Right to Work Blog

The Blogger News Network has compiled the top five reasons why Congress should enact a National Right to Work Law. It’s a nice start!

Here are five reasons why forced association with unions breeds corruption and why right to work laws are good to stem that coercion.

1. Freedom to Associate Also Means Freedom Not to Associate – The average man on the street, as well as constitutional scholars, understands that any genuine personal right should include the freedom to refrain from exercising that right.

2. Right to Work Bolsters Job Creation, Personal Income Growth – In addition to freeing millions of Americans from the yoke of forced union dues, a national Right to Work law would at the same time help to improve our nation’s economy.

3. Right to Work’s Benefits Reach Citizens at All Income Levels – In addition to protecting the freedom of association and promoting economic development, Right to Work laws are an anti-poverty program with a proven record of success.

4. Passage of a National Right to Work Law Would Eliminate All Forced-Dues Politicking by Private-Sector Union Bosses – Not passing a national Right to Work law means not only that American workers will be denied a brighter economic future. It also means that millions of private-sector workers will continue to be forced to contribute to political candidates they do not wish to support.

5. A National Right to Work Law Would Reduce Union Corruption – The incestuous relationship between forced union dues and corruption was captured perfectly by the late U.S. Sen. John McClellan (D-Ark.): “Compulsory unionism and corruption go hand in hand.” McClellan was referring to the corruption inherent within labor organizations that depend on the forced tribute of workers.

The Rocky Mountain News has now weighed in against Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter’s efforts to empower the state employees union with special bargaining power. Ritter’s self-inflicted wound continues to fester and bleed, but it looks like the legislature will need to step in and reverse the power grab.

As the News pointed out:

There’s a lesson here for us. Ritter’s assurance that state workers will be prohibited from striking is unassuring. New Yorkers have been often afflicted by illegal public employee strikes, slowdowns or sickouts, followed by union demands for amnesty.

The governor’s executive order is the first stage of bad public policy that, if not reversed, Coloradans will come to sorely regret.

Forced unionism is bad public policy and bad politics.

When the city of Nogales, Arizona stopped deducting union-dues money from city employee paychecks, the AFL-CIO reportedly went nuts. According to KVOA, News 4, they are urging a boycott of the city and a recall of the mayor. It seems the union bosses know that having to go get the money from their workers on their own may not work out as well as automatic deductions.

Anyone planning a winter vacation to Arizona? You might want to stop by Nogales and thank them for standing up to union officials who are used to making and getting any demand they want — especially when negotiating for taxpayer money.

Picketing isn’t what it used to be. National Public Radio [NPR] notes that the 30 people picketing in front of a bank in Washington, DC are not from the Carpenters Union, but, are homeless people being paid $8 an hour. Isn’t that a type of outsourcing top union officials at the AFL-CIO rail against?

The Weekly Standard has noticed how much Big Labor plans to spend in the upcoming national elections and what they intend to buy after they finish:

The AFL-CIO is planning to spend $53.4 million on get-out-the-vote efforts during the 2008 campaign, according to the Wall Street Journal. The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees is aiming for $60 million. (Both organizations budgeted only $48 million in 2004.) The top spender in the 2004 election, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), also plans to exceed its 2004 budget of $65 million.

What are they buying? The Card Check Forced Unionism Bill is priority number one! And repeal of all 22 state Right to Work laws would be a “nice” trophy, too.

Unfortunately, according to the Standard:

Big Business isn’t as unified and often prefers concession over conflict. “Confrontation is bad for business,” one trade association lobbyist notes. “Businesses have never been effective at combating labor.”

While business has never been good at standing up to organized labor bosses, Americans who oppose forced unionism have been fighting and will continue to fight to protect workers’ rights during the threatening, dark days ahead.

When Moveon.org attacked the patriotism of Gen. David Petraeus calling him “General Betray Us,” Americans were outraged. But the personal attack was effective enough to get its backer, Tom Matzzie, a promotion with the Big Labor-funded group “Democracy Alliance.” The Vice-Chair of the “Democracy Alliance” is Anna Berger, the former chairman of “Change to Win” labor union federation.

