From the Washington Examiner:

When it comes to President Obama and Democrats on Capitol Hill, what Big Labor wants, Big Labor gets. Unions spent $400 million electing Democrats in 2008, so they demanded to select which fox gets to guard the henhouse overseeing organized labor.

In the least surprising news of the week, Craig Becker — Big Labor’s go-to legal expert — has served on the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) for barely three months, and he’s already under investigation.

Becker lost a bipartisan Senate confirmation vote for the NLRB before Obama gave him a recess appointment. Becker is so pro-union he previously opined that “employers should have no right to be heard” in cases before the NLRB.

Aside from impartiality, the other concern about Becker was that the former associate general counsel for the radical Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and AFL-CIO lawyer would be embroiled with conflicts of interest regarding unions he’s now charged with overseeing.

Sure enough, on June 2, Becker joined in on an NLRB decision involving SEIU Local 1957 and denied St. Barnabas Hospital’s request to review a union election. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Ranking Member Darrell Issa, R-Calif., asked the Inspector General to examiner Becker’s conflict of interest in the matter. An investigation is underway.

After being appointed to the NLRB, Becker signed an ethics pledge that reads in part:

“I will not for a period of two years from the date of my appointment participate in any matter involving specific parties that is directly and substantially related to my former employer or former clients, including regulations and contracts.”

When you’ve received numerous paychecks from the nation’s two largest unions, upholding that ethics pledge would mean recusing yourself from an enormous number of disputes that come before the NLRB. So Becker came up with a novel solution to this quandary — he ignores the ethics pledge.

The NLRB told The Washington Examiner Becker isn’t commenting on the investigation but did pass along a windy ruling Becker authored on recusal motions. Becker argues it would be appropriate to recuse him from cases involving the national SEIU but not cases involving the local chapters because they are “distinct legal entit[ies].”

Does Becker’s hairsplitting seem reasonable? Hardly. The SEIU’s own constitution says the national union has “jurisdiction over its affiliated bodies and all Local Unions.”

In the same ruling, Becker himself notes he is further bound by the Standards of Ethical Conduct for Employees of the Executive Branch, which in part reads “Employees shall endeavor to avoid any actions creating the appearance that they are violating the law or the ethical standards. … [Whether] standards have been violated shall be determined from the perspective of a reasonable person with knowledge of the relevant facts. ”

Becker does not get to decide for himself whether his own conduct is in violation of ethical guidelines. It should have been painfully obvious to Obama that Becker is not just incapable of being impartial but also incapable of meeting the most basic ethical requirements to perform his job.

In related news, White House political director Patrick Gaspard — a former top lobbyist for the SEIU — revealed last week that he forgot to disclose that the union paid him $40,000 while working at the White House last year.

These revelations about Becker and Gaspard follow SEIU’s June announcement that it is spending $44 million for “incumbent protection.” In the Obama administration, it seems the foxes can waltz right into the henhouse — provided they pay handsomely for the privilege.

Empire State pupils enrolled in K-12 public schools fell by more than 121,000 over the last 10 years, schools added 14,746 teachers and 8,655 non-teaching professionals to their payrolls

 NRTW President Mark Mix commentary in the Washington Examiner:

July 8, 2010 Near midnight last Thursday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her fellow forced unionism apologists in the U.S. House of Representatives disgracefully amended a “must-pass” war funding bill to include language that is designed to force police officers, firefighters, and Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs) into “exclusive” union bargaining in every state in the country.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that policies expanding public sector monopoly unionism have played a major role in driving many states to the verge of insolvency.

In 2009, according to respected labor economists Barry Hirsch and David Macpherson, 41 percent of government employees nationwide were subject to a contract negotiated by a union monopoly-bargaining agent.

However, in the 22 states which prohibit forced union dues for government employees and most of which don’t authorize public-sector union monopoly bargaining, fewer than 30 percent of public workers are unionized. Not one of these 22 states was to be found on last month’s Business Insider’s list of the states “most likely to default.”

