Orrin Hatch: “let me reiterate: in my view, this violation of fundamental choice and freedom of speech is compounded by the fact that…”

“let me reiterate: in my view, this violation of fundamental choice and freedom of speech is compounded by the fact that labor unions do not even disclose their soft money contributions, which amounts to hundreds of millions of dollars. That $35 million which we have all been reading about in the newspapers is really nothing. It is almost a wash compared to what they really spend. The unions pull in somewhere, it is estimated, around $4 to $6 billion a year, and up to 85 percent of that money, according to some estimates, is used for political purposes on local, State and Federal levels. The Supreme Court, in 1988, in Beck versus Communications Workers of America, declared that workers were entitled to know how much of their dues were being directed to political uses and to receive a refund for that portion of dues paid. I think a brief description of the Beck case is useful. Harry Beck was a telephone company technician working for the Bell Telephone System. He was not a member of the Communications Workers of America, but was required to pay agency fees to the union under the labor contract it negotiated with American Telephone & Telegraph Co.”