The Unions’ Little Big Horn - Michael Barone
The Unions’ Little Big Horn
How bad a defeat did labor unions suffer when Sen. Blanche Lincoln defeated their candidate and won the Arkansas Democratic runoff last week? That’s like asking how Custer fared at Little Big Horn.
Like Custer the unions bet heavily, putting something like $10 million into Arkansas to support Lincoln’s challenger, Lt. Gov. Bill Halter, since he started his campaign in early March. And they did so for good reason.
Union leaders desperately need Congress to pass their card-check bill, which would effectively abolish the secret ballot in unionization elections. Card check would allow union thugs — er, organizers — to collect signatures on cards of a majority of employees and then, presto, the union would be recognized as a bargaining agent, and dues money would come pouring in.
...Union leaders spent some $400 million in the 2008 campaign cycle to elect Barack Obama and Democratic candidates for the Senate and House. They got their wish: Obama won, House Democrats gained a solid majority, and once Al Franken was seated last July, there was a 60-vote Democratic supermajority in the Senate....
But politicians don’t always stay bought...... After the 2008 elections, Lincoln undoubtedly started to hear from constituents in Arkansas — including, undoubtedly, top management at Walmart and Tyson Foods, who don’t want unions to do to their firms what the United Auto Workers did to General Motors and Chrysler. Polls showed large majorities of the national electorate opposed to eliminating the secret ballot. By January 2009, Lincoln was saying she didn’t think “there is a need for this legislation right now.”
She wasn’t the only Senate Democrat to take that view. Her Arkansas colleague Mark Pryor, reelected without opposition in 2008, said he wouldn’t co-sponsor card check again. Card check slowly died.
Union leaders are under no illusion that there will be more Democrats in the next Congress than there are in this one. But they think far ahead, and they decided to oppose Lincoln to teach every Democrat a lesson: If you oppose big labor, we will end your career. Whether they persuaded Halter to run or just hitched a ride on his last-minute candidacy, they went all-in for him....
Despite Halter’s considerable political skills, the unions fell short. In the May 18 primary, Lincoln was forced into a runoff, as she led Halter by only 2 percent...
Lincoln’s victory removes the credibility of the unions’ threat to end the careers of Democrats who don’t do their bidding. The unions rode into Arkansas like Custer rode into Little Big Horn, and unlike Custer they managed to ride out — but without the scalp they were desperately seeking.
Let us pray....
No comments:
Post a Comment