Tyranny Triumphs in the Great Lakes State
Ignoring ample evidence of forced unionism’s unfairness and its damaging impact on jobs and incomes, Big Labor Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed Right to Work destruction in 2023.
Union Bosses Target Pennsylvania Senator Toomey
Big Labor Appeasement Tactic Not Viable For Republican Candidates
Top union officials in the Keystone State and nationwide are now revving up their forced-dues-fueled political machine for a ferocious campaign to unseat freshman U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.), who is running for reelection this year.
No one should be surprised by the fact that Big Labor is planning to do everything it can get away with to elect Mr. Toomey’s Democrat challenger, Katie McGinty, and dock workers who are forced to bankroll a union as a job condition for the vast majority of its expenses.
‘We’ll Have Literally Millions of Phone Calls, Leaflets, Door Knocks . . .’
Less than two years ago, Big Labor politician Harry Reid (D-Nev.) was dethroned from his perch as Senate majority leader after overwhelmingly pro-Right to Work voters ousted union-label senators like Mary Landrieu (D-La.) and Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) in the 2014 elections.
This fall, AFL-CIO czar Richard Trumka and his cohorts are determined to take back the reins of the Senate.
In March, Mr. Trumka boasted to Washington Post reporter Kelsey Snell about Big Labor’s vast presidential-year electioneering efforts, funded primarily by union dues and fees forked over by workers on pain of losing their jobs:
“We’ll have literally millions of phone calls, leaflets, door knocks, rallies and seminars.”
Drawing on a variety of published sources, the National Institute for Labor Relations Research estimates that Big Labor spent roughly $1.7 billion on politics and lobbying in the 2014 elections.
Since the 2015-16 campaign cycle features an extraordinarily unpredictable presidential election, it’s safe to assume union bosses will siphon off even more electioneering money from Big Labor’s forced-dues treasuries than they did the last time around.
And the union hierarchy will be funneling a disproportionately large share of its forced-dues-fueled money and manpower into states with, in Ms. Snell’s words, “competitive Senate battles,” notably including Pennsylvania.
During His Successful 2010 Campaign, Mr. Toomey Vowed To Support Right to Work 100%
In fact, the Big Labor mobilization to unseat Mr. Toomey is so intense that, when Ms. McGinty made a quick afternoon campaign stop in Scranton on Wednesday, July 6, nearly two dozen union bosses seized the opportunity to meet with her.
Of course, union bigwigs were just as determined in 2010 to prevent Mr. Toomey from capturing the Senate seat then held by pro-forced-unionism politician Arlen Specter, since deceased, as they are to remove him from office now.
At that time, the GOP candidate refused to be intimidated. In response to his 2010 National Right to Work Committee survey, Mr. Toomey pledged across-the-board opposition to compulsory unionism. And he went on to defeat Big Labor Congressman Joe Sestak (D) by 80,000 votes in the fall election.
Yet oddly enough, this year Mr. Toomey’s consultants seem to think they can dampen the union bosses’ zeal to defeat him by swaying him to duck the forced-unionism issue altogether.
Scientific Poll: Pennsylvanians Support Right to Work by 3-1
This year the senator is refusing to answer his Right to Work candidate survey, and throughout the 2015-2016 Congress so far, he has refused to cosponsor S.391, the National Right to Work Act, a measure that would repeal all the current provisions in federal labor law that authorize forced union dues and fees.
“A 2013 scientific poll sponsored by the Harrisburg-based Lincoln Institute found Pennsylvanians support the Right to Work by a three-to-one margin,” noted Committee Vice President Greg Mourad. “Instead of snubbing freedom-loving citizens in a fruitless bid to appease the union hierarchy, Mr. Toomey’s campaign would do well now to court their support.”
