Tyranny Triumphs in the Great Lakes State
Ignoring ample evidence of forced unionism’s unfairness and its damaging impact on jobs and incomes, Big Labor Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed Right to Work destruction in 2023.
Big Labor Appeaser Loses U.S. House Primary
Committee Program Builds Support For Compulsory Dues Repeal
Will the politicians ever learn?
How many times does it have to be demonstrated that opposing or waffling on National Right to Work legislation is no way to mobilize constituents to come out to support you on Election Day? And it doesn’t matter whether it is a primary or a general election contest.
This spring, an incumbent U.S. House member from West Virginia became the latest in an extraordinarily long line of GOP practitioners of Big Labor appeasement to learn this bitter lesson from personal experience.
Thousands of pro-Right to Work citizens were mobilized around a May 10 contest between two Mountain State GOP incumbents.
Due to the post-2020 U.S. Census redistricting, Republican Congressmen Alex Mooney and David McKinley had to face off against one another for the right to remain in office.
The National Right to Work Committee’s survey program sought in this contest, as it does in countless other campaigns, election year after election year, to put both candidates on the record on the vitally important Right to Work issue.
As longtime Committee members know, the federal candidate survey asks candidates to commit themselves to oppose forced unionism consistently and support national Right to Work legislation in Washington, D.C.
Even as 87% of U.S. House GOP Voted For Right to Work, David McKinley Opposed It
The survey is “one of the Committee’s most effective tools,” according to Committee Vice President Greg Mourad. He explained how it works:
“Senate and House candidates are given several chances to go on the record, either by returning their survey 100% in favor of Right to Work or, in the case of incumbents, by becoming cosponsors of the National Right to Work Act.
“And millions of grassroots Right to Work supporters are mobilized to lobby candidates to support Right to Work.”
This year, as always, the Committee survey is targeting potentially close races, including primaries as well as general-election contests, in which there is a clear contrast among the candidates with regard to the Right to Work issue.
One such race this year was the primary face-off between Reps. Mooney and McKinley.
The two candidates had similar views on many issues. One of the few on which there was a clear distinction between them was the Right to Work.
Alex Mooney is a current cosponsor of the National Right to Work Act, which would repeal all federal labor-law provisions authorizing forced union dues and fees as a job condition. He has consistently voted to protect workers from compulsory unionism.
On the other hand, David McKinley voted in March 2021 to kill an amendment to Big Labor’s so-called “Protecting the Right to Organize” (or PRO) Act that would have turned the tables on this scheme by guaranteeing the Right to Work to all employees nationwide.
Out of 206 Republicans who voted on this amendment, 87% supported Right to Work. David McKinley was one of the 13% who sided with Big Labor instead, and one of just four Republicans representing Right to Work states who voted “No.”
Constituents Pleaded in Vain With David McKinley
On election night, Mr. Mooney defeated Mr. McKinley by a decisive margin.
“Earlier this year, David McKinley’s freedom-loving constituents repeatedly asked him to change course and finally keep the pledge he made to support Right to Work when he was first elected to Congress,” recalled Mr. Mourad. “But he ignored their pleas, and suffered politically as a consequence.
“The case of David McKinley should stand as a warning: Regardless of their party affiliation, union-label politicians and Big Labor appeasers will have nowhere to hide this year.”
While the 2022 West Virginia primaries are now history, Right to Work’s Survey 2022 program is heating up.
The Committee is already hard at work developing a “target list” of general-election contests in which the Right to Work issue separates the two major-party candidates.
Said Mr. Mourad: “Right to Work supporters are preparing to shine the spotlight on Big Labor’s candidates all over the country, just as they already have in West Virginia.”
This article was originally published in our monthly newsletter. Go here to access previous newsletter posts.
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