Business Insider ranked heavily unionized California, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, New York, New Jersey, Ohio and Wisconsin as the worst default risks. And the Hirsch-Macpherson data shows that an average of 61 percent of public-sector employees in these nine states were under union monopoly bargaining — 20 percent higher than the typical state.

In these nine worst default-risk states from 1999 to 2009, aggregate private-sector jobs fell by 4.2 percent, but heavily unionized state and local government jobs increased by 9 percent. Since annual state and local government employee compensation costs nationwide come to $1.1 trillion, or half of all state and local government spending, it’s not hard to see that the Big Labor-driven growth in government payrolls is a fiscal catastrophe for states like California, Illinois, and New Jersey.

Yet to Gerald McEntee, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) union, even calling attention to the fact that government payrolls for years have grown while private payrolls have shriveled is tantamount to an “assault on public employees.”

In a Huffington Post commentary bearing that heading, McEntee thundered that the only acceptable solution to the daunting fiscal problems faced by states like California, Illinois, and New Jersey is for elected officials to squeeze even more taxes out of beleaguered private-sector employees and businesses.

But for all his bluster, he can’t keep New Yorkers, for example, from noticing that while the number of Empire State pupils enrolled in K-12 public schools fell by more than 121,000 over the last 10 years, schools added 14,746 teachers and 8,655 non-teaching professionals to their payrolls, all of whom are required to pay union dues or fees to keep their jobs.

But government union bosses are expecting to have the last laugh if fed-up taxpayers and their allies limit themselves to going after just bloated public-sector payrolls and unsustainable public pension plans, rather than root of the problem itself.

Laws empowering government union officials to negotiate the contract terms for all front-line employees at a public agency, even for those employees who want nothing to do with the union, are behind the messes in Sacramento, Springfield and Trenton. And laws that authorize the firing of public servants for refusing to pay union dues or fees to an unwanted union make matters even worse.

Long-term solutions to state budget crises will require addressing the core problems of union monopoly bargaining and forced union dues in the public sector.

Until then, hopefully the Senate will spare police officers, firefighters, and EMTs from forced union “representation” that will make budget matters worse for the numerous states that have already rejected it.

Mark Mix is president of the National Right to Work Committee.

Committee President Mark Mix: The Right to Work movement and its allies are challenging President Obama’s 2009 executive order promoting union-only "project labor agreements" on federal taxpayer-funded public works.

(Source: June 2010 NRTWC Newsletter)

Ohio Town Council Cuts Through Big Labor/White House Fog 

Marietta, which has only about 15,000 residents, but enjoys a place of honor as the oldest city of any size in Ohio, is located more than 230 miles outside the Washington, D.C., Beltway. 

And from the vantage point of Marietta’s community building at Lookout Park, where the town council considered adoption of a so-called “project labor agreement” (PLA) on May 13, it appears to be far easier to see and state the obvious than it is at the White House or on Capitol Hill. 

This spring, building trades union bosses lobbied furiously to convince the council’s seven members to impose a Big Labor PLA on employees and firms seeking to participate in the renovation of the town’s former Ohio Bureau of Employment Services building into a new municipal court facility. 

Parkersburg Marietta Construction and Building Trades Council union President Bill Hutchinson claimed, time and again, that the reason he and his cohorts were twisting arms to get a PLA was to ensure that “local” workers got the jobs. 

Finally, at the council’s May 13 meeting, Councilman Jon Grimm decided to test building trades union bosses’ sincerity. 

Mr. Grimm called attention to the provision in the PLA mandating that 50% of any contractor’s employees be registered with the union and pay union dues, even if they weren’t union members, and didn’t want to join. 

Would union officials accept a PLA retaining all the other provisions, but excluding “mandatory union membership”? Mr Grimm asked. 

