By David Harsanyi
Wednesday, April 14, 2021
It was heartening, though not particularly
surprising, to see workers at an Amazon warehouse in Bessemer, Ala., decisively
reject unionization efforts last week. When employees are afforded a
choice, they usually snub organized labor. In fact, without coercive policies
and interference from the National Labor Relations Board, any substantive union
membership in this country would have evaporated long ago.
That certainly goes for public-sector unions, tax-funded
monopolies that compel workers to pay dues that are then used to fund more
political advocacy to perpetuate their monopoly. In any other sphere of
American life, this is called “racketeering.” Janus v. AFSCME —
a case in which Mark Janus, a non-union child-support specialist in Illinois,
argued that his First Amendment rights were violated because he was forced to
pay “agency fees” to a public-sector union — was supposed to put an end to this
kind of coercion, but many unions simply ignore the law.
Though writers at progressive news sites are still fans —
and all of us who watched unions help destroy hundreds of newspapers across the
country find this highly counterintuitive — the idea of the labor unions is an
antiquated one. And their influence is fading. If unions truly preserved
“workers’ rights,” then membership would not have plummeted to its lowest
levels in 80 years — even before Janus. In 2019, the year before
COVID hit, the economy added more than 2 million jobs, but unionized workers fell by 170,000.
Organized labor exists because it is a big money-maker
for Democrats. Former president Barack Obama attempted to push through a “card
check certification” that would have compelled employees to decide on
unionization in the open, where they could be intimidated by labor activists,
rather than in secret ballot like any other fair election. Obama did, however,
successfully institute “quickie elections” through the National Labor Relations
Board, which not only violates the free-speech rights of employers but bars
employees from making legal challenges to union campaigns until after
elections.
Joe Biden is back at it. Democrats tucked an $86 billion bailout for union pensions in
the “stimulus” bill. The president’s proposed $2.3 trillion American Jobs Plan
infrastructure bill is teeming with union goodies. Most elements of the
Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act, passed by the House earlier in the
year, are in the proposal.
By “organize,” they mean force. For one thing, the bill
would overturn existing state “right to work” laws that prohibit compulsory
unionization and bar unions from creating closed shops that compel employees to
pay dues. On top of that, it would strip employers of the right to hire
replacement workers when union members strike; compel employers to hand over
all employees’ cellphone numbers, addresses, emails, and work schedules to
union organizers; institute backdoor card-check elections; and create a raft of
new fines and punitive measures that could be used against companies that don’t
acquiesce to labor demands.
On top of all this, employers are already severely
limited in their ability to make anti-unionization arguments, while their
opponents are largely free to engage in hyperbolic and misleading speech,
amplified by their allies in the media. It has gotten so ridiculous that random
members of the public can now effectively induce the government to sue
employers in court for making jokes about a union.
Now, if American workers want to join organizations that
exist to undercut initiative and achievement and slide them into safe,
pre-determined slots regardless of ability or work ethic, like automatons,
that’s entirely up to them. Alabama once again proves that isn’t often the
case. And if workers were truly interested in belonging to these organizations,
Democrats wouldn’t be clamoring to institute strong-arm policies that strip
employees of their basic right to choice.
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