(WA) Lessons in Union “Democracy”

Evergreen Freedom Foundation ^ | 4-22-05 | Michael Reitz

[truth49]

Washington State Labor Council president Rick Bender recently released a commentary blasting state employees who want to make their own choice about union representation.

In an attempt to “educate” these workers, he makes several startling admissions about labor’s unique brand of democracy. Here are the lessons we’ve identified, Bender’s exact quote, and our response.

Lesson #1: Coercion equals democracy. “Some people call [union security] ‘compulsory unionism.’ I call it democracy.” Samuel Gompers, the father of the modern labor movement, thought otherwise: “[T]he workers of America adhere to voluntary institutions in preference to compulsory systems which are held to be not only impractical, but a menace to their rights, their welfare and their liberty.” Union security is nothing more than a euphemism for coerced union membership. It requires all employees in a bargaining unit to pay dues to the union regardless of whether or not they want to join.

Lesson #2: Unions cannot survive without forcing people to join. “Union security is…designed to ensure the union’s continued survival.”

Again, Samuel Gompers would disagree that union survival is more important than individual choice: “I want to urge devotion to the fundamental of human liberty—to the principles of voluntarism. No lasting gain has ever come from compulsion.”

Lesson #3: Our survival is your responsibility. “[State employees are] getting an education for the first time about the benefits—and responsibilities—of being union members.”

This is the height of arrogance: force thousands of employees to join the union, then wag your finger and lecture them on responsibility. Responsibility should be the consequence of a deliberate choice, not a coerced obligation.

Lesson #4: We’re for democracy…sometimes. “Some state workers…have balked at the ‘union security’ clauses in their contracts. [S]ome have even filed for new elections to decide whether to keep the union.”

Union officials frequently give lip service to democracy. But if the democratic will among state employees is to abandon union representation, you can expect the unions to oppose it.

Lesson #5: Our service doesn’t sell itself. “Union security clauses are found in almost every collective bargaining contract in Washington state.”

Apparently it’s too much work to attract a satisfied customer base—forcing people to join is so much easier. If union membership is as valuable as Bender insists, union officials can be confident that people will join when given a choice. Michael Reitz is a legal analyst and the director of the Teacher Paycheck Protection project here at EFF. A native of New York, he came to EFF after working as a legal and legislative assistant for three years with the Home School Legal Defense Association in Virginia. Michael earned a juris doctor from Oak Brook College of Law. He is currently a member of the California State Bar and admitted to practice before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

[datura]

Let's ask a few questions to these Unions. Firstly, when did we, the taxpayers, authorize our employees to bargain collectively against us?

The amount of perks, overly generous benefits, and of course the off-the-scale wages these parasites have taken from us over the years is sickening. Now we're supposed to think of these employees as being the poor underdogs in some battle for worker's rights against management? I want some of those drugs that they're taking.......

These should be NO Unions of any governmental workers - either you work for US - the taxpayers - at the given wages listed when you applied - or you don't. We don't pay for strikes, an we shouldn't have to pay for any of these increased costs of Unions. We're paying for the chains that bind us, once again, and now they want to make them heavier. What a crock.

[Whispering Smith]

On the Federal side, you can thank John F. Kennedy who issued Executive Order 10988 in 1962 which recognized Federal emplyee unions. It's been downhill ever since.