Vast Majority of ‘Local’ Construction Workers in Marietta Aren’t Unionized 

Marietta law director Roland Riggs, who had hammered out the PLA deal with union officials, bluntly responded: “I don’t believe the folks from the building trades council would be interested in signing an agreement if that were removed.” 

A crowd of union militants, including several union officials, was in the room. No one from the crowd contradicted Mr. Riggs. 

“The plain fact is, the vast majority of ‘local’ construction workers in Marietta, Ohio, are union-free, and show no signs of wanting to be unionized,” observed National Right to Work Committee President Mark Mix. 

“According to labor scholars Barry Hirsch and David Macpherson, just one in four construction workers across the state of Ohio is currently under union monopoly bargaining. And southern Ohio, where Marietta is located, is much less unionized than northern Ohio. 

“Forcing independent local hardhats to pay dues to an unwanted union in order to work on taxpayer-funded projects is no way to ‘help’ them — and a Marietta council majority had no trouble seeing the truth and voting down the PLA. 

“Unfortunately, all too many Inside-the-D.C. Beltway politicians from President Obama on down seem to have a much harder time deconstructing the phony claims of Big Labor bosses demanding union-only PLAs on taxpayer-funded public works. 

“For example, in issuing Executive Order 13502, promoting union-only PLAs for federal taxpayer-funded public works in February 2009, the President mechanically repeated Big Labor propagandists’ contention that PLAs promote ‘economy.’ 

“The truth is exactly the opposite. By discriminating against the union-free majority of construction employees, PLAs jack up taxpayer construction costs by a minimum of 10–20%, according to nonpartisan researchers. 

“Even a recent study commissioned by Obama appointees at the Department of Veterans Affairs predicted that PLAs would raise taxpayer costs in markets like Denver, New Orleans and Orlando. 

“But rather than cancel the PLA executive order after Veterans Affairs found it would fail to accomplish its purported objective, the Obama Administration proceeded to implement it this April!” 

Right to Work Movement Is Fighting Back 

“Fortunately, there’s still hope that the Obama Administration’s anti-taxpayer E.O.13502 can be stopped,” Mr. Mix continued. The legal system is one possible means. 

In April, attorneys for the Committee’s sister organization, the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, filed a federal court brief charging that a California PLA illegally discriminates against independent construction workers. (Mr. Mix is president of the Foundation as well as of the Committee.)If the Foundation’s argument in this case (known as Rancho Santiago) prevails, that will raise serious questions about the legal viability of E.O.13502.

(Source: April 2010 NRTWC Newsletter)

Recently, millions of Americans have been dismayed by reports, based on official U.S. Labor Department Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data, that from 1999 through 2009 our country endured a “lost decade” in private-sector employment.

In this context, the term “lost decade” refers to annual BLS statistics showing that in 2009 there were 107.95 million private-sector jobs nationwide, roughly 370,000 fewer than in 1999, when there were 108.32 million.

This marks the first time since the Great Depression that an entire decade has gone by with negative net growth in private-sector employment across the U.S.

However, some of the 50 states have fared far better than others over the past 10 years. And a review of how each state’s job market performed suggests that the U.S. Congress could dramatically improve America’s employment prospects for the next decade by adopting one simple change in federal labor policy.

Private-Sector Employment in Right to Work States up by 1.5 Million Since 1999

Current federal labor law authorizes and promotes the payment of compulsory union dues and fees as a condition of getting or keeping a job.

Under pro-forced unionism provisions in the 1935 National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) and the 1951 amendments to the Railway Labor Act (RLA), an estimated 6.6 million private-sector employees must pay dues or fees to their Big Labor monopoly-bargaining agent, or face termination from their jobs.

At the same time, thanks to many years of vigilant efforts by freedom-loving Americans, federal labor law continues explicitly to recognize states’ option to protect employees from forced union dues and fees by adopting Right to Work laws.

