Senator Reaffirms Support For Federal Monopoly-Bargaining Mandate

(Source: March 2010 NRTWC Newsletter)

Poll after poll indicates that union-label Democratic U.S. Sen. Blanche Lincoln faces a tough battle to get reelected in Right to Work Arkansas this November.

And Ms. Lincoln clearly knows she has a problem.

That’s why she’s now suggesting to independent employees and employers in her home state that, although she has routinely voted according to Big Labor’s dictates on key forced-unionism issues during her nearly two decades on Capitol Hill, she is now an “independent” voice on such issues.

Freedom-loving Arkansans shouldn’t believe it for a minute.

First of all, even if Ms. Lincoln were consistently opposing compulsory unionism in the current Congress, Arkansas Right to Work supporters would have good reason to doubt she would continue to stand up to the union bosses once she was safely installed for another six-year term.

And the fact is, even in the current Congress, while she is trailing several potential pro-Right to Work general election opponents, Ms. Lincoln continues to support major forced-unionism power grabs whenever she thinks she can get away with it.

Gregg-Kildee Would Pave Way For Dragging All State, Local Employees Into Unions

One major example is Ms. Lincoln’s stealth move just before the Senate’s Christmas recess last year to sign on as a cosponsor of Big Labor-appeasing New Hampshire Sen. Judd Gregg’s (R) S.1611, the so-called “Public Safety Employer-Employee Cooperation Act.”

The innocent-sounding name of this legislation (also introduced in the U.S. House as H.R.413 by Big Labor Michigan Democrat Congressman Dale Kildee) mocks the reality that it would incite conflict between government agencies and employees and hurt taxpayers.

S.1611/H.R.413 would institute a federal mandate foisting union “exclusive representation” (monopoly bargaining) on state and local police, firefighters, and other public-safety employees nationwide.

This legislation would rewrite the public-sector labor laws of the vast majority of the 50 states to make them more pro-forced unionism.

In Arkansas and other states that haven’t caved in to Big Labor demands for monopoly bargaining, Gregg-Kildee would federally impose it, denying localities the option to refuse to grant a single union the power to speak for all front-line employees, including those who don’t want to join.

And in most states that already authorize public-safety union monopoly bargaining, S.1611/H.R.413 would widen its scope.

Gregg-Kildee would force countless policemen, firefighters and EMT’s to accept as their monopoly-bargaining agent a union they never voted for, and want nothing to do with.

It would also constitute a major step towards Big Labor’s decades-old goal of enacting a federal law that foists union monopoly bargaining on front-line state and local employees of all types across America.

Mark Mix Presses Sen. Lincoln to Withdraw Cosponsorship of S.1611

“Poll after poll shows the public overwhelmingly agrees that a worker who chooses not to join a union should be free as an individual to bargain for himself or herself,” pointed out National Right to Work Committee President Mark Mix.

“Gregg-Kildee completely rejects that principle. For that reason alone, it lacks popular support.

“Moreover, there is a large and growing body of evidence that public-sector union monopoly bargaining helps drive up wasteful government spending, pouring fuel on the fire for future tax hikes.

“In the current political environment, with federal personal and business taxes already poised to skyrocket over the next few years and cities, towns and counties across America already facing their worst fiscal crisis in decades, popular opposition to schemes like Gregg-Kildee is mounting.

“By mandating public-safety union monopoly bargaining over a range of issues even wider than is currently the case in Big Labor-controlled states like Illinois and Michigan, this power grab could push localities across the country into bankruptcy.

“Does Congress as a whole, and do so-called ‘moderate’ politicians like Blanche Lincoln, really want to bear the responsibility for such a disastrous outcome?

“If Sen. Lincoln wants at last to make her vaunted ‘independence’ a reality, rather than just a hollow campaign slogan, the first thing she should do is withdraw her cosponsorship of S.1611.”

Mr. Mix urged freedom-loving Arkansans to call Ms. Lincoln’s office at 202-224-4843 and personally ask her to repudiate her support for the Gregg-Kildee scheme.