Kamala Harris has so far revealed only few and fluid details about her plans in many policy areas, even walking back extreme and unpopular positions through unattributed campaign statements.
But on labor issues there is no need for speculation: Ms. Harris has consistently and loudly advocated policies that give union leaders unprecedented control over both workers and their wallets.
Most notably, Harris, a labor advocate, has reiterated her support for the repeal of right-to-work laws in every state in the country.
These laws do not prohibit voluntary union membership or the payment of union dues; they merely prohibit union officials from forcing workers to pay dues as a condition of getting or keeping a job.
The vast majority of Americans support these common-sense protections for workers' free choice.
Union members agree: A recent poll found that 79% of union members support the principle that joining a union and paying dues should be completely voluntary.
Despite her right-to-work popularity, Harris has consistently spoken out against voluntary union dues.
In 2016, as California Attorney General, Harris represented the state in briefs submitted to the U.S. Supreme Court in Friedrichs v. California Teachers, a case in which California public school teachers challenged the First Amendment's ability to allow union officials to compel teachers to pay union dues.
The case ended in a 4-4 stalemate, but Harris' argument briefs defended union privilege and eloquently demonstrated her contempt for workers' freedoms.
Harris did not dispute the plaintiff teachers' perception that union leaders' negotiating demands, such as “layoffs and recalls based solely on seniority,” benefit some teachers at the expense of others.
Indeed, in his brief, Harris explicitly acknowledged that “unions have considerable discretion to advance bargaining positions that are adverse to the economic interests of some employees.”
But she argued that this shouldn't stop governments from forcing employees to pay for harmful “expression.”
More recently, Harris has supported a labor policy plan that goes far beyond the destruction of labor rights and shows she truly wants to restore control of union leaders over both workers and corporations.
As a U.S. senator, Harris was a staunch supporter of the so-called “PRO Act,” a bill that would not only eliminate workers’ rights but also allow union officials to exert control over independent contractors and destroy the independence that leads so many workers to choose them.
In Harris' home state of California, a similar state ban destroyed hundreds of thousands of careers overnight.
The Pro Act would also create in federal law the power for union officials to ignore secret ballot rules when workers vote on whether to form a union at their workplace, and instead appoint themselves through a rushed “card check” procedure.
Other provisions of the bill would prohibit workers from voting out unions they oppose, allow union officials to censor worker speech, and allow government officials to impose coercive union dues contracts even over objections from both employers and workers.
Harris has also publicly stated her support for “sectoral bargaining,” a more extreme pro-union measure than the PRO Act.
In sector-based bargaining, one prominent proposal supported by longtime Harris allies, including SEIU, would give union officials authority over an entire industry on a “sector-by-sector” basis based on support for unionization from a small minority (10 percent or less) of workers in that industry.
All of Harris's coercive, top-down ideas make sense if you subscribe to the worldview she laid out in her argument in Fredrichs: that union leaders know better than workers and should have more control over workers' lives, even if some or many workers might be harmed in the process.
In her brief to Fredrichs, Harris said union leaders should be entitled to make reasonable “trade-offs” in the workplace that benefit some workers at the expense of others.
But this Labor Day, please remember that Harris's platform is actually a loss for all American workers — giving up freedom in the workplace to power-hungry union bosses.
Mark Mix is president of the National Right to Work Foundation and the National Right to Work Committee.
