National Right to Work Committee®
Search NRTWC!
» Welcome
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.
Police and Fire Monopoly-Bargaining Bill Pushed in U.S. Senate
Shameless Exploitation of National Crisis by Kennedy and Big Labor
FOR RELEASE: October 3, 2001
WASHINGTON, D.C. (October 3, 2001) – The U.S. Senate is rapidly moving on a bill that could force all state and local public safety employees to accept union bosses as their monopoly bargaining agents.
This bill, deceptively titled the "Public Safety Employer-Employee Cooperation Act," would federally mandate that state and local governments authorize union officials to act as the monopoly bargaining agents for their police, firefighters, paramedics, and other public-safety officers in all 50 states.
Two recent attempts by Senator Ted Kennedy to push this bill through the Senate show the lengths to which Big Labor will go to pass this power grab.
The first shot came when Sen. Kennedy, in a near-empty Senate chamber, attempted to pass this bill by unanimous consent. His attempt was thwarted, but he wasn’t through yet.
Then, in a second maneuver that is truly obscene, Kennedy offered an amendment attaching this bill to the 2002 Defense Department Authorization Bill that passed the Senate yesterday (without Kennedy's amendment).
Kennedy's scheme was stopped, but only by pulling the entire Defense Bill off the Senate floor for several days, and then continuing the debate under rules that prohibited such outrageous amendments.
Apparently, holding up the authorization for the United States Defense budget in a time of war to expand their forced unionism power isn't beneath union officials and their allies in the Senate.
Union officials pushing this legislation openly refer to it as "the largest expansion of labor [union] rights considered by Congress in decades."
The legislation is ultimately designed to bring about federally imposed monopoly bargaining – which would strip public-safety officers and employees of their freedom to represent themselves, and would soak state and local taxpayers for hundreds of millions of dollars annually in increased costs.
Despite union officials’ best efforts, a majority of states have previously resisted the demands that are included in this legislation. But passage of this bill would preempt state law by federal mandate.
Attached is an op-ed by National Right to Work Committee® President Reed Larson describing in more detail this dangerous legislation, as well as providing important information on Organized Labor’s power grabs during World War II.
The 2.2 million member National Right to Work Committee® is mobilizing a grassroots campaign to fight this bill in the Senate, and to urge President Bush to veto it in any form Congress sends it to him.
For questions or more information, contact Barry Kelley or John Tate at 800-325-7892.