Union-Label Politicians Will Be Held Accountable

Right to Work supporters believe union membership should be a matter of personal choice. But Big Labor politicians want even to block employees from exercising their long-standing statutory right to vote out an unwanted union. (Credit: James Lange/Daily Oklahoman)

Committee Program to Highlight Compulsory-Dues Issue in Key Races

Even as Big Labor keeps intensifying its forced union dues-funded campaign to push President Biden-backed schemes expanding union bosses’ monopoly privileges through Congress, dozens of anti-Right to Work Beltway politicians are facing potentially difficult campaigns to remain in office this fall. 

In Congress’s upper chamber, Sens. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.), Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), and Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) are probably the most vulnerable pro-forced unionism incumbents running to keep their seats in November.

Sens. Warnock, Kelly, and Cortez Masto represent states with longstanding and highly popular Right to Work laws.

And Sen. Hassan represents a state where the Right to Work movement has recently been gaining strength and forced union dues and fees could potentially be banned as soon as 2023.

Right to Work Revered In Battleground States

“The Right to Work principle is overwhelmingly popular with the people of Georgia, New Hampshire, Arizona and Nevada,” said National Right to Work Committee Vice President Greg Mourad.

“But Sens. Warnock, Hassan, Kelly and Cortez Masto have time and again thumbed their noses at the vast majority of their constituents.

“They have regularly sided with union bosses who demanded that the federal government make it even easier for them to corral employees into unions and extract forced financial support from them.”

Three egregious examples occurred just last summer, when President Joe Biden’s nominations of David Prouty and Gwynne Wilcox to the National Labor Relations Board and Jennifer Abruzzo as NLRB general counsel came to the Senate floor.

Mr. Prouty was until recently the top lawyer for Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 32-BJ, which has a long history of corruption and political activism in the Big Apple.

Ms. Wilcox is a seasoned radical union lawyer who not long ago was associate general counsel for another large, New York City-based SEIU subsidiary, Local 1199. Local 1199 officers and militants have been implicated in multiple alleged acts of sabotage in nursing home facilities.

Ms. Abruzzo is a tunnel-visioned proponent of monopolistic unionism who was for years a top lawyer for the militant Communications Workers of America union.

Biden Appointees Expected To Hinder Workers From Ousting Unwanted Unions

All three nominees won Senate confirmation only by razor-thin margins, and would not have been approved without the votes of Mr. Warnock, Ms. Hassan, Mr. Kelly, and Ms. Cortez Masto. 

“Powerful union bosses are now counting on the Biden NLRB to reverse rapidly several precedents and rule changes made by Trump appointees to ensure that workers who don’t want a union can actually exercise limited, but important, rights they are supposed to enjoy under federal labor statutes,” said Mr. Mourad.

“For example, a 2020 Trump board rule change, made after receiving ample input from the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, sharply limited union lawyers’ ability to delay worker votes to oust unwanted unions by making so-called ‘blocking charges.’

“But now that the Senate has confirmed David Prouty and Gwynne Wilcox to the NLRB, Big Labor has every reason to expect they will do everything they can to hinder workers from exercising their statutory right to vote to be union-free.

“Meanwhile, Ms. Abruzzo is openly planning to impose stiff penalties on employers simply because they insist their employees get a chance to vote in a secret-ballot election before they are subjected to union monopoly control.”

Committee’s Basic Goal Is to Revoke Longstanding Big Labor Special Privileges

Right to Work Committee legislative staff and Right to Work attorneys will be fighting this year to limit the damage wrought to employee freedom of choice by President Biden’s NLRB appointees.

But the Right to Work movement’s basic goals are far more ambitious. First among them is repeal of the federal labor-law provisions that authorize and promote forced union dues and fees.

“Right to Work members and supporters want a Congress with the fortitude to take away the forced-unionism privileges that union bosses have wielded for decades,” explained Mr. Mourad. 

“The Committee’s Survey 2022 is critical for this long-term objective.”

As many Committee members know, the federal survey asks candidates to commit themselves to oppose forced unionism and support national Right to Work legislation if elected.

Senate and House candidates are given several chances to return their surveys and answer 100% in favor of Right to Work.

And millions of grassroots Right to Work supporters are mobilized to lobby their candidates to respond to their surveys.

Big Labor Candidates Can Pledge to Oppose Forced Dues, Or Face Potential Fallout

“All major-party candidates as well as significant third-party and independent candidates in every U.S. Senate and House race are asked to participate in the Right to Work survey program,” said Mr. Mourad.

“And pro-Right to Work citizens in every state where there’s a Senate race and every House district are contacted and requested to turn up the pressure on their federal candidates to respond to their surveys.

“But the Committee pours the vast majority of its survey resources into and mobilizes far more freedom-loving activists for Senate and House races in which at least one candidate has taken a strong stand for Right to Work.

“We can’t be sure at this time, but, contingent on what happens over the next few months, the Committee survey program may be targeting Senate races in  Florida, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, along with the races in Georgia, New Hampshire, Arizona and Nevada.”

The federal Survey 2022 will be giving union-label politicians like Raphael Warnock, Maggie Hassan, Mark Kelly, and Catherine Cortez Masto a choice: pledge to change course and support Right to Work in the future, or face the potential political fallout.

Mr. Mourad concluded:

“The ideal would be for all federal candidates to vow to oppose compulsory unionism in the future, regardless of what their records have been up to now.

“At the very least, Right to Work members want one candidate in each race this November to be a credible opponent of Big Labor’s monopoly privileges.

“I’m confident that, if there is a choice between a strongly pro-Right to Work candidate and a forced-unionism candidate, the pro-Right to Work candidate is in a better position to gain support.”


This article was originally published in our monthly newsletter. Go here to access previous newsletter posts.

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