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 ower-mad
"Big Labor" bosses and their henchmen in Washington just
won't give up.
For months
now, union bosses — with help from Senators Ted Kennedy and
Tom Daschle — have been relentless in their attempts to force
every police officer, firefighter, and EMT in the country under
Big Labor's monopoly control.
Now, union
bosses have descended on Capitol Hill en masse to strong-arm U.S.
House members. Hundreds of union militants arrived in Washington
this week in an attempt to intimidate lawmakers into voting for
their latest power grab. Seniors officials at the International
Association of Firefighters Union (IAFF), part of the AFL-CIO, are
conducting political-training sessions this week for over 800 Big
Labor foot soldiers, and then unleashing them on Capitol Hill to
push their agenda.
Their ultimate
goal? To add tens of thousands of forced dues-paying members to
Big Labor's ranks — regardless of what state and local governments
want, or what the individual workers want.
The union bosses'
brazen attempts to deceive the public about their plans have been
as shocking as they are disturbing.
Just two days
after the terrorist attacks last September, Sen. Ted Kennedy (D.,
Mass.) and his Labor Committee sneaked the misnamed "Public
Safety Employer-Employee Cooperation Act" (S. 952/H.R. 1475)
onto the Senate floor without so much as a recorded vote. This outrageous
bill would force every policeman, firefighter, and emergency worker
in the country to either submit to union-boss control — or
be fired.
Just a few
nights after that, Kennedy waited until nearly every other senator
had gone home for the evening and tried to pass the legislation
by "unanimous consent." Another senator intervened just
in time to stop Kennedy, but the union bosses' congressional allies
weren't through yet.
When the Senate
debated a major appropriations bill just a few weeks later, Senate
Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D., S.D.) tried to add S. 952 as an
amendment. Daschle's more freedom-loving colleagues managed to stop
his scheme with a filibuster, but it was a very close call.
Unbelievably,
Senators Daschle and Kennedy aren't finished yet. They told militant
union bosses to force the legislation through the House first, then
come back through the Senate. And thanks to their usual strong-armed
tactics on Capitol Hill, they believe they can get the necessary
votes to overturn a potential presidential veto.
All this for
what union bosses openly brag is the largest expansion of union
rights Congress has considered in decades. It's a dangerous expansion:
Union bosses are notorious for staging damaging strikes and work
slowdowns at the most critical of moments to make sure their unrealistic
demands are met in full.
Unfortunately, union bosses are not above these tactics even in
a time of war. The headlines tell the story: Just days ago, union-boss
militants at the Lockheed Martin plant in Marietta, Georgia called
that plant's first strike in 25 years — just as it was awarded
one of the largest bids in history to manufacture fighter planes
and helicopters for the war effort.
Lockheed Martin's
management had already offered the union a contract including 10-percent
raises and $1,000 signing bonuses. Needless to say, in today's economy,
10-percent raises are nearly unheard of. Unfortunately for the U.S.
military, union bosses believe they are entitled to more and better
than the rest of the country — even when the nation is at war.
This new war
is unlike any we have faced, because it has the potential to be
fought, in part, on our own soil. We must be prepared for this possibility
and make sure that adequate emergency services will always be ready
to serve the American people in times of need.
Forced unionization
of our police and firefighters is not compatible with this preparation,
especially since it tends to force the best men and women out of
their jobs.
Under forced-unionism
laws, to disobey the union boss is to lose your job. Our police,
firefighters, and EMTs should not be made to choose between saving
innocent lives and feeding their families.
This brazen
attempt to hand our nation's police and firefighters over to Big
Labor's monopoly control must be stopped in its tracks. S. 952/H.R.
1475 is being aggressively promoted by Senators Ted Kennedy and
Tom Daschle. In fact, Daschle publicly promised a group of union
bosses that he would see to this bill's passage by the end of the
107th Congress. Now is not the time for Congress to capitulate to
Big Labor bosses' demands.
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