Federal Candidate Survey Mobilizes Millions

Federal Candidate Survey Mobilizes Millions

(Source: December 2010 NRTWC Newsletter) The Committee's federal survey program ensured that politicians like the supposedly "independent" U.S. Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (D-S.D.) were held accountable for their votes to expand Big Labor's forced-unionism privileges. Program Maximizes Right to Work Gains in 'Year of Opportunity' Thanks to National Right to Work Committee members' generous assistance, the Committee's federal-candidate Survey 2010 checked a massive Big Labor electioneering blitz and sharply increased support in Congress for repeal of federally-imposed forced union dues. To mobilize Right to Work supporters, the Committee distributed a record-smashing total of nearly 8.4 million federal candidate Survey "information packets" through the U.S. Postal Service this year. Above and beyond that, the 2010 program had a massive Internet component, including nearly half a million e-mails transmitted in October alone. All this plus radio, TV, and newspaper advertising. The packets, e-mails and ads let pro-Right to Work citizens know where their candidates stood on compulsory unionism. And most of the packets were mailed out during the during the last five weeks of the general election campaign to specifically targeted states and districts across the country. In a year in which voters were already extremely concerned about Big Labor encroachment of employee freedom and destruction of private-sector jobs, the fall program maximized Right to Work gains in both the U.S. House and the U.S. Senate. Pro-Right to Work Candidates Won in 76 of 106 Targeted Congressional Contests Compared to the House that will permanently disband after a December "lame duck" session, the House that convenes in January will have 55 more members identified, based on their campaign pledges and voting records, as 100% Right to Work supporters. In the Senate, where just 37 out of 100 seats were up for election this year, compared to 435 out of 435 House seats, Right to Work reaped a net gain of five seats.
Iowans Repudiate Pro-Forced Unionism Governor

Iowans Repudiate Pro-Forced Unionism Governor

Right to Work Makes Major Gains in State Legislative Contests (Source: December 2010 NRTWC Newsletter) It takes a lot to convince Iowa citizens to oust a sitting governor. Until this fall, the last time a Hawkeye State chief executive failed to get another term after seeking one was in 1962! But over the past four years, Big Labor Democrat Gov. Chet Culver wore out Iowans' considerable patience. On November 2, he was one of 13 incumbent governors on the ballot across America. Eleven of these incumbents won, but Mr. Culver lost by a hefty 53% to 43% margin. What had Chet Culver done to receive such a harsh rebuke from normally amiable Midwesterners? He tried to gut Iowa's popular Right to Work law -- and he was sneaky about it. After saying nothing about the Right to Work issue during his successful 2006 gubernatorial campaign, Mr. Culver announced, almost as soon as the votes were counted, his support for legislation imposing forced union dues and fees on Iowa workers as a condition of employment. Since Mr. Culver's fellow Democrats controlled substantial majorities in both chambers of the Iowa Legislature that greeted him upon his inauguration in early 2007, it seemed Big Labor's stealthy scheme to bring back forced unionism to the state six decades after it had been banned would succeed. For four years, Gov. Culver tried to help union bosses extract forced fees from workers who choose not to join. But freedom-loving Iowans first thwarted him legislatively and then defeated him at the polls. But the National Right to Work Committee and the Iowans for Right to Work Committee were already mobilizing resistance. Pro-Right to Work Iowan Stopped Forced-Union-Fee Schemes in 2007 and 2009 Even before the new Legislature convened in January 2007, the National Committee began sending out a series of statewide and targeted mailings to members and supporters in Iowa, with a focus on selected House and Senate members in vulnerable seats.
Voters Give Forced Unionism a 'Shellacking'

Voters Give Forced Unionism a 'Shellacking'

