Right to Work on the Ballot
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Unions are setting up cases to have judges overturn voluntary union membership.
One reason unions are in public disfavor is that they don’t play straight with the workers they represent. Consider South Dakota, where unions are sponsoring a ballot measure that would effectively repeal the state’s right-to-work law with few voters even aware.
South Dakota measure 23 tells voters they are deciding on whether “[n]otwithstanding any other provisions of law, an organization, corporate or nonprofit, has the right to charge a fee for any service provided by the organization.” That vague wording is meant to entice voters into supporting the measure that would force workers who opt out of the union to still pay union fees.
Right to work simply gives workers the right not to join a union, and South Dakota has had such a law since 1947, as do 25 other states. South Dakota’s 2.9% unemployment rate is tied with New Hampshire’s for the lowest in the country. Right-to-work laws aren’t the only secret to high employment, but they are an attraction for many businesses considering states for investment.
The measure is being pushed by the International Union of Operating Engineers. Last fall IOUE Local Chapter 49 Director of Special Projects Jason George told the Argus Leader in Sioux Falls that “unions are the only organizations in the country that are required to provide a service, but can’t charge a fee. We don’t think that’s fair.”
Mr. George is complaining that unions represent all workers in negotiations even if they decline to be union members, but unions maintain this organizing model because being the monopoly agent increases their bargaining power. The union could change that arrangement anytime, but they’d rather use political clout to coerce union dues.
Unions have been sounding this poor-us lament more often in recent months, including in court cases arguing that forcing them to represent workers without payment should be illegal under the Constitution’s Fifth Amendment Takings Clause. That argument was rejected by federal district judges in Wisconsin and Idaho.
But those decisions will likely be appealed, and the longer union game is to get a split in federal appellate courts between the Seventh Circuit and the union rubber stamps of the Ninth Circuit. By the time the cases could be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court to resolve the split, union chiefs and their progressive allies hope to have a left-leaning majority that could overturn right-to-work laws nationwide. Voters who think the next Supreme Court nomination matters only for cultural issues like gay marriage aren’t paying attention.
Meantime, unions in South Dakota are trying to restock their coffers by misleading voters. No wonder their members run for the exits as soon as they get the chance.
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