Mandatory Union Dues in New York

Gov. David Paterson has given New York’s public workers’ union bosses everything they ever wanted by signing a law that makes union dues mandatory in perpetuity, even if a worker decides not to join a union.

“It’s a very, very significant present to the labor unions,” said Edmund J. McMahon, director of the Empire Center for New York State Policy at the Manhattan Institute, a conservative-leaning research group. “What it does is it removes one of the few remaining leverage points people still have over unions. And management, which is the taxpayer, has very, very little remaining leverage.”

It is interesting to note that New York Republicans in the Senate rolled over like scolded dogs — not one Senator was brave enough to stand up for union workers and taxpayers and the law passed unanimously.