(Source: December 2010 NRTWC Newsletter) Voters fed up with the Tax & Spend, forced-unionism agenda that Democratic U.S. House leaders have been pushing consigned them to minority status on November 2. See p. 3 of this Newsletter for details. But Big Labor Retains Hold Over U.S. Senate, Key State Assemblies Not just on November 2, but throughout this past election year, voters across most of the country sent two clear messages to Big Labor politicians on Capitol Hill: They are dismayed by what the politicians have done at union lobbyists' behest, and determined to stop them from doing more of the same. One major object of voters' ire was the controversial "American Recovery and Reinvestment Act" (ARRA), otherwise known as the "stimulus" package. In early 2009, AFL-CIO and Change to Win union lobbyists twisted arms to secure majorities in both chambers of Congress for this $800 billion legislation. Since it became law, ARRA has bilked taxpayers of hundreds of billions of dollars to ensure that bloated, unionized government payrolls stay bloated, but furnished no detectable net benefit for America's private sector. Another key source of voters' displeasure was ObamaCare. More even than President Obama or any other elected official, top union bosses and their arm-twisting union lobbyists are responsible for Congress's narrow votes to reconstruct America's enormous health-care system in late 2009 and early 2010. November 2's exit polls clearly indicate that voters across the country punished vulnerable U.S. representatives and senators for doing what Big Labor told them to do. Undoubtedly compounding the woes of many of the politicians who had voted for the government union boss-crafted "stimulus" package and ObamaCare was that they were also on the record in support of forced-unionism initiatives that, due to stiff Right to Work opposition, have yet to be enacted. Millions of freedom-loving citizens were furious with their incumbent politicians for having backed Big Labor's now-moribund "card check" forced-unionism bill and its so far-stalled scheme to federalize government union monopoly bargaining over state and local public-safety employees. Big Labor Appeasers in GOP Were First Casualties Of Voter Backlash
Voters Give Forced Unionism a 'Shellacking'

Voters Give Forced Unionism a 'Shellacking'

(Source: December 2010 NRTWC Newsletter) Voters fed up with the Tax & Spend, forced-unionism agenda that Democratic U.S. House leaders have been pushing consigned them to minority status on November 2. See p. 3 of this Newsletter for details. But Big Labor Retains Hold Over U.S. Senate, Key State Assemblies Not just on November 2, but throughout this past election year, voters across most of the country sent two clear messages to Big Labor politicians on Capitol Hill: They are dismayed by what the politicians have done at union lobbyists' behest, and determined to stop them from doing more of the same. One major object of voters' ire was the controversial "American Recovery and Reinvestment Act" (ARRA), otherwise known as the "stimulus" package. In early 2009, AFL-CIO and Change to Win union lobbyists twisted arms to secure majorities in both chambers of Congress for this $800 billion legislation. Since it became law, ARRA has bilked taxpayers of hundreds of billions of dollars to ensure that bloated, unionized government payrolls stay bloated, but furnished no detectable net benefit for America's private sector. Another key source of voters' displeasure was ObamaCare. More even than President Obama or any other elected official, top union bosses and their arm-twisting union lobbyists are responsible for Congress's narrow votes to reconstruct America's enormous health-care system in late 2009 and early 2010. November 2's exit polls clearly indicate that voters across the country punished vulnerable U.S. representatives and senators for doing what Big Labor told them to do. Undoubtedly compounding the woes of many of the politicians who had voted for the government union boss-crafted "stimulus" package and ObamaCare was that they were also on the record in support of forced-unionism initiatives that, due to stiff Right to Work opposition, have yet to be enacted. Millions of freedom-loving citizens were furious with their incumbent politicians for having backed Big Labor's now-moribund "card check" forced-unionism bill and its so far-stalled scheme to federalize government union monopoly bargaining over state and local public-safety employees. Big Labor Appeasers in GOP Were First Casualties Of Voter Backlash

Detroit News: Stop the Reid Union Giveaway

The Detroit News takes aim at Sen. Harry Reid's effort to repay union bosses who supported his campaign with your tax dollars: Having survived a near-death experience on Election Day thanks largely to massive donations from labor unions, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is paying back his benefactors. The Democrat from Nevada says that during Congress' lame duck session he will try to once again force through a measure giving police and fire unions the upper hand in dealing with local communities. Reid will seek a cloture vote on the Public Safety Employer-Employee Cooperation Act, which despite its name has little to do with cooperation. Rather, the bill would be a federal clone of Michigan's disastrous Public Act 312, which is blamed with ruining the finances of scores of communities, including Detroit, and pushing many to the brink of bankruptcy — that's you, Hamtramck. The bill would make it easier for police and firefighters to organize labor unions and force all officers to join, even in right-to-work states. That's a brazen usurpation of state authority, and very likely unconstitutional.