Unions push controls on the economy
June 21, 2007 | By Nathaniel Ward
Big Labor and its allies are in a bit of a bind, Heritage labor expert James Sherk writes. After decades of declining membership, they’re forced either to adapt or, like other special interests, ask the government to prop them up.
Watch as Sherk outlines the problems with Big Labor’s strategy in a new Heritage video.
Take our poll: Should government act to halt unions’ decline?
“Union leaders have selected curtain number two,” Sherk explains, and are “using their clout in the new Congress to push the cynically misnamed ‘Employee Free Choice Act.’”
This bill has several onerous provisions, including one to remove workers’ right to a secret ballot in unionization elections. But it gets worse: “Almost overlooked is the binding arbitration section of the act, which would do even more to undermine workers’ rights and a free economy.”
Under this misguided plan, if unions and employers can’t agree promptly on a work contract, Washington bureaucrats step in to settle things, Sherk continues. “Government officials could dictate wages and working conditions to any company unfortunate enough to be organized.” Never mind that extending government controls onto broader swathes of the economy is hardly good policy.
Unions hope that government arbiters would grant better contracts than they could negotiate on their own. And they hope that these government-dictated contracts will revive their moribund movement, which Sherk argues remains attached to an “outdated” New-Deal economic model.
Low-skill immigration and big government
With the latest secretive immigration bill now up for consideration, Heritage experts are hard at work exposing the proposal’s flaws and proposing principled, conservative alternatives.
Read Heritage’s principles for sound immigration reform.
A recent article outlines one of the problems with the bill: it would expand the size of government. “Sen. Ted Kennedy understands that a steady stream of low-skill immigrants will help him build a much larger, tax-fueled government,” Heritage expert Robert Rector writes on National Review Online.
Rector points to an insight economist Milton Friedman had a decade ago about immigration: “It’s just obvious you can’t have free immigration and a welfare state.” This is because in a welfare state, or as Rector puts it, a “redistributive transfer state,” new immigrants will demand government services at tremendous taxpayer expense.
Read more about Rector’s analysis.
Heritage expert testifies on terrorism
To protect its citizens, European countries must designate Hezbollah a terrorist organization and work to curtail its activities both within Europe and overseas, Heritage expert James Phillips told members of Congress yesterday.
Hezbollah has evolved into “a global terrorist threat” and could target Europeans both in Europe and the Middle East, he said.
Read more about Phillips’ testimony before Congress about Hezbollah’s threat.
How farm subsidies hurt taxpayers, consumers and farmers
America’s farm subsidies are like many well-intentioned big government programs: they exacerbate many of the problems they’re intended to solve. Heritage budget expert Brian Riedl looks at some of the claimed benefits of these handouts and finds them wanting:
- Farm subsidies are intended to be consumer-friendly and taxpayer-friendly. Instead, they cost Americans billions each year in higher taxes and higher food costs.
Read the rest of Riedl’s debunking of common myths about farm subsidies.
In other news
- President Bush yesterday vetoed legislation that would expand federal funding for embryonic stem cell research.
- Further evidence of media bias? A review by MSNBC of reporters’ political contributions reveals that just ten percent gave to Republican candidates in recent election cycles.
- The left-wing Center for American Progress has issued a report decrying the number of conservative voices on the air and calling for government controls on the “diversity” of radio programming. In other words, in the name of “the public interest,” they want to use the strong arm of the government to silence political voices they disagree with.
- Congressional leaders have announced a plan to cut the Capitol building’s energy usage in the next few years. But according to news reports, they plan to do this with costly alternative fuels and with dubious “carbon offsets,” which the Financial Times recently revealed to be a costly boondoggle with few environmental benefits.
Coming up at Heritage
To attend the following Heritage Foundation events, RSVP at Heritage’s events website. Or you can watch these events live online at Heritage.org. All times are Eastern.
- On Friday, June 22 at 10:00 a.m., Baker Spring hosts a panel discussion on whether conservatives should support the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.
- On Friday, June 22 at noon, Heritage hosts a look at the life and legacy of conservative author Russell Kirk.
On Tuesday, June 26 at 11:00 a.m., Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao will speak at Heritage about ensuring recent job growth continues and that American workers can effectively compete with those overseas.
Nathaniel Ward is the Editor of MyHeritage.org—a website for members and supporters of The Heritage Foundation. DeEtte Chatterton contributed to this report.
