“Fighting Bob” La Follette Endorses Public Employee Unions

“Fighting Bob” La Follette Got It Right in 1911
Scott Walker Gets It Wrong in 2011

In response to government harassment of unionizing federal railway postal workers in April 1911, Wisconsin Senator, “Fighting Bob” La Follette said:

“The railway mail clerks have the right to organize. If the officers of the department are endeavoring to prevent them from doing so by threats of dismissal, such action is without legal or moral right. If I find conditions in the railway postal service to be generally such as has been reported, I shall introduce and do everything in my power to pass a bill to prevent the continuation of such un-American practices and to preserve for all government employees the right of petition which belongs to every citizen and the right to form or join organizations for the improvement of their labor conditions.”

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(source: Portland Morning Oregonian, 4/08/1911, page 2).

"Fighting Bob" La Follette