HARRISBURG, Pennsylvania — The hottest political potato in
Pennsylvania's Capitol this month is a bill that has drawn a network of
conservative groups and labor unions into a clash over how tens of millions of
dollars in dues payments are collected from hundreds of thousand public-sector
workers.
The bitter confrontation comes before any vote is even
scheduled.
But it is an election year when Republicans are tasked with
defending their control of the state government, and the bill's passage could
weaken labor unions' ability to marshal campaign cash to unseat perhaps the
most endangered Republican of all, Gov. Tom Corbett.
Democrats are dead-set against it. Stuck in the middle could
be moderate Republican lawmakers while there is still time for a more
conservative challenger to get on the ballot for the May 20 primary election.
To an extent, the battle in Pennsylvania is a proxy for a wider war playing out
nationally as conservative groups that often do not disclose their donors
target labor unions.
On Wednesday, Corbett said he would sign the bill, and then
put the onus on leaders of the Republican-controlled Legislature to pass it.
"I'm going to look to the leaders to see whether they
have the votes," Corbett told reporters.
Top House and Senate Republicans have said little about
whether they will fight for the bill. House Majority Leader Mike Turzai,
R-Allegheny, only suggested that the bill's aims are worthwhile and that
supporters make a "compelling" case.
At issue are identical House and Senate bills that would
effectively bar the state, school districts, municipalities and numerous other
government employers from automatically deducting union dues or union political
action committee contributions from the paychecks of unionized workers.
Firefighter and police unions are supposed to be exempt. But
by preventing unions from negotiating the automatic deductions into labor
contracts, it would force the unions to spend money and time collecting the
contributions themselves.
"Should the government collect political money?"
questioned the House bill's sponsor, Rep. Bryan Cutler, R-Lancaster. "I
think the answer is and should be 'no.'"
Conservative activists also say it is a matter of fairness:
Why are public-sector workers forced to pay into a union?
Even public-sector workers who do not want to join a union
are still subject to a "fair share" deduction that is supposed to pay
just to negotiate labor contracts, not things like campaign contributions,
lobbying or public relations campaigns.
Union leaders insist it is a union-busting bill that is
being pushed by the billionaire industrialist brothers Charles and David Koch,
and caution that the next step will be a similar attack on private-sector
unions or a broader attack on the bargaining rights of public-sector workers.
"I think the Koch brothers heard that we'd been
somewhat successful in blocking some of the crazier right-wing proposals out
there and ... they decided that the way to beat us in the Legislature is to
defund us," said Rick Bloomingdale, president of the AFL-CIO labor
federation in Pennsylvania.
Electricians, laborers, steelworkers and other largely
private sector unions say they are joining the fight.
"Written somewhere in the Bible is what you do to the
least of our brethren, you do to me," said Patrick Gillespie, the business
manager of the Philadelphia Building and Construction Trades Council.
"We're in this with everyone."
Libertarian groups, including Americans for Prosperity and
FreedomWorks, both Washington, D.C.-based groups backed by the Koch Brothers,
and business groups, including the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and
Industry, are vocal proponents.
"We are all in on this," said Jennifer Stefano,
the Pennsylvania director of Americans for Prosperity.
FreedomWorks says at least seven states have variations of
"paycheck protection" laws.
Both sides are lobbying rank-and-file Republican lawmakers
and trying to sway public opinion. Meanwhile, the issue is leaking into the
governor's race: Treasurer Rob McCord, a Democrat who is seeking the party
nomination to challenge Corbett, issued two fundraising emails attacking
Corbett on the issue.
Bloomingdale said unions swung into action after hearing
that a Koch brother or a representative had demanded that Republican
legislative leaders hold a vote on the bill before Feb. 18, the first day for a
candidate to circulate nominating petitions to get on the primary ballot.
Cutler and Stefano said they knew nothing of such a demand.
Rather, Stefano said she had pressed lawmakers for a vote before Christmas, and
she and other conservative activists warn that lawmakers are being closely
watched.
"For Republican donors and the activists, this is the
new litmus test, not abortion or guns," said Ryan Shafik, founder of the
Harrisburg-based campaign consultancy Rockwood Strategies. "If you side
with the government unions on this, you have no business being a
Republican."
Aides to Republican legislative leaders say GOP support for
the bill is growing because unions are increasingly viewed as a political
extension of the Democratic Party.
Bloomingdale said it would be illegal for Republican
lawmakers to court union support — or at least, neutrality — in the election in
exchange for blocking the bill. But unions will heavily consider the bill's
fate, he said.
"We support those who support us," Bloomingdale
said. "It's a simple as that."
Source: therepublic.com
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