Political Quotes

“I rise in some reluctant opposition here because I believe that the section 501 codification of the Beck decision in this bill is a poison pill. It simply does not do what it does state that it does. It states that it predicates a violation of the Beck decision as only involving workers who work under a union security agreement who are not members of a labor union. Thus, it basically states that the notice that has to be given to all of the workers in a union shop are only those who are not members of the union. Well, that means about 99 percent of the workers are not going to get notification of their rights under the Supreme Court decision in Beck, which basically tells workers that they need not have to pay union dues which are noncollective bargaining in nature, which can include political contributions, but which encompasses much more. Section 501 also states that the right to object only pertains to the use of political activities unrelated to collective bargaining which is defined to be expenditures in connection with Federal, State or local elections in connection with efforts to influence legislation unrelated to collective bargaining. But Beck covered all expenditures by unions not directly related to collective bargaining, not just to political activities. In addition, the above definition is pregnant with the implication that political activities can be related to collective bargaining, something the Beck decision never inferred.”