GOP Appeasement of Big Labor: Not Very Sharp

By Mark Mix

FOR RELEASE: October 31, 2005

Are Missouri Republican politicians really incapable of learning from recent electoral history? Right now, first-term GOP Gov. Matt Blunt and first-term U.S. Sen. Jim Talent seem to be.

In their successful bids for the offices they now hold, Blunt and Talent both campaigned in opposition to special privileges enjoyed by union officials. Missourians who support employees’ Right to Work without being forced to accept unwanted union “representation” or to fork over union dues responded by helping Blunt and Talent win close races against Big Labor Democrat candidates.

But now the governor and the senator are turning up their noses at the freedom-loving citizens who voted for them and are actively courting the very union bosses who went all out to stop them from getting elected in the first place. This is a topsy-turvy strategy – and experience shows it won’t work.

Time and again, in Missouri as well as in other states, GOP politicians who are not themselves slavish proponents of forced unionism have found that they can’t, try as they might, truly appease the union hierarchy. When union officials see a chance to replace a politician who supports union special privileges half the time with another who will support them all the time, they jump at the opportunity.

In the “Show Me” State, former U.S. Sen. and Attorney General John Ashcroft is a prominent case in point. In 1994, he pledged on a candidate survey, subsequently distributed to National Right to Work Committee members across Missouri, that he would support national Right to Work legislation barring all federally-imposed forced union dues and fees. Ashcroft subsequently won the Senate race.

But in July 1996, when a national Right to Work measure came to the Senate floor, Ashcroft flip-flopped and helped Big Labor Democrats like Massachusetts Sen. Ted Kennedy filibuster the bill to death. Ashcroft evidently thought this would dampen union-boss opposition to his reelection. If so, he was totally wrong. In 2000, the union political machine went into high gear to oust Ashcroft, and it ultimately succeeded.

Despite George W. Bush’s razor-thin electoral vote victory in the 2000 presidential race, in addition to Ashcroft, four other incumbent GOP senators went down to defeat that year. All were intensely opposed by Big Labor even though they all had voted with the union bosses against the National Right to Work Bill. In contrast, not one of the eight senators on the ballot who had voted for Right to Work was defeated, including pro-Right to Work Sen. Conrad Burns (R-Mont.). Burns faced an especially tough race and Big Labor opposition just as furious as Ashcroft’s. The difference was Burns had the moral standing to declare that he, not the union bosses, was the true defender of workers’ rights and freedom.

Now Matt Blunt appears unwilling to learn from Ashcroft’s mistake. The governor has already procured Big Labor’s eternal enmity by issuing, almost as soon as he took office, an executive order abolishing “exclusive” union bargaining and forced union dues and fees for state government employees. Nevertheless, he refuses to support legislation that would extend the Right to Work to Missouri’s private and other public employees – even though the overwhelming majority of Missouri citizens support Right to Work legislation.

Similarly, Jim Talent emphasized his opposition to the forced unionization of employees in the new federal Homeland Security Department during his 2002 Senate campaign. Talent blasted appointed Sen. Jean Carnahan (D) for opposing any Homeland Security measure that left intact the President’s authority to exempt certain federal employees from union monopoly rule. Although union officials furnished Carnahan with millions of dollars in forced-dues funded campaign support, Talent defeated her by 21,000 votes.

In 2006, Talent’s likely Democratic challenger is state Auditor Claire McCaskill. Unfortunately, instead of again seeking to mobilize the freedom-loving Missouri voters who carried him to victory before, Talent is now trying to appease union officials by touting his opposition to a national Right to Work law. History shows this appeasement won’t diminish Big Labor’s determination to defeat Talent by one whit – but it will demoralize many of Talent’s potential supporters.

Fortunately, it’s not too late for Matt Blunt and Jim Talent to recognize their mistake and stop kow-towing to union officials who will regardless remain determined to end their political careers. I encourage pro-Right to Work Missourians to call the governor at 573-751-3222 and the senator at 202-224-6154 to let them know the harsh truth: Appeasing Big Labor will gain them nothing, but it will cost them a great deal.

Mr. Mix is president of the Springfield, Va.-based National Right to Work Committee.

Mr. Mix can be reached at the National Right to Work Committee, 8001 Braddock Road, Springfield, VA 22160, (703) 321-9820 x2203. If you have any questions, or would like an electronic copy of this release, please contact Linda Staulcup through the same number or via les@nrtw.org.