By Congressman Ron Paul (R-Texas)
(Appeared in the Union Leader June 24, 2011)
BIG GOVERNMENT, big spending and attacks on personal liberties may be “in style” right now in Washington, D.C.
But the great news is, in state legislatures throughout the country, I’m hopeful we’re seeing a lasting rebirth of freedom.
In fact, I was greatly pleased to hear that the New Hampshire General Court could be on the verge of overriding Democrat Gov. John Lynch’s veto of the New Hampshire right-to-work bill.
A right-to-work law would simply prevent New Hampshire workers from being forced to hand over a portion of their paycheck to a union boss as a condition of employment.
That’s the way it is in my home state of Texas — and it’s one of the chief reasons for the much-talked-about economic growth we’ve seen in the Lone Star State in recent years.
In fact, nationally, studies show that right-to-work states far outperform forced unionism states like California and Illinois in areas like job creation and real personal income.
But like most of the problems we have nowadays, it’s the federal government that created forced unionism in the first place.
With passage of FDR’s National Labor Relations Act in 1935, Congress took away the individual right of American workers to decide whether or to join or pay dues to a labor union.
So ultimately, it’s up to Congress to right this wrong.
During my time in Congress, I’ve always been a champion of workers’ rights. That’s why I’ve cosponsored the National Right to Work Act to repeal these forced-dues provisions in federal labor law.
Because of those fo rceddues provisions, today nearly 8 million American workers are forced to pay dues to a union boss just to get or keep a job.
And national union bosses take in nearly $10 billion in forced union dues every year from these workers.
They then turn around and flood the campaign coffers of their tax-and-spend buddies like Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama with this forced-dues money.
That’s the main reason why the big labor bosses have gone all-out in recent years to force even more American workers under their thumbs with power grabs like “card check.”
Under this scheme, union thugs like those we saw recently in Wisconsin would have been given a free hand to harass, intimidate and browbeat workers into unionizing.
For big labor it’s not about protecting workers from abuse. For them it’s about one thing: raking in the forced union dues.
Forcing anyone to pay dues to a private organization — and labor unions are private organizations — is a violation of the very principles of liberty upon which our nation was founded.
So I’m hopeful New Hampshire will become the 23rd state to eliminate forced dues.
If elected President, I’ll fight for passage of a National Right to Work Law to end forced unionism in America once and for all.
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Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, is running for the Republican nomination for President.