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Workers' rights are under attack across the country. The attacks on public employees' collective-bargaining rights in Wisconsin and other states are the headline grabbers. But there is also a lesser-known assault -- of national importance -- on aviation and rail workers that strikes at the heart of our democracy. A bill before Congress, the FAA Reauthorization and Reform Act of 2011 (H.R. 658), includes a provision that would reinstate the anti-democratic practice of counting workers who don't participate in a secret-ballot union election as having voted against the union.

This piece was originally published in Politico

By: Rep. Rosa DeLauro and Heidi Hartmann

Across America, hardworking teachers, police officers, firefighters, nurses and other public employees are being squeezed from two directions.

On one hand, cutting deficits has become the main budgetary priority in Washington and state capitals, which means pay freezes or layoffs for hundreds of thousands of these middle-class workers. Meanwhile, in Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana and other states, governors are using the real problem of budget deficits as a justification to pursue a long-term goal: union busting.

Whether by design or default, this two-pronged assault on the public sector disproportionately hurts women.

Health Care for America Now has released a study showing that in 2010, the last year before market regulations from health care reform take effect, insurance companies posted huge profits despite the catastrophic recession that plagued the rest of the country.