Help Us Fight Forced Unionism!
We at the National Right to Work Committee are fighting at many levels to protect America's working men and women's right to decide for themselves whether or not a union deserves their financial support.
Whether it be in the state and federal legislatures, the courts, or hearing rooms at the FEC or the NLRB, we fight to ensure that workers join unions because they want to -- not out of fear or federal mandate.
Please become an active member by pledging a monthly gift, or by helping us financially on one of the specific legislative efforts highlighted above.
Will union bosses start shooting their own? They did in 2006, when they went after pro-Big Labor Republicans who spent their careers carrying water for the union bosses. Now it appears Democrats are in their sights.
Frustrated by their lack of progress trying to impose their forced unionism agenda on the American people, Big Labor is talking about supporting primary challenges to “Blue Dog” Democrats and others.
Firing a teacher in New York is almost impossible thanks to the powerful teacher union that dominates City politics. Just ask Alan Rosenfeld. Rosenfeld was accused to sexual misconduct. Rather than replace him, the City was forced to put him in a room by himself allowing him to keep his $100,000 a year salary. That was in 2001. Almost a million dollars later, the City wants something done about it. Union monopoly bargaining is the cause.
Click Alert image to take action Now!
Newly-elected New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has signed an executive order ending the current system of pay to play politics in the Garden State. The order states that unions are now added to the list of groups which are barred from receiving state contracts of more than $17,500 if they had donated more than $300 to a campaign for Governor or county political committee in the previous 18 months. The order is expected to curb the union influence and patronage that was prevalant during the Corzine administration.
SEIU boss Andy Stern says the Senate “acted like terrorists” in passing the health care bill. Let’s get this straight — the Senate passed a bill that unionizes hundreds of thousands of health care workers on behalf of Mr. Stern and bailouts for union pension funds to the tune of $10 billon. But pay for it with a tax on union boss health care plans, and that makes them terrorists.
As government unions grow more powerful than private sector unions, in part because of their ability to force workers into unions through a “card check” process, the drain on taxpayers continues to grow.
California is a shining example.
The Committee was forwarded an e-mail that, in part, read:
We have just learned from our contacts in Washington that the HELP committee [U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions] has postponed other scheduled business and will conduct a hearing on the [Craig] Becker [National Labor Relations Board] nomination next Tuesday at 4 p.m.
Detroit, MI (January 28, 2010) – With free legal assistance from the National Right to Work Foundation, a citizen activist announced today that he will file an appeal with the Michigan Supreme Court in an ongoing public disclosure battle over the use of school district e-mail systems for union political activities.
In 2007, political activist Chetly Zarko from DeWitt – invoking Michigan’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) disclosure law – requested e-mail communications among Howell Education Association (HEA) union brass regarding heated collective bargaining negotiations between the Howell Public School (HPS) system and union officials. The HEA union is a local affiliate of the Michigan Education Association and National Education Association unions.
At the time of the collective bargaining conflict, Zarko suspected union boss lobbying was occurring at taxpayer expense. Zarko is seeking the release of approximately 5,500 e-mails between the union hierarchy and teachers.
HEA union officials claimed a special exception from the requirements of Michigan’s FOIA law, despite the fact that the e-mails were sent over a taxpayer funded e-mail system and the HPS’s “Acceptable Use Policy” explicitly states that e-mails sent on the server are “not consider private communication [and] may be re-posted.”
Foundation attorneys won a ruling from the Livingston Circuit Court requiring disclosure, but union lawyers managed to convince the State of Michigan Court of Appeals to overturn the lower court’s decision.
“Public resources should not be spent on the shadowy and self-serving political activities of union bosses,” said Patrick Semmens, Legal Information Director of the National Right to Work Foundation. “Howell Education Association union officials should be subject to the same public disclosure requirements as everyone else who uses taxpayer funds.”
Radical Big Labor lawyer Craig Becker has been renominated to that National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) by President Obama.
The National Right to Work Committee has opposed Becker’s nomination from the start and other groups are joining the chorus.
The Committee’s Becker Alert highlights the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) Founder Wade Rathke’s ringing endorsement of Obama’s Becker nomination. Rathke wrote, “Here’s a big win no matter how you shake and bake it: Craig Becker being nominated for a seat on the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB)!
Becker, an associate general counsel to both the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and the AFL-CIO, will likely support measures to eliminate a workers right to a secret ballot through executive action.
You can’t help but wonder if Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) reads his local newspapers. With a Senator so far out of touch with his local constituency, the obvious answer is: probably not.
Despite vehement opposition from the Las Vegas Review Journal and others, Reid keeps carrying big labor’s agenda and the taxpayers are the ones that pay the price.