Currently, 22 states have Right to Work laws on the books prohibiting the firing of employees simply for exercising their right to refuse to join or bankroll an unwanted union.

A huge majority of the 22 Right to Work states actually experienced net gains in private-sector employment from 1999 through 2009. Overall, private-sector employment in Right to Work states is up by roughly 1.5 million since 1999.

Meanwhile, the 28 forced-unionism states collectively endured a “lost decade” in employment growth far more bleak than that of the nation as a whole. In these states, private-sector employment is down by 1.9 million since 1999.

All five of the states enjoying the biggest net absolute increases in private-sector jobs since 1999 have Right to Work laws on the books. Not one of the five states experiencing the worst private-sector job losses has such a law. (See the table above for details.)

“Leading labor economists such as Dr. Richard Vedder of Ohio University have shown repeatedly that forced unionism hinders employment growth,” noted Mark Mix, president of the National Right to Work Committee.

“Big Labor’s counterproductive work rules and fomentation of the ‘hate-the-boss’ mentality lead to less employment growth or, very frequently, employment losses in the unionized businesses themselves.

“On top of that, union bosses funnel a huge chunk of the forced dues and fees they collect with federal labor law’s abetment into efforts to elect and reelect state and local, as well as federal, Big Labor politicians who support higher taxes and more red-tape regulation of businesses.”

‘Actions of Forced Dues-Funded Politicians . . . Result in Less Job Growth’

“The actions of forced dues-funded politicians thus result in less job growth, period. And, of course, union-label politicians do the most damage in the states where union bosses rake in the most forced-dues money,” Mr. Mix added.

“Moreover, in today’s globalized economy, when Big Labor militancy squashes job-creating business investment in a state, some investment is likely to go overseas. Then no American workers end up getting the jobs.

“But if Congress repealed all the forced-dues provisions in the NLRA and RLA, this massive impediment to employment growth nationwide would immediately be lifted.

“Forced-dues repeal would spur job growth in all 50 states. Businesses based in current Right to Work states would share the benefits as their major out-of-state suppliers and customers were freed from the burden of compulsory unionism.

“Today, there would be an additional 4.42 million U.S. private-sector jobs if private-sector employment nationally had increased exactly as much as it did in Right to Work states over the past decade.

“That gives you some idea of the extent to which American employees and businesses would benefit over the next 10 years if Congress and the President stood up to Big Labor and enacted a national Right to Work law now.”

President, Congress and Governors Remain Beholden To Union Special Interests

Unfortunately, despite nationwide unemployment that hovers near 10% and the widespread economic hardship resulting from most businesses’ lingering inability to hire more workers profitably even as the country reemerges from the 2008-2009 recession, Washington, D.C., keeps moving in the wrong direction.

“In January 2009, when it was already clear the economy and the job market were in dire straits, Sen. Jim DeMint [R-S.C.], working hand-in-hand with the Right to Work Committee, secured a Senate floor roll call on a forced-dues repeal amendment,” recalled Mr. Mix.

“But a majority of senators, including 14 who are seeking reelection or full terms this year, kowtowed to Big Labor and voted for federally-imposed compulsory union dues.

“And a majority of senators and House members and President Obama are all on record in favor of S.560/H.R.1409, the cynically mislabeled ‘Employee Free Choice Act,’ which would enable union bosses to grab forced-dues power over millions of additional private-sector workers.

“This year, several governors are also ignoring the economic facts and endorsing schemes to expand Big Labor’s forced-dues privileges.

“For example, Big Labor Iowa Gov. Chet Culver [D] is backing H.F.2420, legislation that would gut the Hawkeye State’s Right to Work law, even though Iowa’s long-term economic growth is far superior to that of Midwestern forced-unionism states like Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Michigan.”

Politicians May Pay a Steep Price This Year For Backing Forced Unionism

In the recent past, union-label politicians have sometimes gotten away with supporting anti-growth labor policies, because most voters believed the economy was performing well enough, and didn’t see a pressing need for improvement.

