Sunday, November 29, 2015

Labor Unions Fraying -- Liberty Rising

I have never been a big fan of unions. They force individual members to join, then force them to pay the fees for their collective bargaining representation. Then they spend the members’ money on candidates and causes, regardless of the individual members’ support. Granted, such forced cooperation would not be so bad, except that unionism and its precepts are hurting the very people whom they claim to represent. When unions functioned from a position of liberty and service, they succeeded and assisted their working man. Now in collusion with Big Government and Big Business, labor unions are working over their members rather than working for them.

Today, in spite of economic data discouraging this agenda, Big Labor is on the forefront of the open border amnesty lobby. Do these interest groups really think that driving in more cheap, unskilled labor will help the employment opportunities for Americans living here? Big Labor wants forced wage hikes, such as the $15 minimum wage bump in Los Angeles, then the same syndicates spend more resources backpedaling out of the requirements in their own firms. In California, the Unified Food and Commercial Workers colluded with the Grocery Industry in a backroom deal to ban plastic bags statewide. This ridiculous policy does nothing to stop waste, and will end up costing consumers money and put manufacturers out of work.

Whatever happened to “An injury to one is an injury to all?”

Consider the expose from Watchdog.com, including desperate smear tactics of corrupt labor unions, protecting their free gravy train of political funding: “Using money taken from workers’ paychecks, union bosses are portraying Friedrichs and her peers as allies of evil corporations and white supremacists.”


In case you missed it, Rebecca Friedrichs of Orange County, CA is suing the California Teachers Association for their agency fees imposed on her and other working teachers. Friedrichs supports charter schools, school choice, and educational vouchers, yet her union vigorously opposes these reforms, and uses her money with her permission to frustrate these reforms.

One teacher, a middle-class working mom, has frightened the Labor Union establishment, enough that they are fundraising like crazy to stop her and prevent the Supreme Court, already siding more with individual liberty on this issue, from removing the coerced dues.

American Federation of Teachers President Tweeted the following:


Really? How about this attack from the National Education Association?:

Of course, who can forget this petty hit from AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka: “Scott Walker is a national disgrace.”

Despite his failure to win the 2016 Presidential nomination, Walker’s leading example and legislative reforms against Big Labor have worked wonders in Wisconsin. Right to Work (RTW) legislation is gaining ground in once hostile, pro-labor states. Today, the Labor Movement is on the run throughout the country, trying to put out more fires from individual workers fed up with bad representation and less money in their paychecks.

From twenty-five states which have gone RTW, three more are likely to join the ranks of liberty rising as union influence is fraying (yet flailing). Left-leaning Politico lamented that Kentucky elected a “right to work” governor Matt Bevin, who campaigned on bringing statewide. Individual Bluegrass state counties have enacted this pro-liberty policy despite the lagging state legislature. Similar divide political roadblocks have halted RTW in Missouri (Democratic Governor vs. supermajority GOP legislature) and New Mexico (GOP Governor and state assembly vs. a recalcitrant state senate).

West Virginia is looking like another prime target for RTW to win, since a supermajority of voters (and Republicans in the state legislature) support it. RTW does face more opposition in Big Sky Montana, http://www.nrtw.org/free-tagging/coloradobut Colorado workers are learning about the rights, in spite of a current lack of RTW support.

Next year will determine how much longer the anti-liberty puppets of union money will last. Unions are losing their present influence, and future recruitment. Townhall columnist Jared Meyer noted that millenials oppose joining them: “. . .[Y]oung workers are not interested in diverting a portion of their paychecks to dues that offer them few benefits in return.” Unions reward tenure rather than talent, and take money from the young to safeguard the aged and retired. Rather than providing better service to the current members, labor unions have opted for buying legislatures and corralling political influence.


Thankfully, this interventionism is waning, and Rebecca Friedrichs’ case will be the coup de grace, if SCOTUS rules in Friedrichs favor. Despite the growing attacks on liberty from a rogue Occupant in the White House, the progressive overreach of the state into individual lives has awakened a resurgence to fight for our rights, including the right to work, whether an individual joins a union or not.
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