When searching for pieces of union-friendly legislation not serving the best interests of all Americans, it seems one needs only look for bills upon which the name of U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson, appears as a sponsor.
In a June 3 article about the Public Safety Employer-Employee Cooperation Act (H.R. 413), writer Warner Todd Houston describes the push by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to nationalize all police and firefighters unions as one that “outrageously violates the most basic tenet of American politics: local control.” In turn, I wasn't surprised to find Emerson listed as a sponsor of the bill.
Yes, it's the same Emerson who's sponsoring the $165 billion union pension bailout bill, whose campaigns regularly rely upon money from radical labor unions (see graphic below), and whose second husband, Ron Gladney, is a big-time labor union attorney and Democrat (see the end of this post for more details about him).
Not surprisingly, Emerson isn't the only member of the Missouri Congressional delegation whose name appears on the list. Sadly, she is joined by one GOP colleague, Rep. Samuel Graves (R, Mo-6), and three Democrat Party colleagues, Reps. Russ Carnahan (Mo-3), William "Lacy' Clay (Mo-1), and Emanuel Cleaver (Mo-5).
What, exactly, are these members of Congress and nearly 300 of their colleagues -- including, sadly, some four-dozen Republicans -- supporting as sponsors of H.R. 413? The only good points listed among the provisions in the GovTrack summary of the bill center upon prohibitions on lockouts and strikes. Unfortunately, they'll hold little weight when coupled with the other provisions which, by themselves, will provide unions so much power at the bargaining table that they'll have no reason to stage lockouts or strikes.
If we're really unlucky and this bill becomes law, according to another article, the specter of totally-unionized government workers being able to shut our country down as they do in France will become very real.