A massive union takeover is imminent should the Employee ‘Forced’ Choice Act (aka Card Check) become law.
A new report released by the Workforce Fairness Institute reveals that enactment of Card Check would fuel a significant increase in labor union spending on political activity.
Card Check’s passage could add at least $1.7 billion (in 2009 dollars) in additional political spending by labor unions over a 10-year period based on a union projection of increases in total membership and the resulting union dues generated from that increase going to political activity.
This increase in political spending on the part of union bosses would represent a relatively small percentage of the overall expansion of at least $35 billion in total union revenue that Card Check would produce over a 10-year period if implemented.
This is a larger union payback than even I imagined. The amount of capital unions bosses could inject into politics to advance their agenda would virtually stifle the voices of millions of others with differing viewpoints.
Union bosses have said that Card Check would generate millions of new members. The head of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) projects 1.5 million new dues-paying union members every year for at least 10 years if Card Check is passed.
It’s pretty simple to understand. With more dues-paying members, unions have a lot of money to gain and spend.
A recent estimate of the average union dues among the top 15 unions by Labor Notes suggests that as of 2004, dues amounted to $377 in 2004, or about $425 in today’s dollars. According to the United Auto Workers (UAW), dues for a typical autoworker were $552 as of 2000, or about $682 in today’s dollars. Therefore, assuming membership growth of 1.5 million per year and the lower average dues estimate ($425), enactment of Card Check would increase union receipts by $637.5 million per year.
The SEIU reportedly spent $85 million in the last election cycle alone. Under the Employee ‘Forced’ Choice Act, workers union dues would be fair game for labor bosses to direct to candidates for office and initiatives that they may not agree with.
To provide some perspective on the magnitude of at least $1.7 billion in new union political spending over 10 years, the 2008 presidential campaigns for then-Sen. Barack Obama, D-IL, and Sen. John McCain, R-AZ, spent a total of $760 million and $387 million, respectively.
More political activity gives union bosses greater resources to drive their anti-worker agenda through Congress and state legislatures. Union leaders often say that Card Check will help to “level the playing field” between workers and employers. What Card Check really stands to do is cause the level field to be tilted in favor of labor bosses – with an unforeseeable end.
Imagine this, using the card check process, a union is formed eliminating the right of the worker to vote with a secret ballot and a government arbitrator mandates a contract on that same worker without their consent. That worker is now paying dues to a union they didn’t agree to join, abiding by a contract they also didn’t get to vote on. To make matters worse, their dues are going to political activities they may not agree with.
Labor leaders have shown time and again that they do not have American workers’ best interests at heart. There is no real ‘free’ choice in Card Check. Instead, workers’ rights to vote via secret ballot in union elections and to participate in contract negotiations would be destroyed.
Card Check’s passage would also help fund pension funds that have been mismanaged and underfunded for yearsÉ all of it subsidized by small businesses and their workers.
With the stakes so high, unions have every incentive to continue a full-court press to get Card Check passed.
The Employee ‘Forced’ Choice Act is an absolutely terribly crafted, punitive law and it is now clear who stands to gain the most, the union bosses who desperately want to it passed.
Mark McKinnon is a representative of the Workforce Fairness Institute and was an advisor to President George W. Bush.
