Instead of organizing for higher working circumstances, labor unions final week organized for abortion rights.
Responding to a leaked draft of a U.S. Supreme Court opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, hospitality union Unite Here tweeted that it might “only endorse and elect pro-choice candidates, whether those choices relate to abortion or a union.” The Association of Flight Attendants labeled the draft opinion an “attack against the majority of this country.” Teachers union president Randi Weingarten endorsed federal laws to codify abortion rights. The new
Starbucks
baristas union tweeted: “All of us in the labor movement must fight for our abortion rights.”
Not represented in these statements are the voices of union staff who oppose abortion—however whose dues are used to fund pro-abortion advocacy.
While organized labor sends 90% of its political donations to Democrats, roughly 40% of voters in union households favor Republicans. Members can choose out of supporting their union’s political-action committees, however their dues are nonetheless used to fund concern campaigns, lobbying and advocacy organizations that align with the union leaders’ left-of-center values.
An evaluation by the nonprofit Center for Union Facts of union spending between 2010 and 2018 discovered that 99% of those non-PAC funds—totaling practically $1.7 billion—went to left-wing teams or these aligned with the Democratic Party. Recipients embrace the Democratic Governors Association, the Clinton Foundation and the Center for American Progress. Payments to Planned Parenthood topped $1.2 million.
Union leaders would possibly justify the assist by arguing that their members lean left on social points. The knowledge don’t bear this out. A 2020 examine within the American Journal of Political Science discovered that “union membership has no consistent relationship with abortion attitudes specifically or social liberalism more broadly.” Put in another way: Union members maintain a variety of views on abortion, identical to the American public.
Recent Gallup polling exhibits Americans are break up, with roughly even percentages contemplating themselves “pro-choice” and “pro-life.” But there’s a key distinction: Nonunion staff who object to abortion aren’t subsidizing pro-abortion advocacy by way of a month-to-month paycheck deduction. Many union-represented staff present this subsidy by default, except they choose out by way of a cumbersome union-controlled course of.
Sen.
Tim Scott
(R., S.C.) has proposed a repair. His Employee Rights Act of 2022, launched this spring with assist from 27 of his Senate colleagues, would require union leaders to hunt members’ opt-in permission for any spending circuitously associated to collective bargaining.
This would come with donations to Planned Parenthood. A March 2022 survey of 1,000 Americans, performed by Engine Insights, discovered that 76% of all households—and an an identical proportion of union households—supported this.
Mr. Scott’s proposal shouldn’t be controversial. Whether you assist abortion, oppose it, or come down someplace within the center, you could find frequent floor on this level: Your cash shouldn’t be used to fund the opposite facet of the talk.
Mr. Saltsman is managing director on the Employment Policies Institute.
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