While many people in various walks of life claim they have paid their dues, union members go on paying their dues for the entirety of their working lives. And, quite often, those union dues are used to pursue political agendas, which workers may not support.
As a result, there is a ballot initiative in Colorado known as Amendment 49, that would prohibit state and municipal governments from taking money from government workers’ paychecks and using that money for lobbying or electioneering.
The defeat of the Amendment has been vigorously supported by Democratic Governor Bill Ritter who is an ardent supporter of unions. And, of course, the unions are campaigning to defeat the Amendment as well.
Surprisingly, the majority of the state’s newspapers, including the liberal Denver Post, support Amendment 49.
Those who support the Amendment agree that no citizen should have income confiscated to pay for laws and regulations that they may not support. To force U. S. citizens to hand over hard-earned cash for purposes that they do not wish to support smacks of totalitarianism.
As the allure and value of unionization fades for millions of workers, unions are attempting to do whatever they can to increase their membership rolls; to that end, they are tapping their members’ salaries to help elect federal officials who will support The Employee Free Choice Act and its mechanism of card checks. Unions hope that such efforts will augment their power and wealth – regardless of the political and economic interests of their members.
