Originally published in the Daily Press.
Republicans have been very quick lately to savor union defeats.
Last week in Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker withstood a recall vote and will now serve out the rest of his term.
Walker was faced with this predicament because he dared take on public sector unions and their collective bargaining rights in his effort to balance the state budget.
Also last week, the Metropolitan Washington Airport Authority (MWAA) voted 11-1 not to require a Project Labor Agreement (PLA) for the expansion of the DC Metro Line into Loudoun County. For many Republicans, this was a victory for Virginia’s right-to-work laws and keeping costs down.
By the rhetoric that followed, you would have thought the GOP won decisive victories.
Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin called what happened in Wisconsin a victory over union “thugs”.
And State Senator Mark Obenshain (R-Harrisonburg) wrote, “Big Labor must be reeling after the one-two punch they just received-first they were pummeled in Wisconsin and now organized labor has beat a major retreat here in Virginia.”
We can see a pattern of entrenched animosity between the GOP and unions, who have become grafted onto the Democratic Party.
For example, this week on CBS’ “Face the Nation”, AFL-CIO Pres. Richard Trumka tag-teamed with our Maryland neighbor Gov. Martin O’Malley, chairman of the Democratic Governors Association, to bash the GOP.
And, in Virginia, the head of the Virginia AFL-CIO Doris Crouse-Mays is also a Democratic National Committeewoman.
This is really not all that surprising, and might even be smart politically for unions.
Unfortunately, what might be good politically for a few is not good for the country nor the union at large and its members. Actively stoking the GOP only leads to the GOP being in opposition to union goals.
And this continued GOP antagonism towards unions is not good policy either.
For one, in the public sector, most of the unionized labor is police, fire fighters, park employees, janitors, etc. Not people making policy behind desks. How are these workers protected when government is quick to cut spending?
Second, in the private sector, the natural trend of business is to increase profits. We have seen in our past that this can have dramatic and negative consequences for the worker.
Unions are not bad. They are the American worker.
Unions ensure there is a way for the everyday worker, who is providing for their family, to get a seat at the table, and to not be taken advantage of by those with a stronger negotiating position.
Unions also balance the naturally monopolistic behavior of business – or government. Republicans, in the mold of Teddy Roosevelt, should welcome that balance.
The sooner Republicans recognize this, and learn to work with labor, the better.
Republicans are the only party that had a former union president become U.S. president: Ronald Reagan.
Reagan called the right to belong to a free trade union “one of the most elemental human rights.”
Not only was this right politically (remember the Reagan Democrats who carried Reagan to a landslide victory in 1984?), but it is also the right policy approach.
Unions, and especially union membership, are not the adversary of the GOP. They’re exactly the hardworking people the GOP needs to support, and whose support they need.
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