Big Labor Candidates Had Nowhere to Hide
Letters, Emails and Ads Let Pro-Right to Work Citizens Know Where Candidates Stood
Workers Defeat Big Labor Presidential Ticket
Forced-Unionism Advocacy More Politically Toxic Than Ever in 2024
A few weeks ago, American voters decisively rebuked the most pro-forced unionism presidential administration in decades, if not ever, by dealing a 312-226 Electoral College loss to Big Labor’s Kamala Harris-Tim Walz ticket.
This stinging defeat for retiring union-label Democrat President Joe Biden, whom Ms. Harris had served as Vice President since 2021, occurred only because of the opposition of a lopsided majority of blue-collar Americans of all races and ethnicities combined.
According to the widely-cited 2024 National Election Pool (NEP) exit poll, the 57% of Americans casting ballots in November 5’s showdown who don’t have a bachelor’s or post-graduate degree voted 56% to 42% against Harris-Walz.
Had only Americans with a bachelor’s degree or more education voted, the Harris-Walz ticket would have won.
Union-Commissioned Survey Showed Teamsters Lopsidedly Opposed Harris-Walz
National Right to Work Committee President Mark Mix emphasized that it wasn’t just union-free workers and their family members who strongly opposed the Big Labor-owned Biden Administration and deployed their votes as a means of conveying their disdain.
“The fact is,” said Mr. Mix, “the opposition of union-‘represented’ blue-collar employees working for private businesses to Harris-Walz may well have been even stronger than union-free blue-collar opposition to the Democrat ticket.”
Mr. Mix pointed to a September 2024 nationwide survey of Teamster rank-and-file members, conducted by the polling firm Lake Research Partners for the Teamster hierarchy. The poll showed Harris-Walz losing the rank-and-file Teamster vote to the GOP ticket of Donald Trump and J.D. Vance by a 58% to 31% margin. That is, nearly two-to-one!
While the NEP exit poll showed Harris-Walz carried U.S. union household members in the aggregate by a relatively narrow 53% to 45% majority, it is highly likely this is due exclusively to heavy Democrat support among unionized government employees.
Mr. Mix commented: “It’s a safe bet that the majority of unionized private-sector workers who cast presidential ballots last fall voted against the ticket that the Big Labor political machine enthusiastically backed and lavished with reported and unreported financial contributions.”
He continued: “While some exceptionally dishonest Big Labor bosses are pretending to be unaware of the NEP exit poll and falsely implying there was historically strong rank-and-file union support for Harris-Walz, even a number of media apologists for forced unionism recognize that simply isn’t so.
“For example, Jonathan Weisman and Benjamin Oreskes of the New York Times pointed out on November 10 that, in the battleground state of Nevada, a scientific poll conducted just before Election Day had found union members favored Harris-Walz over Trump-Vance by just one percentage point.
“Effectively admitting to the Times that vast numbers of Nevada hospitality workers opposed the ticket he was backing with their dues money, veteran Culinary Workers Local 226 boss Ted Pappageorge blamed ‘fear and division.’
“But the reality is that most union household members who depend on private-sector paychecks they or their loved ones earn as their primary means of support evidently saw that the Biden Administration’s out-of-control spending and regulation spree had hurt them.”
Mr. Mix added that her relentless advocacy of federal legislation that would effectively eliminate all current state Right to Work laws did not help Ms. Harris one bit with ordinary union members.
He pointed to the results of a nationwide scientific survey of registered voters released just before Labor Day 2024 and conducted for National Right to Work by RMG Research, a firm headed by legendary pollster Scott Rasmussen.
The 1,000 randomly selected participants were asked 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 majority of 82% of registered voters agreed.
Moreover, the survey showed there is very little daylight between unionized employees and union-free employees on the Right to Work issue.
According to RMG Research, 79% of actively employed voters who currently belong to a union support Right to Work. Among employees who don’t belong to a union at this time, there is 84% opposition to compulsory unionism.
President-elect Trump courted the support of unions like the Teamsters and the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) during his 2024 campaign, but rejected demands from union bosses that he sell out Right to Work in exchange for their endorsements.
Even Harris Campaign Knew Forced Unionism Is Highly Unpopular
Specifically, Teamster czar Sean O’Brien and ILA kingpin Harold Daggett warned Mr. Trump that he couldn’t get their union empires’ backing unless he pledged, if elected, to veto National Right to Work legislation prohibiting forced union dues and fees nationwide.
“Donald Trump refused to betray his GOP base, which, according to RMG Research, supports Right to Work by a mind-boggling 86% to 8% margin, in order to get Teamster, ILA, or any other union bosses’ backing,” said Mr. Mix.
“But he was still supported,” Mr. Mix continued, “by a higher share of union household voters in 2024 than any other GOP nominee since Ronald Reagan in his 1984 landslide victory.
“The Trump-Vance victory constitutes a sweeping refutation of the theory, now somewhat popular inside the D.C. Beltway, but nowhere else, that Republican politicians need to kowtow to compulsory unionism in order to get substantial rank-and-file union support and strong working-class support overall.
“The reality is, even Kamala Harris understands that forcing workers to pay union dues, or be fired, is highly unpopular with all kinds of voters.
“That’s why, when touting her support for the Right to Work-destroying ‘PRO’ Act on the campaign trail, she falsely claimed it would ‘make it easier for workers to join unions’ rather than empower Big Labor to get workers in all 50 states fired for refusal to pay dues.”
This article was originally published in our monthly newsletter. Go here to access previous newsletter posts.
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