Pro-Right to Work Nevadans Gird For Battle
Compulsory Unionism the ‘Last Thing’ Nevada Employees Need
As union insider Brian Young correctly pointed out in a post-election wrap-up commentary last November, it is “largely thanks to the work of the Culinary Workers” union hierarchy that Democrat politicians will control the governorship and both chambers of the Legislature in Right to Work Nevada this year.
The Las Vegas-based Culinary Workers union, otherwise known as UNITE HERE Local 226, boasts of an electioneering field program “unmatched by any other in the country.”
But union operatives and their favored Nevada politicians said remarkably little in 2018 about what UNITE HERE bigwigs expected to get in return for their investment.
Steve Sisolak: ‘Premature’ to Discuss Right to Work Plans Until After Election Day!
Even as they gratefully accepted massive “in-kind” and cash support from Big Labor’s machine, incoming Gov. Steve Sisolak and his fellow Democrat politicians running for Nevada Assembly and Senate seats dodged questions about whether they would target Nevada’s six-and-a-half decade-old Right to Work Law.
This statute simply protects employees from being fired for refusal to join or bankroll an unwanted union.
At a September 6 campaign event in Las Vegas, when directly asked if he would try to reinstate forced union dues and fees in Nevada if he was elected, Mr. Sisolak said: “I think it’s premature to talk about that at this point.”
National Right to Work Committee Vice President John Kalb commented: “Steve Sisolak insisted it was ‘premature’ to discuss his Right to Work plans until after Election Day, because he knew those plans wouldn’t be popular with Nevada voters.
“Indeed, a recent scientific statewide poll, conducted by SurveyUSA for the National Institute for Labor Relations Research, found that a four-to-one majority of registered voters (67% to 16%) favor keeping their Right to Work law on the books.”
As SurveyUSA pointed out in its summary of the poll’s findings, Right to Work “is supported by a majority of every demographic sub-population,” including Republicans and Democrats, men and women, and Nevadans under 50 and over 50.
Members of union households support Right to Work by a three-to-one margin.
Overwhelming Public Support Alone Won’t Suffice to Save Nevadans’ Right to Work
Unfortunately, long experience shows that, all too often, politicians worry about the public’s overwhelming support for the Right to Work principle more when they are in the middle of a hotly contested campaign than they do after they are safely elected.
During the legislative session that will begin a few weeks after this Newsletter edition goes to press in early January, Committee leaders anticipate an all-out push by Culinary Workers union bosses to eviscerate or flat-out eliminate Right to Work protections in Nevada.
“It’s a fact that union boss-allied lawmakers and the governor did not campaign on such legislation, and it’s a fact that Nevadans lopsidedly oppose it,” said Mr. Kalb.
“But these facts will not suffice to prevent a forced-unionism power grab from being sent to Gov. Sisolak’s desk and signed, unless Nevada voters voice their opposition at once.
“That’s why, in early January, local grassroots activists began mobilizing, with the Committee’s assistance, people from all walks of life to contact their elected officials and urge them to side with the four-to-one majority of Nevadans who want to keep unionism voluntary, not compulsory.”
In Nevada, Ex-Californians Can ‘Live the Middle-Class Life’ That Eluded Them
It is undeniable there is a mountain of evidence showing that Right to Work is associated with a lower cost of living, higher living standards, and faster job and income growth.
That’s why, according to U.S. Census Bureau data, the number of Nevada residents in their peak-earning years (ages 35-54) rose by 55,000 from 2007 to 2017, even as the total peak-earning-year population of neighboring forced-unionism California fell by 152,000.
As Los Angeles Times columnist Steve Lopez admitted in late 2017, thousands and thousands of former natives of the Golden State are moving to Nevada each year so they can “live the middle-class life that eludes them in California.”
“The last thing Nevada needs,” said Mr. Kalb, “is to replicate the very pro-union monopoly policies that are driving working people and their families out of California.”
California’s Big Labor-concocted A.B.5, signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2019, made it almost impossible for workers and firms to bounce back after 2020’s COVID-19 lockdowns. Now Biden bureaucrats want to federalize A.B.5!
Mr. Fain undoubtedly knows full well that there is a complete disconnect between the UAW hierarchy and the UAW rank-and-file on the Biden presidency and whether workers will benefit from its extension for another four years.
On average, forced-unionism states are 23.2% more expensive to live in than Right to Work states. And decades of academic research show that compulsory unionism actually fosters a higher cost of living.