Does God Hate Unions?
By Hans Johnson George W. Bush – eager for a battle that will excite his conservative base – has made a “paycheck protection” plan aimed at crippling labor unions a top priority in reforming federal campaign-finance laws. At the same time, despite a pair of high-profile defeats two years ago, initiatives to restrict unions’ political activity may reappear on ballots in Oregon and Colorado this fall. Yet unlike 1998, this election season finds unions prepared for the fight. Labor leaders pledge to turn out their members in unprecedented numbers and sweep pro-labor candidates to victory in state and national races. “We learned a lot from the last campaign,” says Tim Nesbitt, president of the state AFL-CIO in Oregon, where voters narrowly rejected an anti-union drive two years ago. In the same election, voters approved a labor-backed measure to safeguard payroll deductions. But that issue remains tied up in litigation, leaving the door open for another attack by union opponents. Their new
