Jackson Free Press

Speaking about the goals of Freedom Summer during a speech in 1964, Robert Moses, field secretary for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee at the time, said: "If we gain the right to picket in integrated picket lines, then labor unions will gain the right to picket in integrated picket lines in Mississippi. And, possibly, the trade unions and UAW (United Auto Workers) and the Teamsters and the labor unions will move into Mississippi and begin to organize working people."

Now, Bill Chandler, a veteran labor organizer, is calling it ironic that during this 50th-year commemoration of Freedom Summer, Mississippi legislators are trying to turn back the clock on gains for workers' rights.

Yesterday, the Mississippi House of Representatives advanced several bills that would restrict labor unionizing and picketing activities, which Chandler called an "attack on the democracy."

"It's an insult to the work that people did 50 years ago," Chandler told the Jackson Free Press.

Senate Bill 2473 would make it illegal to coerce a business into staying neutral in a union drive or allowing workers to choose union representation by signing cards instead of by secret ballot. It's not clear what would constitute coercion, but businesses could sue anyone they believed engaged in it.

Union supporters have been pushing Nissan Motor Co. to declare its neutrality in an attempt by the United Auto Workers to unionize the Japanese automaker's Canton plant. Supporters have said the bill isn't specifically aimed at Nissan.

Senate Bill 2653 tries to restrict mass picketing of a residence or place of business. It says pickets would be legal as long as they weren't violent and didn't block entrances. But it also makes getting an injunction against picketing easier.

Rep. Dennis DeBar, R-Leakesville, argued for the bill by saying it "maintains our state as a known right-to-work state." But Rep. Oscar Denton, D-Vicksburg, said it's unneeded. "I've been a union person all my life," he said. "I've even picketed. As of today, most pickets are peaceful."

Senate Bill 2797, as rewritten by the House, appears to require legislative approval any time an employer or a union agrees to waive some rights as part of a "labor peace agreement."

Opponents of the bills question whether some are legal under federal law and whether others would have any practical effect. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce supports all the bills.

"They're over there passing laws to keep people beat down when they make a pitiful wage," Robert Shaffer, president of the Mississippi AFL-CIO union federation, told the Associated Press.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.