Thanks to National Right to Work Committee members’ generous assistance, the Committee’s Survey 2020 program helped bring about a significant increase in U.S. House support for federal forced-dues repeal legislation in November.
Early in the 2019-20 election cycle, it was obvious that many union-boss puppet congressmen and women, representing districts where the Right to Work principle is overwhelmingly popular, could potentially have difficulty defending their records.
But Democrat strategists inside the D.C. Beltway dismissed concerns about the repercussions of support for compulsory unionism, since, as they saw it, their political party had the wind at its back.
Union kingpins and their political operatives calculated that their forced dues-funded phone banks, get-out-the-vote drives, paid “volunteer” foot soldiers, and propaganda mailings would help otherwise vulnerable Big Labor candidates win easily.
They also anticipated that, with their deep-pocketed backing, well over a dozen pro-forced unionism House challengers would capture seats held in the 2019-20 Congress by Right to Work allies.
But throughout the final weeks of campaign 2020, the Committee’s federal survey program ensured that House incumbents and challengers who had sought to conceal or downplay their pro-forced unionism agenda were held accountable.
Cases in point include now-ousted incumbent Reps. Gil Cisneros (D-Calif.), Xochitl Torres Small (D-N.M.), and Ben McAdams (D-Utah), along with challengers who fell short in putative “toss-up” races like Hiral Tipirneni (D-Ariz.).
To mobilize Right to Work supporters, the Committee distributed by November 3 a total of roughly 4.1 million federal Survey 2020 “information packets” through the U.S. Postal Service.
Above and beyond that, Survey 2020 had a massive Internet component, including approximately 1.9 million emails transmitted in the last five days of the campaign. All this, plus targeted multi-media advertising.
The packets, emails and ads let Right to Work supporters know where their candidates stood on compulsory unionism.
In Rep. Abby Finkenauer’s (D) district, for example, located in the northeast quadrant of Right to Work Iowa, Committee mailings reminded constituents about how she had voted in early 2020 for a union-label omnibus bill including a provision overriding all 27 state bans on forced union dues and fees.
Committee communications simultaneously let northeast Iowans know that Finkenauer challenger Ashley Hinson had pledged to support the Right to Work for her fellow Hawkeye Staters and other Americans 100% if given the opportunity in Congress.
In Iowa’s First Congressional District, where a total of more than 107,000 Right to Work federal information packets were sent, Ms. Finkenauer was ultimately defeated by fewer than 11,000 votes.
Committee President Mark Mix emphasized that candidates like Gil Cisneros, Xochitl Torres Small, and Abby Finkenauer were repeatedly given opportunities to back away from their support for forced unionism.
But they all refused to heed their pro-Right to Work constituents.
“It is a testament to the effectiveness of the Committee survey program,” said Mr. Mix, “that, in a year in which Big Labor politician Joe Biden captured the presidency, the number of identified supporters of a national Right to Work law in the House increased by nine.”
Mr. Mix added: “In the Senate, Survey 2020 clearly helped contain the damage.
“Pollsters and media outlets had predicted a gain by union boss-backed Democrats of roughly five seats in the upper chamber.
“But the results after all the votes were counted gave union-label Democrats a net gain of just one seat, pending the outcome of two Georgia ‘runoff’ elections set for January 5.
“Thanks to a Right to Work pick up in Alabama and the election in Tennessee of Bill Hagerty, who pledges to support Right to Work 100%, to replace retiring Sen. Lamar Alexander, an opponent of federal forced-union-dues repeal, Right to Work held the line in the Senate.
“In competitive races in both chambers of Congress, unabashedly pro-Right to Work Republican candidates in 2020 once again outperformed members of their party who sat on the fence with regard to compulsory unionism.
“That’s the reason why there’s an excellent chance total Right to Work sponsorship will reach an all-time high in the 2021-22 House, even as Nancy Pelosi continues to reign as speaker.”
Big Labor bosses will eagerly advance agendas that lower real incomes and destroy jobs if they simultaneously fatten union coffers. But neither rank-and-file union members nor union-free workers share that perspective!
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.
Largely thanks to the Right to Work attorney-won U.S. Supreme Court decision in Janus v. AFSCME, union bosses like NEA President Becky Pringle are no longer able to block virtually all meaningful education policy reforms.