Public Sector Union Bosses' Stranglehold on Mayors

Obama White House: Big Labors Doormat
By Mark Mix, President, National Right To Work Committee

During last year's campaign, Barack Obama enjoyed staunch support from Americas big-city mayors. And since he moved into the Oval Office in January, President Obama has showed his affection for metropolises, even establishing a new White House Office of Urban Affairs.

Thats why seasoned urban politicians like Miamis Manny Diaz, who full-throatedly endorsed Barack Obama at last summers Democratic National Convention, were shocked recently when Mr. Obama snubbed them at a time of economic strife. Mr. Diaz, outgoing president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors (USCM), accuses the White House of setting a very dangerous precedent.

What has Mr. Diaz so upset is that the Obama Administration collectively turned up its nose at him and his fellow urban executives June 12-16 by boycotting their 2009 annual meeting in Providence, R.I. Vice President Joe Biden, senior adviser Valerie Jarrett, and Cabinet members Shaun Donavan, Arne Duncan, and Gary Locke had all been slated to attend the meeting. Not one showed up.

Why would Barack Obama and his Cabinet do such a thing to their close political friends? Because International Association of Firefighters (IAFF/AFL-CIO) union President Harold Schaitberger told them to.

H.R.413, the federal monopoly-bargaining mandate, would rewrite the public-sector labor laws of the vast majority of the 50 states to make them more pro-forced unionism. In states that dont currently authorize public-safety monopoly bargaining, H.R.413 would impose it, denying localities the option to refuse to grant a single union the power to speak for all front-line employees, including those who dont want to join. And in most states that already authorize public-safety union monopoly bargaining, H.R.413 would widen its scope.

When virtually identical legislation was rubber-stamped by the U.S. House in 2007, nearly every Democrat and dozens of Republicans, including many who purport to oppose compulsory unionism, voted for it.

Self-styled forced-unionism foes who have voted for measures like H.R.413 in the past have tried to justify their votes by suggesting that public-safety union bosses, unlike other union bosses, do not abuse their power. But do they really think Harold Schaitbergers exploitation of a pliant White House to intimidate mayors of budget-strapped cities nationwide doesnt constitute an abuse of power?

Of course, this is only one recent example of public-safety union bosses wielding the political clout they derive from their monopoly-bargaining and forced-dues privileges to browbeat elected officials at all levels of government.

Harold Schaitberger is no more deserving of compulsory-unionism power than is any other union boss. Speaking on behalf of the 2.2 million National Right to Work Committee members, I urge every congressman and senator who professes to support the Right to Work, but has voted for legislation like H.R.413 in the past, to disavow that vote and legislation like H.R.413 right away. To find out more about what you can do to help stop H.R. 413, visit www.nrtwc.org -- the Committees web site.

Mr. Mix is President of the National Right to Work Committee, based in Springfield, Va..

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News & Politics

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• Conference of Mayors
• H.R.413
• Vice President Joe Biden
• Valerie Jarrett
• Shaun Donavan
• Arne Duncan
• Gary Locke
• Obama Administration
• IAFF
• David Cicilline
• Harold Schaitberger
• Manny Diaz
• National Right To Work
• Mark Mix
• NRTW
• Public Sector union
• Local Union