Unions get a taste of their own medicine
Finally, someone grows a pair and smacks down the union mafia:
A labor-backed California law that barred companies from using funds from the state to campaign against union organizing drives violates federal labor law by limiting employers’ free expression, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Thursday. [That's not quite what the law did - see the bold print in paragraph 5. -ed.]
The same federal law that protects workers’ right to join a union also favors “uninhibited, robust, and wide-open debate in labor disputes,” the court said in a 7-2 ruling.
Employers are entitled to speak against unionization as long as they don’t use threats or coercion, said Justice John Paul Stevens in the majority opinion. He also said employees have a right to receive information opposing unions.
Dissenting justices said the California law left employers free to use their own funds to oppose union organizing.
The state law, signed in 2000 by then-Gov. Gray Davis, was the first of its kind in the nation. It barred state contractors and other companies that receive at least $10,000 from the state in a year from using any of that money to support or oppose union organizing.
Or in other words, the law said that, if any company wanted to do business with the state, they had to bow down to the unions - amounting to government sponsorship of unions! What right does the government have to tell anyone, be it an individual or a business, how to spend their hard earned money? What right does the government have to keep strings attached to the money it pays for a job done?
Smacking down this law doesn’t level the playing field, but at least it ensures employers their First Amendment rights.
Tags: Government, labor, unions
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