Doug Bandow writes here about the legislative goodies that Big Labor wants from its friends.
He blows the whistle on a horrendous piece of special interest legislation bearing the harmless-sounding title of “The Public Safety Employer-Employee Cooperation Act of 2007.” What it would do, in Bandow’s words, is to “mandate unionization of emergency medical technicians, firefighters, and policemen across Amereica. States and localities which refused to recognize public sector unions would face a federal override, with Washington setting labor rules.”
This is an old idea. Big Labor has been advocating federal legislation to dragoon more public employees into its ranks for decades. It’s a lousy idea, as people in cities that have suffered through strikes by police and firefighters will attest. It’s also flagrantly unconstitutional. Nothing in the Constitution gives Congress authority to control either private or state and local labor relations. Alas, under the expansive “interpretations” of the Commerce and General Welfare clauses the Supreme Court has foolishly given us, I imagine that this additional piece of federal interventionism can be defended.
It will be worth watching the supposedly “centrist” Democrats like Shuler on this bill. I’ll be they fall right in line with the coercive agenda of the union bosses.
