08/31/2005
from the Evergreen Freedom Foundation
The Evergreen Freedom Foundation today released The State of Labor: A review of organized labor and worker freedom in 2005. The report, published in conjunction with Labor Day, reviews significant developments in the organized labor movement in 2005 and recommends policies that advance the First Amendment rights of America's workers.
The report analyzes the recent AFL-CIO split in which a third of the Federation's members left to form an alternative organization. It describes the roots of the disagreement and the implications of the proposed solutions on the political agenda and organizing efforts of labor unions.
The report highlights several key findings:
- Despite a politically diverse membership, organized labor overwhelmingly supports a single political party. In 2004, 87 percent of union political contributions went to Democrats.
- When given a choice, union members (including Democrat members) overwhelmingly refuse to support union political activity. In Washington state, over 90 percent of teachers refuse to subsidize union political activity.
- Reported union political contributions are only a fraction of actual union spending. Unions are able to conceal hundreds of millions of dollars in member education and voter mobilization efforts.
- Monopoly bargaining agreements and union organizing tactics are often undemocratic and trample worker freedoms.
- The defection of a third of AFL-CIO's members is essentially a disagreement over how to reverse organized labor's half-century decline. Ultimately, both factions seek to bring more dues-paying members into the fold in order to amass political clout.
The report also includes detailed case studies on union political activity in California and an analysis of the nation's first paycheck protection law, passed in Washington state in 1992. The report concludes with recommendations for policymakers who are interested in protecting workers from the abuse of their rights by union officials.
This Labor Day, workers deserve to choose how their hard-earned money will be spent. Big Labor's pains do not justify violations of the rights of workers.