However, in the harsh economic climate of 2010, citizens are unlikely to be so tolerant of federal and state politicians who pander to Big Labor.

“In their federal and state candidate Survey 2010 programs, the National Right to Work Committee and allied regional and state organizations have already begun mobilizing millions of citizens to contact their politicians regarding their compulsory-unionism records,” said Mr. Mix.

“It’s likely politicians will pay a steep price this year for backing compulsory unionism.

“But there’s still time for many politicians who up to now have been Right to Work opponents to make amends with freedom-loving citizens by pledging publicly to oppose forced unionism 100% of the time in the future.

“Federal and state politicians who are running for election or reelection this year can accomplish this objective by completing, signing and returning their 2010 Right to Work candidate surveys.

“Long experience shows that election time is the best time for Right to Work advocates to change Big Labor-appeasing politicians’ minds about the forced-unionism issue. I urge Right to Work members and supporters everywhere to participate in the Survey 2010 program.”

March 10, 2010

National Right to Work Vice President Blasts the Police and Firefighter Monopoly Bargaining Bill in Testimony to Congress

Big Labor power grab would be a disaster for workers, taxpayers and struggling state economies

Washington, D.C (March 10, 2010) – National Right to Work Committee Vice President Doug Stafford, urged members of Congress to oppose H.R. 413/ S.1611, the Police and Firefighter Monopoly Bargaining Bill in a hearing before the House Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor and Pensions this morning.

As detailed in Mr. Stafford’s testimony, if it becomes law H.R. 413 and S. 1611 would force monopoly bargaining on every police officer, firefighter, and emergency medical technician (EMT) in the country, putting them under the monopoly control of union bosses. Mr. Stafford blasted the bill as “yet another bill in a long line of paybacks to union bosses,” in his testimony before the House HELP Subcommittee:

“First, let’s be clear. The ultimate goal of this legislation is to force every firefighter and police officer in the country under union boss control, whether the individual public safety officers want it or not. And whether state and local governments want it or not.

“Under monopoly bargaining, individual workers lose the power to speak for themselves in dealing with their employers, to the detriment of workers and taxpayers. In addition to imposing monopoly bargaining on countless workers, H.R. 413 and its companion bill in the Senate, S. 1611, would override state labor laws across the country.”

Currently, state and local governments have the authority to enter into monopoly bargaining agreements. Many have chosen to do so and many have not. But H.R. 413 and S. 1611 would grant the Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA) oversight of the labor-management laws of public safety workers in political subdivisions across the country, stripping localities of the right to govern themselves.

Mr. Stafford’s testimony also demonstrated how monopoly bargaining strains the already-vulnerable budgets of state and local government:

“This power comes with a price — H.R. 413 and S. 1611 would also have a detrimental impact on the budgets of state and local governments. Last year, Vallejo, California — where union bosses have already been granted control over public safety workers — went bankrupt after nearly 75 percent of its budget was spent on unionized police and firefighters. And today, despite a $26 billion state budget deficit, out-of-control public sector union bosses aren’t shouldering cuts or taking blame for the problems they’ve caused — they’re threatening strikes!

“In other states where union bosses have been granted monopoly bargaining privileges over public sector workers, we’re seeing the exact same thing. In fact, the Mayor of Lancaster, Pennsylvania recently stated that these struggling cities are ‘handcuffed’ by public sector monopoly bargaining.

“Put simply, passage of the Police and Firefighter Monopoly Bargaining Bill could be the last economic straw for already struggling communities. During these troubled economic times, the last thing Congress should be considering is a Big Labor power grab that would hurt workers and bust state budgets.”

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The National Right to Work Committee, established in 1955, is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, single-purpose citizens’ organization dedicated to the principle that all Americans must have the right to join a union if they choose to, but none should ever be forced to affiliate with a union in order to get or keep a job. 

www.NRTWC.org