Kamala Harris' 'right to work ban' is pandering to unions for 2020 financial backing: The Hill’s Kristin Tate
California Senator Kamala Harris (D) is taking aim at right to work laws.
At a Service Employees International Union event in Las Vegas on Saturday, Harris said, "It comes with the President of the United States to speak up about the needs and the rights workers have to be able to organize and fight for their rights…It has to be about banning right to work laws”.
Right to work laws are put in place so that employees of a company cannot be forced to join a union or pay union dues.
According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, there are 27 states that have passed Right to Work laws.
The Hill contributor Kristin Tate said Harris’ call to end right to work is an attempt to pander to unions in order to get their financial backing for the 2020 presidential race.
“Like so many of her left wing colleagues, Kamala Harris is just proving herself to be an authoritarian,” she said on FOX Business’ “Making Money with Charles Payne” on Monday. “Last week, she said that she would override Congress to get away with gun laws. Now, she’s saying she would use executive powers to ban state laws just because she doesn’t like them.”
While Tate acknowledges that Democratic candidates always get backing from unions in presidential elections, she said President Trump has made “incredible end roads with the rank-and-file union workers.”
“He’s been such a fighter for the American worker, and he’s been strong arming companies to bring union jobs back to America…I just don’t see how any worker union or not could support the Democrats in their anti-business agenda.”
FOX Business’ Charles Payne said that there was a time where unions were "an absolute must” but now he believes that they may have overplayed their hand.
“If you look at how much loss they’ve had in the private sector, it’s pretty clear to me that maybe Alabama wouldn’t have those companies coming there, these auto plants and other companies, if they weren’t right to work states,” he said.
Payne said it is dangerous to suggest to doing away with right to work laws because there is evidence suggesting it is benefitting people.
“If you say to someone you’ve got to pay dues, it defies…what’s happening on the ground economically,” Payne said. “You’ve got swing states, Florida, Iowa, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Virginia, and Wisconsin that are right to work states. So, it’s a dangerous path to go down when these states have some pretty low unemployment rates [of] 2.4, 2.9, [and] 2.3 percent.”
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Dewey Square Group Principal’s Mary Anne Marsh disagrees, saying, that many people view right to work as a “conservative way to try to trample out unions.” She said that ultimately, a ban on right to work, comes down to fairness.
“If you’re working in a place and getting the benefits from an organized union that make sure you get a certain salary, certain work conditions, healthcare and everything that goes with that job then why shouldn’t you participate, why shouldn’t you contribute to the overall reason you get these benefits? It’s the unions that built the middle class. Unions are the reason that people have these jobs, with great salaries, great benefits, five days a week, eight hours a day and overtime.”