On Right-To-Work Amendment: ‘Bravo for Sen. McConnell and Sen. Paul – shame on Sen. Reid’

WASHINGTON, Nov. 6 – Though their effort did not meet with success, Kentucky’s U.S. Senators deserve thanks for their efforts to offer a National Right To Work amendment, says the new Director of Labor Policy at the Competitive Enterprise Institute.

“Sen. [Harry] Reid, D-Nev., used his prerogatives as Majority Leader to block the amendment, but Sens. [Mitch] McConnell and [Rand] Paul demonstrated they put a higher priority on job creation and favorable work environment than the majority,” said Aloysius Hogan of CEI. “Forcing workers to join a union or pay union dues against their will goes against everything we do and believe as Americans.”

The amendment would have repealed sections of the National Labor Relations Act, which governs private-sector employees, and the Railway Labor Act, which governs airline and railroad workers, that require workers to pay union dues as a condition of employment. The senators sought to add this amendment to the Employment Non-Discrimination Act.

Sen. Reid “filled the [amendment] tree” without including this proposal, so it will not be considered as part of the legislation. This even though union members say by a 2:1 margin they do not get enough value for the dues they pay, that 92 percent of unions violate the Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act and that 80 percent of union members say employees should not be forced or coerced into joining a union.

“Unionized workers overwhelmingly say they find little value in union membership and would not join a union if they did not have to,” Hogan said. “Bravo for Sen. McConnell and Sen. Paul for raising this question, and shame on Sen. Reid for not allowing the Senate to vote on it.”