National Right to Work Committee - A speech by Senator Tom McClintock

National Right to Work Committee. A speech by Senator Tom McClintock.

Los Angeles, California

I am very honored to be here today to salute the National Right to Work Committee and to personally thank each of you for making its efforts possible. For over a decade I have served on the labor committees of the Assembly and Senate of this state. I have seen first-hand the oppressive legislation and the overbearing tactics of the opposition over many years, I can say with great fervor and authority, Thank God for Reed Larson; Thank God for the National Right to Work Committee; and Thank God for each of you who makes their work possible.

As you have often pointed out, this fight is not about labor unions. Quite the contrary, we applaud labor unions. Labor unions draw their existence directly from the natural right that people have to associate with each other for their mutual betterment. Labor unions provide an opportunity for laborers to join together to enhance their ability to bargain with an employer. This is a vital element of a free society.

No, this is not a fight about labor unions. We defend the right of labor to associate. It is the use of force - the use of coercion - that we object to. In this, like so many other political disputes, it comes down to a very simple concept: freedom; in this case, the freedom of an individual worker to decide for himself whether to offer his services collectively or individually.

I know I am speaking to the choir on these issues. But in times when freedom is under such vicious attack from abroad, we should take every opportunity to defend it here at home.

What is freedom? It is the principle enshrined in our Declaration of Independence that every human being is equally endowed by "the laws of nature and of nature's God" with certain natural rights that cannot be alienated. And that the only legitimate use of force by one individual over another - or by a government over its people - is in the defense of these natural rights.

From this simple principle is derived the happiness and prosperity of a free people. And as long as such a government exists in the world, acting as a beacon of light and hope for the victims of tyranny, the tyrants can never be safe.
It is not by chance that on September 11th they struck at the symbol of the prosperity that freedom produces. So it is also very important that we understand how it is that freedom produces prosperity.

It is an amazingly simple mechanism. Two people come together for their mutual benefit. Each values something the other can offer more highly than that which the other asks. When both parties believe this condition exists, an exchange occurs and each leaves the transaction richer than when he entered.

That exchange might be when I give you a dollar for a cup of coffee. By definition, your cup of coffee is worth more to me than my dollar, and my dollar is worth more to you than your cup of coffee. And so we each leave with something of greater value - to us - than we brought.

And because every person is free to offer his labor or his goods or his capital to every other person - and is free to make his decisions for himself according to his own needs and wants and desires - every interaction in a state of freedom creates wealth for every person in that interaction.

The essential element of this engine is the freedom of each individual to make his own decisions - to weigh his own risks, his own costs and his own obligations against what is to be gained, without interference by any one or any group. And in the American view, government's role is to protect that right.

And that is what is at the crux of this battle: the freedom of every worker to decide whether joining a particular union is in his own best interest. Should unions attract their members by the services, benefits and advantages they offer to their members, or should they be allowed to force individuals into their ranks with the police powers of the state?

The demand that individual workers be coerced into joining such associations; that they be forced to surrender their right to negotiate the terms of their employment individually; the demand that they surrender their ability to demonstrate individual merit and individual talent and individual worth in that marketplace is entirely destructive of that remarkable engine of prosperity that freedom makes possible. It is equally destructive of the God-given rights that the American Founders deemed to be self-evident, inalienable, and equally endowed to all.

This freedom, by the way, is essential both to the worker who chooses to join a union as it is to the worker who does not.
After all, coercion is not necessary where allegiance is earned. Coercion is only necessary where the natural allegiance of workers hasn't been earned. If you can force somebody against his will to join your union, you don't have to worry much about pleasing him. Only voluntary associations have to please their members - because otherwise they have no members.
And that's where coerced labor unions are failing. When they don't have to earn their workers' allegiance, they don't tend to serve their workers very well. And that is not my verdict: that is the verdict of the workers themselves.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 84 percent of the entire workforce in California and 86 percent of the construction trades chooses to act as free labor - to stand on their own merits and talents - to negotiate their own terms and conditions - to look their employer in the eye and to say, here's what I can do for you and what I require to do it.

Only 16 percent belong to labor unions. And because of the nature of labor laws, we don't know how many of that 16 percent have freely chosen to belong to the unions, and how many have simply been coerced into joining for fear of their livelihoods.

Part of this trend away from organized labor may be because the nature of the labor market is changing. The decentralization of production, Toffler's third wave of information and technology, the continuing improvement in the skills and education of the workforce, make individual negotiations more attractive for many workers than collective negotiations.

As this trend intensifies, so have the attempts by organized labor to deny free choice to workers, particularly here in California. And here's their Catch 22: as they become more coercive in this environment, they lose more and more popular support.

Let me offer an example. One of the most heart-breaking lines of attack has been an attempt by the Gray Davis administration to shut out access to apprenticeship programs by non-union members. These programs are the only way aspiring young people can get into the construction trades in California. Particularly women and minorities, long excluded from organized labor, have found a haven in the freedom of open shops where merit and zeal and determination - rather than cronyism and favoritism - are the determining factors of success.

When measures were brought before the legislature to close these front doors of opportunity to any non-union employee, a group called the Merit Shop Roundtable brought in their workers, who told stories of outright discrimination by the unions. Free labor - that inherent natural right to work and enjoy the fruit of their own labor - was the only avenue available to single moms trying to make a go of it or to young dads trying to escape poverty for their new families. And they came and they told their stories. And they made these points so clearly and so compellingly, that even Democrats on the committee balked and announced their opposition. The labor bosses were shameless in openly threatening their deviating Democrats in very abusive conversations in the hallway. One by one, each of these Democrats returned sheepishly to vote "Aye." The bill got out of committee. But they never brought it up on the Senate floor.

What else is restoring and reasserting the right of free labor to decide for itself whether to join a union? It is, of course, the stunning victories you have won in court that restate and reinstate those fundamental American principles that no person can be compelled to join a union against his wishes or be forced to contribute to causes he abhors. I believe that if every worker simply knew of his rights and knew the simple steps to assert these rights, 95 percent of this organization's work would be done.

After all, it doesn't matter how many or how few chose to join unions, as long as every decision is made by every individual worker in the absence of coercion or force.

In this regard, the Internet becomes a powerful tool. Access to the latest legal opinions and instructions are now just a mouse-click away for everyone. Thanks to your work, not only by defending these principles in court, but by providing a step-by-step guide for every worker on how to assert those rights - what letters to write - where to send them - and what to say, that freedom of choice again exists for all those who merely ask.

We have reached a strange period in our history when a well-organized minority are dictating the terms and conditions of employment for the vast majority. That's not a normal condition in a democracy, and it cannot stand for long, particularly in an era where people are becoming jealous guardians of their right to be left alone.

I believe that the era into which we are entering will be remembered by historians as yet another American re-birth of freedom. A time when every person - great or small, weak or powerful, skilled or unskilled will again be the master of his own fate, free to stand upon his own industry and talent, and to enjoy the unfettered freedom to steer his own course, according to his own judgment and insight and hopes and dreams. I do not believe that day is far off, and those of you who have stood behind this organization will soon have the satisfaction of knowing that you played a major role in bringing it to pass.