This Labor Day weekend, the National Right to Work Committee is releasing the results of a new scientific poll of registered voters across the country on the important campaign issue of compulsory unionism.
The poll was conducted by Rasmussen, which is more formally known as RMG Research. Over the course of more than two decades, Rasmussen has established an impressive record of conducting pre-election polls whose findings closely mirror the election results that follow.
Rasmussen asked a random nationwide sampling of 1,000 registered voters whether they “agree or disagree” with the statement that workers “should never be forced to join a union or pay dues to a union as a condition of employment.”
A lopsided 82% of registered voters agree with the statement.
Support for the Right to Work principle is very strong across all demographic subgroups related to age, education, marital status, political affiliation, and race.
Most notably of all, 79% of actively employed registered voters who currently belong to a union voiced their opposition to compulsory unionism. Retirees who once belonged to a union rejected forced union dues and fees as a job condition by a 22 percentage-point margin.
As striking as the results of the new Rasmussen poll are, they merely represent a continuation of a long line of polls conducted by different pollsters over the course of decades. Survey after survey found growing and overwhelming majorities in support of worker freedom.
The overwhelming, across-the-board public support for voluntary unionism is one reason why the number of cosponsors of the National Right to Work Act (S.532/H.R.1200) in both chambers of Congress continues to rise even as Election Day 2024 draws near.
As this Newsletter went to press in early August, the combined number of Senate and House sponsors and cosponsors was at 163, just a few short of the all-time record of 168.
Recently added cosponsors include Reps. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.), Celeste Maloy (R-Utah), Greg Pence (R-Ind.), and Wesley Hunt (R-Texas).
In addition to current members of Congress, more and more politicians seeking to get there are expressing public support for Right to Work. So far, roughly 400 federal candidates from all over the country have filled out and returned the questionnaires they received as part of the Committee’s Survey 2024 program.
Committee Vice President Greg Mourad commented: “Thanks to Survey 2024’s success and size, Right to Work members and supporters in competitive congressional districts and Senate-race states will be well informed this fall about where their candidates stand on key labor-policy issues.
“And I’m confident that, wherever there is a choice between a strongly pro-Right to Work candidate and a compulsory-unionism candidate, the pro-Right to Work candidate is in a better position to gain public support.”
Of course, career politicians like President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris don’t care about the vast public opposition to monopolistic unionism, because they rely on Big Labor treasury money, much of it extracted from workers on pain of firing, to get elected and reelected.
Mr. Biden, Ms. Harris, and many other Democrat D.C. denizens represent a major obstacle to the Committee as it seeks to build a successful coalition to oppose all federal laws and legislation that authorize and promote the termination of employees for refusal to join or bankroll an unwanted union.
Moreover, a relatively small but increasingly vociferous number of elected Republicans are joining Mr. Biden and Ms. Harris in scoffing at Right to Work.
Freshman Missouri U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley is an especially egregious example.
In successfully running for the Senate six years ago, Mr. Hawley promised freedom-loving citizens in the Show Me State he would support Right to Work if elected.
But once he got comfortable inside the D.C. Beltway he started waffling on the issue. Finally, in 2023, he flat out repudiated his support for a national Right to Work law.
At the 2024 Republican National Convention in Milwaukee this July, national Teamster czar Sean O’Brien actually boasted about “converting” Mr. Hawley into a Right to Work foe!
Mr. Mourad commented: “In Josh Hawley’s home state, the abysmal Biden-Harris record of fueling inflation and cutting workers’ real pay by handing out huge taxpayer-funded favors to Big Labor and other special interests is deeply damaging the electoral chances of all kinds of Democrat candidates this year.
“Were that not the case, Mr. Hawley might well be paying a steep price at the polls this year for his betrayal of his pro-Right to Work constituents.”
Mr. Mourad continued: “Meanwhile, even as their electoral fortunes seem to be sinking, the President and Vice President Harris continue not just to support forced unionism, but to double- and even triple-down on their support for it.
“During July’s NATO Summit in Washington, D.C., Mr. Biden took a break from discussing international crises to go meet some of the AFL-CIO union bosses who had lathered him with endorsements and members’ dues money over the years while they were holding their own executive council.
“Mr. Biden pleaded for even greater support, calling the union brass his ‘domestic NATO.’
“If that is not a sign Biden-Harris will continue to ignore the 82% of Americans who oppose the union bosses’ agenda for forcing workers to part with their hard-earned money, I don’t what is.
“Hundreds of millions of Big Labor dollars will be thrown towards the Biden-Harris team and its allies in Congress this year. The amount of money union bosses funnel into electioneering and lobbying could reach an all-time high, despite their continually diminishing membership as a percentage of the American working population.
“In fact, campaign contributions, both direct and in-kind, are exactly why politicians like Joe Biden and Kamala Harris continue to support forced unionism with the fervor that they do.
“But the truth is that all of Big Labor’s ill-gotten money cannot protect a pro-forced unionism politician from public retribution when voters are aware of exactly what he’s been up to. And Survey 2024 is now in the process of informing millions of citizens about just how much the Biden-Harris team’s pandering to Big Labor has cost them.”
This article was originally published in our monthly newsletter. Go here to access previous newsletter posts.
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