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Letter to Roll Call
FOR RELEASE: February 22, 2001
Letters to the Editor
Roll Call
50 F Street, NW, Suite 700
Washington, DC 20001
Dear Letters Editor:
Norman J. Ornstein clearly sought to be fair in his February 15 column concerning Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Russ Feingold's (D-Wis.) so-called campaign-finance "reform". But he was misinformed in claiming that this bill would codify the Supreme Court's 1988 Beck decision.
McCain-Feingold would actually gut Beck. Its phony Beck-"codification" provision actually expands Organized Labor's legal power to spend compulsory union dues and fees on electioneering and lobbying activities.
Beck and other related rulings put limits on Big Labor's federally-granted privilege, wielded by union officials who are not subject to a state Right to Work law, to get millions of workers fired should they refuse to pay union dues or fees.
Rulings such as Beck bar the firing of union nonmembers who consent to pay for union bargaining activities they don't want, but refuse to bankroll any other activities, including lobbying and electioneering that might be deemed "related" to bargaining.
But McCain-Feingold would punch open a gaping loophole in Beck by authorizing confiscation of objecting workers' dues for politicking that is "related" to monopoly-bargaining activities.
This potentially denies workers the right to object to union bosses' abuse of their forced dues for virtually any kind of politics or lobbying, since union lawyers have always insisted all such activities are somehow "related" to monopoly bargaining.
Furthermore, the bill would effectively strip federal courts, which have granted many independent-minded employees significant relief under Beck, of any jurisdiction over this decision.
It would transfer all Beck cases to federal bureaucrats at the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), who for 13 years, under both GOP and Democrat administrations, have displayed an intense bias against workers who assert their Beck rights.
McCain-Feingold would apply a poisoned tourniquet to the bleeding wound on America's body politic inflicted by the ongoing massive abuse of workers' forced union dues for electioneering and lobbying.
Proponents' labeling of this bill as Beck "codification" is an act of cynicism such as is rarely seen even on Capitol Hill. Mr. Ornstein has been deceived.
Sincerely,
Stan Greer
Director of News and Information
National Right to Work Committee®