video Competition Act. It passed the legislature but many anti-consumer provisions were vetoed by former Governor Jim Doyle (D). A 2007 Telephone Deregulation Bill, ending public oversight and regulations in Wisconsin for telephone services, was co-sponsored by Rep. Montgomery & Rep. Plale, based on the ALEC Advanced Voice Services Availability Act of 2007. Authorizing "Car Title Pledges" for Predatory Lenders One model bill approved by ALEC corporations would authorize a form of short-term lending that many states have recognized as unfair and predatory to low-income consumers. Specifically, it advances the interest of lending companies in giving short-term, 30-day renewable loans backed by a borrower's car title, loans that usually have high interest rates, which are very difficult for people in tough financial circumstances to keep up with. Consumer groups have opposed this type of lending not only because the high interest rates and short-term repayment period can trap consumers in a cycle of debt, but also because they risk losing their cars, which they often need to get to work. The bill also provides few consumer protections, for example failing to include a private right of action with strong remedies, and requiring that all claims be brought within one year. This provides little deterrence for predatory lenders, and because the budgets of regulatory agencies are limited, the state cannot adequately protect against abuses. The Consumer Federation of America, USPIRG, and the Center for Responsible Lending sent a letter to ALEC opposing "car title pledges" in November 2005, enumerating many examples of predatory title lending, and also pointing out the distorting influence of campaign contributors from this sector of sound public policy. Bills like this have become law in Mississippi, Tennessee, and elsewhere. The ban on this type of predatory lending was also rolled back in Wisconsin after ALEC alumni Scott Walker became governor in 2011.

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