Diary of a Mad Voter: Unions singing yesterday's song

Joining a union in 2007 is like buying a Britney Spears CD. You do it because it makes you nostalgic for those good old days before reality set in.

In contemporary American life, unions are largely irrelevant — that is, everywhere except for politics. Union bosses regularly abuse workers to achieve their political objectives — and in states like Colorado, they get away with it.

In 2006, the nation’s largest union, the Service Employees International Union, funneled nearly $1 million from the compulsory dues of their members to fund small donor committees designed to elect Democrats running for everything from county treasurer to governor. And the SEIU was successful.

Utilizing a loophole in Colorado campaign finance law, they were able to forcibly use dues money of union members from across the country for the cause — all without the consent or disclosure of individual workers. How truly unfair to the janitor in Florida that he could be forced to give money to his union, only to see this money translated into campaign contributions supporting out-of-state causes or candidates he doesn’t believe in.

Last week, the Federal Election Commission agreed that union tactics are out of control, making the decision to fine a union-funded campaign committee $750,000 for illegally diverting more than $100 million in forced dues and other contributions to federal candidates.

Unfortunately, while the committee, Americans Coming Together (which received $26 million from SEIU in 2004 alone) has now been disbanded, its unwilling contributors won’t receive a penny in compensation for having their hard earned money misused.

When voters across the nation began enacting a wave of so-called campaign finance reform during the last decade, they wanted transparency in our system. If union participation proves anything, however, it’s that the system has only become more captive to the secrecy of anonymous contributors.

Union membership has plummeted nationally over the last fifty years, the result of a changing economy — one that was once industrial, briefly becoming the “office” economy, and today, at least for the moment, is tied primarily to a service economy and technology. While the U.S. population has nearly doubled since 1960, we have 700,000 less unionized workers than we did four decades ago.

In Colorado, the unionized workforce is extremely small — less than 10 percent of the total workforce — a statistic representative of a fact that most employers here aren’t massive manufacturing or retail giants, but rather small mom-and-pop shops.

Beyond very vocal casino workers in Las Vegas, most people in the West are also saying no to union membership for a very simple reason. They don’t feel the need. Why be forced into group salary negotiations, known by the flowery phrase “collective bargaining,” when you can better advocate a pay raise for yourself? If the guy down the hall isn’t working as hard as you, why should he get the same benefits?

While more and more workers are opting to fend for themselves — when the law allows — as it only sometimes does in Colorado, union bosses are fighting back with the aid of Democrats in power, including Gov. Bill Ritter, who has opened the door to unions seeking to raise the percentage of public employees belonging to unions.

In the end, it’s a losing cause. Our workforce is becoming more specialized, more sophisticated, and our economy simply cannot—and will not—maintain jobs that hand out benefits and salaries based on group bullying and not individual merit.

The truth is clear that states rejecting forced unionism, commonly known as “Right to Work” states, attract better employers and more diversified industries. It’s a win-win for both workers and business owners.

As Democrats prepare for their party’s convention in Denver next summer, they couldn’t pander any harder to the far left elements of the organized labor movement. They’re not likely to appear in public with Jimmy Hoffa, Jr., president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, and the son of a man whose mysterious and infamous disappearance in 1975 is often tied to his tough-talking union ways.

Democrats are, however, likely to heed Hoffa’s extreme message that workers should be forced to join unions or pay representation dues in the absence of membership.

Jessica Peck Corry is a public policy analyst with the Independence Institute in Golden, Colo.

The younger Hoffa was referred to in a 1997 National Review article as “the Pillsbury Doughboy of the union movement” for being “not particularly sharp” and for being “more interested in building a muscular union than in forming grand left-wing alliances.” In other words, he’s a relic of the past.

In 2005, Hoffa announced that the Teamsters were ending their affiliation with the AFL-CIO in an effort to help “stem the losses that we have endured over the past decade.” While the losses continue, the political contributions only continue to add up.

Money in politics has a way of talking. Even outdated messages like those still perpetuated by Hoffa have a way of being heard when they directly result in campaign contributions.

There was a time when unions served a societal good. They fought against horrible working conditions and gave a voice to the voiceless. Today, however, they serve special interests largely out of touch with the American workforce — small business employees and employers like those in my family.

Just like we all loved Britney, Americans have an ongoing affinity for unions. Both are largely out of touch with life in the 21st century, however, and it’s time to let them go. As much as Britney might today dream of a sold-old concert, she simply can’t force people to buy tickets. Hoffa and his union buddies should have to play by the same rules. Forced unionism has got to go.

Editor’s note: Jessica Peck Corry's weekly blogs are part of a feature on PoliticsWest.com called "Diary of a Mad Voter." The group blog, published in partnership with NewWest.Net/Politics, is intended to give a glimpse into the hearts and minds of several independent-minded voters and thinkers in the Rocky Mountain West in the '08 election cycle.

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