Will McAuliffe intentionally undermine Virginia law?

By JR Hoeft | Thursday, May 21st, 2009 | Politics

At last Tuesday’s Democratic gubernatorial debate, Chairman Terry McAuliffe, said that he intentionally discriminated against non-union workers by hiring all union workers for a business operation in Florida, a right-to-work state.

“I’ve gone into states like Florida — right-to-work,” McAuliffe said during the debate hosted by the Washington Post and News Channel 8 at Northern Virginia Community College’s Annandale campus. “And hired all union workers.”

This generated a swift response from the Republican Party of Virginia who issued a release that contained the applicable right-to-work provisions in both the Florida and Virginia code:

Florida’s law reads, in part:

“The right of persons to work shall not be denied or abridged on account of membership or non-membership in any labor union or labor organization.” (Florida Constitution, Article 1, Section 6)

Virginia’s law reads, in part:

“It is hereby declared to be the public policy of Virginia that the right of persons to work shall not be denied or abridged on account of membership or non-membership in any labor union or labor organization.” (Virginia Code, Section 40.1-58)

“Terry McAuliffe either doesn’t know or doesn’t care what the letter and spirit of right-to-work laws are if he brags about discriminating against non-union workers,” said Republican Party of Virginia Chairman Pat Mullins. “Requiring all workers to be unionized is against the policy of Virginia and it is shocking that he would boast about breaking it. Our hard-working citizens and employers deserve to know: will Terry McAuliffe encourage the same kind of discriminatory hiring practices in Virginia he claims to have engaged in while in Florida?”

Millions of Democrat and union dollars are being poured into Virginia to support the Democratic candidates, but more to oppose Bob McDonnell who has been an outspoken defender of right-to-work practices and against the so-called “Card Check” bill.

Changing Virginia from a right-to-work state and implementing “card check” are measures that are job killers, not job creators, as they increase costs to business, causing them to seek other places of operation, such as overseas.

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