Right to Work on the Line in Peach State

All State Protections From Compulsory Union Dues Are at Risk

Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock
According to Communications Workers of America (CWA/AFL-CIO) union bosses, Jon Ossoff (left) and Raphael Warnock have both vowed their support for the so-called “PRO” Act, which would erase all 27 state Right to Work laws. (Credit: Cheriss May/Bloomberg News Service)

As the dust finally settles from the 2020 federal and state elections, two facts about Right to Work protections for American employees are apparent:

On the one hand, the opposition of voters across the country to forced union dues and fees and other closely related Big Labor power grabs is at a historic, and perhaps an all-time, high.

On the other hand, depending on how two U.S. Senate “runoff” elections set to occur in Right to Work Georgia on January 5 turn out, the Big Labor hierarchy could potentially be in a position to obliterate private-sector employees’ freedom not to bankroll a union in 2021.

Exit Polls Show Overwhelming Opposition to Union-Label Economic Transformation 

National Right to Work Committee President Mark Mix explained:

“Joe Biden is the immediate reason why state Right to Work statutes and constitutional provisions now protecting private-sector employees in 27 states from being fired if they refuse to join or pay dues or fees to an unwanted union may be in jeopardy over the coming year.

“Former Vice President Biden and his running mate, U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris [D-Calif.], publicly vowed during the 2020 presidential campaign to push for a whole slew of new special privileges for Big Labor, starting with the destruction of all state Right to Work laws currently on the books, if elected.

“Thanks largely to the efforts on its behalf by the massive, forced dues-funded union machine, which pumps an estimated $2 billion into electioneering and lobbying every campaign cycle, the Biden-Harris ticket garnered a slim popular-vote advantage in key states it needed, according to the current count.

“The exit polls make it obvious that the Biden-Harris ticket has not even the faintest semblance of a mandate for transforming the U.S. economy by corralling millions and millions of additional workers under union monopoly control.

“In fact, according to the Washington Post’s exit-poll analysis, among the vast number of voters for whom the economy was the top issue, President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence, who had compiled a strongly pro-Right to Work record over four years, routed their pro-forced unionism challengers.

“Trump-Pence carried economy-focused voters by an astonishing 66-percentage-point margin.”

Even in Union Bosses’ California Stronghold, Voters Said ‘No’ to Big Labor

Mr. Mix continued: “Meanwhile, support for compulsory unionism was an albatross for Big Labor-backed candidates in dozens of closely contested 2020 U.S. House races and several critical U.S. Senate races.” (See pages 6-8 of this Newsletter edition for more on this topic.)

“Even in the Big Labor stronghold state of California, nearly 60% of voters said ‘no’ to the union hierarchy in November by approving a ballot measure sharply curtailing the scope of a legislative scheme signed by Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2019 known as AB5. 

“This Biden-endorsed power grab reclassified at least 1.5 million independent contractors as ‘employees’ under state law, against their will in the vast majority of cases, in order to make them vulnerable to union monopoly bargaining, and to being forced to pay union dues, on pain of termination.

“Unfortunately, top union officials like AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka have already made it clear they won’t be deterred in the least by the stern rebuff they just received at the polls from voters in state after state.”

For Mr. Trumka, the bottom line is that, in 2021, union lackey Joe Biden will be President, forced-unionism zealot Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) will be House speaker, and, if all goes according to the AFL-CIO plan, pro-union monopoly politician Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) will be Senate majority leader.

Would-Be Majority Leader: ‘Now We Take Georgia, Then We Change America’

Charles Schumer
Big Labor politician Charles Schumer has already publicly threatened, as majority leader, to deploy the so-called “nuclear option” to prevent pro-Right to Work senators from using extended debates to block special-interest legislation. (Credit: AP, Jessie Wardaski)

As this Newsletter goes to press in early December, Mr. Schumer’s Democrat Party is just two votes shy of being in control of the Senate in January.

But that could change if Big Labor Democrats Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock defeat pro-Right to Work GOP Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, respectively, in the January 5 Peach State runoffs.

Such runoff elections, which are relatively rare in American politics, are necessitated under Georgia law whenever none of the candidates in a primary or a general election receives a majority of the total number of votes cast. This was the case in both of Georgia’s U.S. Senate races held on November 3.

Mr. Schumer himself effectively acknowledged that, granted the opportunity, he would push for radical changes in federal law when he boasted to a mob of his militant Empire State supporters on November 8:

“Now we take Georgia, then we change America.”

Mr. Schumer has already publicly threatened to deploy, as majority leader, the so-called “nuclear option” to prevent pro-Right to Work senators from using extended debates, commonly called “filibusters,” to block special-interest legislation until an alerted public can defeat it directly.

That would grease the skids for Congress to send to President Biden’s desk a host of union-boss schemes over the next few months, including the cynically mislabeled “Protecting the Right to Organize” Act, or “PRO” Act.

The single most egregious provision in this smorgasbord of favors for union bosses, which was rubber-stamped by Ms. Pelosi’s House of Representatives last year, would make private-sector union dues as a job condition permissible in all 50 states.

Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock Reportedly Eager To Side With Big Labor

Based on what is now known about them, it seems highly unlikely either Mr. Ossoff or Mr. Warnock would stand in the way when Mr. Schumer attacked state Right to Work laws, including, of course, Georgia’s.

In fact, according to the Communications Workers of America (CWA/AFL-CIO) website, both of these Georgia Democrats have already committed themselves to support the PRO Act if elected.

“With the Right to Work of every private-sector production worker in America potentially at stake, it’s absolutely critical that freedom-loving Georgians know where their Senate candidates stand, and contact their candidates again and again to express their opposition to forced unionism,” said Mr. Mix.

By early December, the Committee had already begun mailing identified Right to Work supporters throughout the state. 

The Committee was also preparing to run hard-hitting TV, newspaper and digital ads, drawing contrasts between the candidates on the compulsory-unionism issue.

Mr. Mix concluded: “The ideal would be for Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock to change course and join David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler in pledging 100% support for Right to Work. 

“Barring such a happy surprise, the Committee will hold Mr. Ossoff and Mr. Warnock accountable for choosing Richard Trumka over ordinary, freedom-loving  Georgians.”