Sarah Palin, like all possible GOP presidential candidates should be, is reaching out to union members, many of whom aren’t at all impressed with their leadership. The UAW is losing members fast and has little chance of unionizing factories in Right to Work states. Members have continued to take concessions on their pay, but are still paying dues. If you’re paying the union boss, shouldn’t he be getting you a better contract?
Public unions are faring no better. Public union bosses have set up contracts so sweet that they have killed the golden goose. State, county and municipal governments are burdened with back-breaking contracts of their union employees. Rather than negotiating common sense cuts, unions are storming capitals from sea to shining sea.
Many governors like Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker simply have nothing left to offer unions. The bosses have cleaned the bone at the state level and are working their way through the municipalities’ tax money too. If everyday union members don’t see how bankrupting their employers is bad for them, it’s already too late. Their unions bosses are hell bent on exacting tribute from city, state, and county management. But that same drive is eliminating the very jobs they seek to protect.
Former President Ronald Reagan held the common union members in high esteem. He himself had been a union member and organizer and worked hard for workers’ rights. But it’s easy to confuse union members with union bosses. Union bosses take money from their members and use it to support political allies, whether members want them to or not. Union members say that their political views are not represented by their bosses. In Communications Workers vs. Beck, the Supreme Court found that up to 80% of union dues were being used to pay for political activity. Many members are the same second amendment supporting, capitalist, freedom-loving people found throughout America, and they don’t agree with the big-government model anymore than you or I.
That’s the beauty of Right to Work states, which allow employees to opt out of unions and protect their freedom to not pay dues if they don’t wish to. Extending those rights to Wisconsin and Ohio and Maine would be a great first step in protecting America’s workers, but the Right to Work should be codified on a national level. Senator Rand Paul has introduced the National Right to Work Act, freeing all workers across the nation from union abuses and forced dues payments. Support Sen. Paul by clicking here.
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