Nancy Pelosi Shepherds Right to Work Destruction Thru U.S. House
House Approves Right to Work Destruction
Battle to Stop Nationwide Forced Union Fees Moves to the Senate
Acting at the behest of compulsory dues-hungry union bosses,
224 Big Labor members of the U.S. House of Representatives have just voted to
rubber-stamp legislation (H.R.2474) that would foist a forced-unionism regime
on the entire nation.
The lead sponsor of the H.R.2474 power grab, Virginia
Congressman Bobby Scott (D), has cynically mislabeled it as the “Protecting the
Right to Organize” Act, or PRO Act.
The battle over the PRO Act now moves to the U.S. Senate,
where union-label politician Patty Murray (D-Wash.) is the sponsor of virtually
identical companion legislation (S.1306).
“The PRO Act is a smorgasbord of special-interest delights
for the union hierarchy,” said National Right to Work Committee President Mark
Mix.
Scheme Would Override Every State Right to Work Law Currently on the Books
“It is also a blueprint for what House Speaker Nancy Pelosi
[D-Calif.], Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer [D-N.Y.], and other Big
Labor politicians have in store for America as soon as they get control of the
White House and both chambers of Congress,” Mr. Mix continued.
“Among all the objectionable provisions in the PRO Act, the
single most outrageous one would amend the National Labor Relations Act [NLRA]
to empower private-sector union bosses in all 50 states, including erstwhile
Right to Work states, to force employees to pay union fees against their will.”
Today 27 states have Right to Work laws on the books that
prohibit the termination of employees for refusal to join or pay dues or fees
to a union they don’t want, and never asked for.
Right to Work State Citizens Have Steadfastly Resisted Big Labor Repeal Schemes
These laws enjoy overwhelming public support in
jurisdictions where they have been adopted and are in effect.
Big Labor has spent vast sums of money over the years on
state-level efforts to wipe out Right to Work laws.
But it has had no success over the past six-and-a-half
decades in any state whose citizens have had the opportunity to experience,
even for a short time, what prohibiting forced union dues and fees means in
practice.
Unfortunately, a majority of House members, including 66
from Right to Work states, voted February 6 to give the green light to
H.R.2474, which would override the wishes of the 166 million current residents
of Right to Work states, who overwhelmingly oppose forced union dues and fees.
The PRO Act would also block the citizens of the remaining
23 forced-unionism states from passing new Right to Work laws to unchain
employees in their jurisdictions.
Scheme ‘Establishes’ That Union Bosses ‘in All 50 States’ May Collect Forced Fees
Mr. Mix noted: “Union
operatives and their apologists are making no bones about the fact that the PRO
Act would wipe out more than 70 years of Right to Work progress.”
As an example, Mr. Mix cited a handout touting
H.R.2474/S.1306 by Celine McNicholas and Lynn Rhinehart, two staffers for the
Big Labor-founded Economic Policy Institute (EPI), a self-styled “think tank”
in Washington, D.C.
The PRO Act, exult Ms. McNicholas and Ms. Rhinehart,
“overrides . . . ‘right-to-work’ laws by establishing” that union bosses “in
all 50 states” may cut workplace deals granting them the power to force
employees to pay fees to Big Labor, or be fired.
Ms. McNicholas and Ms. Rhinehart blithely assume Big Labor
should be empowered to extract forced fees from workers who don’t agree with
the union, never sought the union, and would vote against unionism if they
could.
But even their fellow forced-unionism proponent Richard
Rothstein, a “distinguished fellow” at the very organization where they work,
admits that dissenting workers may well be getting paid less as a consequence
of being under union monopoly control.
Among the types of workers whose paychecks are often smaller
because they are subject to union “exclusivity” are those who are especially
talented and/or hardworking.
Right to Work States Are Where ‘the People and the Money Are Moving’
“The Scott-Murray bill,” explained Mr. Mix, “cuts the heart
out of state Right to Work statutes and constitutional provisions.
“It does this by inserting language in federal labor law
stating that the extraction of forced fees from employees for union monopoly
bargaining, regardless of whether it benefits or hurts them personally, shall
be ‘valid’ notwithstanding ‘any State or Territorial law.’
“If the state Right to Work destruction and other pro-forced
unionism provisions in the PRO Act are adopted, the results will be a
devastating loss of personal freedom for workers and a shipwreck for the U.S.
economy.”
As an example, Mr. Mix cited the U.S. Commerce Department’s
recently updated statistics regarding growth in output in automotive
manufacturing, as measured in constant, chained 2012 dollars:
“Excluding the five states that passed and began enforcing
Right to Work laws between 2012 and 2017 and considering just the 22 states
that had already banned forced unionism in 2007, the Right to Work share of
automotive manufacturing grew from 47.8%
to 61.3% over the next decade.
“Real automotive manufacturing GDP in these 22 states grew
by 41.1% from 2007 to 2017, while it fell by 18.5% in the 23 states that were
still forced-unionism as of the end of 2017.
“The loss of such investments in Right to Work states where,
in the words of pro-forced unionism journalist C.J. Atkins, ‘the people and the
money are moving,’ would be devastating for the national economy.”
Politicians Who Support PRO Act Could Face Harsh Electoral Consequences
“Without Right to Work states,” Mr. Mix continued, “there
would certainly be far fewer jobs created in the U.S. as a whole. And job
seekers who couldn’t find good-paying jobs in slow-growth forced-unionism
states wouldn’t have anywhere to flee.”
(See the article on p. 8 of this Newsletter for more
information.)
Unfortunately, Big Labor lobbyists’ domination of the House
is so extraordinary that Right to Work members and supporters had no chance of
stopping H.R.2474 when it came to the House floor.
While Right to Work leaders are taking nothing for granted,
they are much more hopeful about being able to stall the PRO Act through a
massive citizen mobilization before it comes up for Senate consideration.
“The politicians voting for the PRO Act in the face of
public opposition to compulsory unionism that is now as overwhelming and
passionate as it ever has been can be expected to face harsh electoral
repercussions in 2020 and beyond,” predicted Mr. Mix.