Today's Wall Street Journal points out that union officials are pouring upwards of a billion dollars, much of it in compulsory dues, into the 2008 election cycle. The goal? A sea change of American labor law.
"This is an all-in bet for them in 2008," says Mark Mix, president of the National Right to Work Committee, a group that fights down in the trenches against coercive union power. "As market cycles go, they're in their peak, we're in our trough, and they're looking for a clear two-year run" in an all-Democrat Washington.
Then there's the crown jewel:
Tucked into the 1947 Taft-Hartley Act is a provision called 14(b), which allows for "right to work" states. Big Labor last took a run at deleting this section, and forcing more unionization, in the Johnson administration.
Aside from abolishing employees' free choice of whether or not to join or pay dues to a union, wiping the current 22 state Right to Work laws off the map would deal a crushing blow to the American economy.
According to a recent study by the National Institute for Labor Relations Research, forced unionism cost the American economy upwards of $436 billion in GDP between 2000-2006 alone.
The yoke of compulsory unionism already takes a severe toll on states without Right to Work laws, the last thing America needs is to expand its reach.
Comments
Right to Work
From my own personal experiences, I would like to say to anyone who reads this is that labor unions are not needed in this country today.
I was formerly a union member (not by choice), and all I saw was my dues go he union officals for what amounted to no real leverage in keeping that job. This was in Texas, a right to work state, but here is where I was basically felt to comply to have my wages decducted for union dues; it was still coersion to join. In Texas, an employee must give consent to have dues deducted, even if he/she does not want to join the union. I was told by the shop steward that signing that piece of paper is a no choice deal. "If you want to work here, you have no choice bu to sign it." People, this is a subtle union tactic to skirt around right to work laws.
Stop paying crooks to hang around with other crooks!