Trent Lott: “This bill represents the determination of Senator Lauch Faircloth to bring to the national agenda a critically important…”

“This bill represents the determination of Senator Lauch Faircloth to bring to the national agenda a critically important issue. That issue is the question of whether an American worker can be compelled to join a union and pay dues to it. The right to join a union is secured by law, as indeed it should be. The right not to join is another matter. Language to that effect in the National Labor Relations Act of 1935 was vitiated in the same legislation by a provision permitting union officials to secure contracts requiring union membership as a condition of employment. It is long past time for us to rectify that mistake. I emphasize that this is not a matter of being pro-union or anti-union. My father was a union pipefitter in a Mississippi shipyard, and I can personally appreciate the importance of union membership to millions of our fellow Americans. But the American people do not like compulsion, whether it is directed against them or against their neighbors. Although we are a nation of joiners, we like to join groups and organizations of our own volition, not because someone in authority tells us to do so. That principle is especially important when it comes to earning a living for yourself and your family. We should not tolerate efforts to hinder any American from that goal.”