Big Labor Democrats are up to their old tricks. It seems that in their minds, they can think of no better way to celebrate Veterans’ Day, than to “h[o]ld off final passage” of a sure-pass “stand-alone bill containing veterans money . . . so they could meld it with the Labor-HHS [Health and Human Services] measure,” which reportedly contains some “. . . 2274 earmarks worth $1 billion. . . .” Now, reportedly, in order for the veterans to get their money, the measure would give $1.5 million of the people’s money to the AFL-CIO hierarchy’s so-called “Working for America Institute” and $2.2 million for the AFL-CIO bosses’ “Appalachian Council.”

During this election year, I wonder what the Union Bigwigs are going to use the extra money for?

Read more in Robert Novak’s Veterans’ Day article in the Washington Post.

Readers of this blog are familiar with the ongoing efforts by the union bosses to transfer authority over U.S. labor law to United Nation affiliate organizations like the International Labor Organization (ILO).

Doug Bandow has written a summary of the efforts which include campaigns to expand United Nations access to U.S. work sites for inspections.

Bandow writes:

. . . [T]hese issues should be decided in the U.S. by Americans — not by an unaccountable bureaucracy an ocean away.

If ILO staffers come calling, Americans should welcome them warmly and inform them that the U.S. is a free country in which liberty runs both ways. Workers can choose to unionize. They also can choose not to unionize. Ultimately those choices will be decided by Americans in America.

The passage of H.R. 980, a bill that would would override state laws and make Big Labor bosses monopoly bargaining agents for local and state police, firefighters, county paramedics, and other public safety officers across America, has a bizarre side-effect — it would ultimately subject tens of thousands of firefighters to harsh new penalties, up to and including termination, for volunteering to put out fires in case of emergencies. No where are the negative consequences of the bill more apparent than in California where hundreds of professional firefighters volunteered on their own time to put out raging brushfires that destroyed hundreds of homes last month.

Writing in the North County Times, Sunana Batra, who lives in Encinitas, California, notes that passage of H.R. 980 by the U.S. Senate:

. . . would mandate unionization of EMTs, firefighters and policemen across America. States and localities who choose not to recognize public sector unions would face a federal override, with Washington setting labor rules. There’s a provision in the bill that opens the door for punishing professional firefighters from “volunteering” with “rival” units. A volunteer unit could be a “rival” to the city or county (unionized) unit.

Two weeks ago, Palomar Mountain was saved by 24 members of the Palomar Mountain Volunteer Fire Department who forced back the flames, preventing most of the mountain’s 300 homes from being lost to the Poomacha fire. They would be considered a “rival” unit to the Escondido Fire Department under the current version of HR 980.

The volunteer fire service is one of the most valuable resources a community can have, according to emergency service personnel. It is those men and women who go into harm’s way to save the lives and properties of countless people each year. According to the National Fire Protection Association, 72 percent of U.S. firefighters are volunteers. Most communities with less than 25,000 residents are protected by volunteer fire departments, anchored by a core of professional firefighters who volunteer during their free time.

Discouraging a highly skilled group of professionals who care about their communities, and have the talent to prevent a vast damage in any way from volunteering their expertise, because it may jeopardize their job, is simply repulsive to this taxpayer.

Columnist Doug Bandow writes that:

Congress should keep its hands off of local labor relations. Cities, counties, and states should be able to organize their emergency services departments as they see fit. Equally important, Washington should leave individual firefighters alone. What is more American than professionals going ahead and volunteering some of their time to save their fellow Americans? That’s something we should encourage, not discourage

Bravo!

The Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council’s “Small Business Survival Index 2007” has ranked South Dakota, Nevada and Wyoming as the best three states in the nation for job creation and small business entrepreneurship. Not surprisingly, all three states have enacted Right to Work laws. In fact, of the top ten states for business, eight are Right to Work states.

Nevada, in particular, has been a beneficiary of its status as a Right to Work state. Ranked second on the study, the Silver State borders California where Big Labor dominates the political and business environment. Businesses seeking to create jobs and escape the regulatory burdens and high taxes of California have found a much better entrepreneurial environment in Nevada.

As reported in the Reno Gazette, the Index cited “Nevada for its lack of personal and corporate income taxes and other costs as well as for being a right-to-work state,” as the main reasons businesses are thriving.