Union-Label Senators Will Be Called to Account

Committee Program to Highlight Compulsory-Dues Issue in Key Races

Even as Big Labor mounts a massive, forced union dues-funded drive targeting U.S. senators who are campaigning for reelection this year and have pro-Right to Work and mixed voting records on labor policy, up to 10 diehard Senate proponents of monopoly unionism may face difficult campaigns to remain in office.

Among the most vulnerable union-label senators on the ballot this year are Joe Donnelly (D-Ind.), Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.), Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), and Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisc.).

All five of these senators represent states that have enacted Right to Work laws.

Right to Work Revered In Battleground States

Moreover, the Right to Work principle is overwhelmingly popular with the people of Indiana, North Dakota, West Virginia, Missouri and Wisconsin.

But Sens. Donnelly, Heitkamp, Manchin, McCaskill and Baldwin 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.

Two egregious examples occurred just last year, when President Donald Trump’s nominations of Marvin Kaplan and William Emanuel to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) came to the Senate floor.

As of the beginning of last August, there were two vacancies on the five-seat NLRB, and all three of the sitting members were appointees of unabashedly pro-forced unionism former President Barack Obama.

Big Labor Senators Have Backed Bureaucratic Attacks On Freedom-Loving Employees

Two of the three, Mark Pearce and Lauren McFerran, were and are radical proponents of compulsory unionism with established track records of “reinterpreting” federal law to expand union bosses’ special privileges.

According to one published estimate, by the end of 2016 the chronic rewriting of labor law by the Obama NLRB had overturned 91 precedents and more than 4500 years of cumulative case law.

For example, a December 2014 NLRB rulemaking action requires employers facing unionization campaigns to turn over to union organizers multiple forms of contact information for all employees, even employees who explicitly object to having their personal information fall into Big Labor’s hands.

But Mr. Emanuel and Mr. Kaplan promised, if confirmed, to change the Board’s course by opposing bureaucratic schemes that would give Big Labor even more power over individual employees than is authorized by federal statutes.

For that reason alone, pro-forced unionism Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and zealous union-boss partisans like Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) insisted the Kaplan and Emanuel nominations must both be defeated.

Despite representing Right to Work states, Mr. Donnelly, Ms. Heitkamp, Mr. Manchin, Ms. McCaskill, and Ms. Baldwin quickly fell into line. They all voted to kill both nominations and keep the NLRB in the hands of Obama-selected champions of monopolistic unionism.

Last year, Big Labor senators’ fierce opposition did not prevent President Trump’s two NLRB nominees from being confirmed by razor-thin Senate margins.

But with the NLRB evenly divided, as this Newsletter edition goes to press in early March, between two pro-forced unionism radicals and two members who appear willing to uphold the very limited statutory protections workers who don’t want to join a union enjoy, the outlook for future nominees is cloudy.

Committee’s Goal Is to Revoke Longstanding Big Labor Privileges

And with union-label politicians representing strong Right to Work states like Indiana, North Dakota, West Virginia, Missouri and Wisconsin in Congress, Right to Work advocates’ prospects for repealing the federal-law provisions that authorize and promote forced union dues and fees are cloudier still.

National Right to Work Committee President Mark Mix commented: “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 eight decades. The Committee’s Survey 2018 is critical for this long-term objective.”

As many Committee members know, the federal candidate 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 grass-roots Right to Work supporters are mobilized to lobby candidates to respond to their Right to Work surveys.

Big Labor Senators Can Pledge To Abolish Forced Dues, or Face Potential Political 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. Mix

“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 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 in favor of 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 well be targeting Senate races in Florida, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, Ohio, and Pennsylvania this year, along with the races in Indiana, North Dakota, and West Virginia.”

The federal Survey 2018 is giving union-label politicians like Joe Donnelly, Heidi Heitkamp, and Joe Manchin a choice: pledge to change course and support Right to Work in the future, or face the potential political fallout.

‘Ambush Elections’ Are Denying Workers a Meaningful Vote

The stakes are extraordinarily high. This year, for example, the NLRB has decided to reconsider the radical “ambush” unionization election scheme adopted by Obama appointees at the end of 2014.

But unless the closely-divided Senate confirms at least one more NLRB member who is not a shill for Big Labor special interests before the rule reconsideration is brought to a vote, it is virtually certain the union boss-rigged rules for workplace elections will remain in place.

And workers will continue to be denied a meaningful vote before they are corralled into a union.

“The next time a Trump NLRB nominee who is not a forced-unionism zealot comes to the Senate floor, if Joe Donnelly, Heidi Heitkamp, and Joe Manchin once again side with the union brass and vote ‘no,’ they may well succeed in perpetuating ‘ambush’ elections and other Obama NLRB power grabs,” predicted Mr. Mix.

“But if this is the unhappy outcome for employees and Right to Work supporters, the Survey 2018 program will at least ensure that pro-Right to Work Hoosiers, North Dakotans, and Mountain Staters know exactly what their incumbent senators have done. And that’s an important silver lining.”

(Click here to download the April 2018 National Right to Work Newsletter)