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The Problem Is
Government Unions
The Senate's decisive defeat of
confirmation of radical labor lawyer Craig Becker is
the first tangible result of the Massachusetts
Miracle, which made Scott Brown the 41st Republican
in the U.S. Senate. Two red-state Democrats also
voted not to proceed toward a vote on President
Obama's nomination of Becker to the National Labor
Relations Board (NLRB).
Becker is a top lawyer for the Service Employees
International Union, which spent $60 million to
elect Obama. SEIU's boss, Andy Stern, was the most
frequent visitor to Obama's White House last year.
The NLRB is supposed to be a neutral arbiter of
labor disputes. Becker had other plans for the NLRB.
He was expected to try to implement what is called
"Card Check" even though Congress has declined to
pass it.
Card Check is a bill to eliminate the secret ballot
by which employees have the right to vote yea or nay
on authorizing a union as their bargaining agent.
Card Check would replace the secret ballot with
allowing union officials to intimidate employees
into just signing a card.
The left-wing magazine "In These Times" wrote that
Becker "helped lay the intellectual foundation" for
Card Check. He wrote a law review article to propose
using the NLRB's regulatory power to achieve the
goals of Card Check without action by Congress.
While working for the SEIU, Becker also helped write
three pro-labor executive orders that Obama signed
just a week after taking office.
Older Americans may fondly remember bygone days when
some unions played a positive role in our free
economy. In the 1950s, many unions expelled
communist agitators.
Today's unions, by contrast, promote big-government
solutions to every problem. That's because of the
dramatic change in the membership of powerful
unions.
An important milestone was reached last year when,
for the first time, the majority of union members
(51.4 percent) were federal or state government
employees. The political power of government workers
unions is a major reason why government spending is
now out of control.
The average pay of federal workers is over $71,000
(in Washington, D.C., it's $94,047), whereas the
average pay in the private sector (if you have a
job) is $50,028. Annual raises are a matter of
course, and government employees enjoy close to
lifetime job security and benefits including
retirement.
Rising star Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, commented,
"I about fell off my chair when I saw that the
number of federal employees making more than
$150,000 have more than doubled in the last 18
months."
Another Washington labor lawyer, Joseph Sandler, who
is described as a "renowned expert on election law,"
has created a crow's nest of front groups whose goal
is to undermine the Tea Party movement.
These groups have funneled vast amounts of union
dues money, including $10 million from the American
Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees
(AFSCME), into fronts with innocuous names such as
"Patriot Majority" and "Citizens for Progress."
To defeat Proposition 8, the California ballot
initiative to protect traditional marriage, the SEIU
spent $500,000 and the California teachers union
spent $1,250,000. After the voters approved the
measure, over 50 unions (including the national
AFL-CIO) signed a brief asking the courts to
overturn the will of the people.
SEIU plays rough. It was a bunch of SEIU thugs,
clearly identified by their purple shirts emblazoned
with "SEIU," who attended a Rep. Russ Carnahan,
D-Mo., Town Hall Meeting and beat up Kenneth
Gladney, a black man passing out flags that read
"Don't Tread On Me."
The day after the Senate rejected Becker, Sen. Tom
Harkin, D-Iowa, introduced a measure to abolish the
Senate filibuster, and thereby nullify the value of
Scott Brown becoming the 41st Republican. That bill
isn't going to pass because it would take 67 votes,
which Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., can't
round up.
Some namby-pamby Republicans think that the
president is entitled to get confirmation of all his
judicial nominees despite the Senate's
constitutional power to accept or reject them. The
defeat of Becker should give all Republicans the
backbone to use the filibuster to reject any court
nominee who believes in a "living" Constitution.
The prospective nominees who are reputed to be on
Obama's short list for the next Supreme Court
vacancy are weirdos of various flavors. One says
it's OK for the Indiana Legislature to open with an
invocation honoring Allah but not Jesus; another
calls himself a transnationalist and wants to
integrate foreign law into U.S. domestic law; and
another wants dogs to have lawyers and says the
government owns the organs of any person who may
soon die, and can remove the organs without any
consent.
Now that Republicans have 41 senators, our republic
can be saved from such nonsense by a filibuster. So,
go to it, Republicans.
Phyllis Schlafly is a lawyer, conservative political
analyst and the author of the newly revised and
expanded "Supremacists." She can be contacted by
e-mail at phyllis@eagleforum.org. To find out more
about Phyllis Schlafly and read features by other
Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit
the Creators Syndicate Website at www.creators.com.
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