Why Are Unions Giving Millions to NC Democrats?

Behind the Curtain is a weekly look at the inner workings of the politics, policy, and polling that shape North Carolina’s legislative elections.

Huge national Labor Unions gave state level North Carolina Democrats over $5 million in campaign cash during the 2008 election. The Union campaign cash was spent to help Democrats hold on to their majorities in the State Legislature and to help Democrat Bev Perdue defeat Republican Pat McCrory in the Governor’s race.

North Carolina has one of the strongest “Right to Work” laws in the country and the lowest rate of unionization in America. So why are some of the biggest Unions in the country investing millions of dollars of their limited campaign cash in North Carolina?

State level Democrats received over $5.5 million of the $5.6 million Unions and Trial Lawyers contributed to State level campaigns during the 2008 election.

Democrats outspent Republicans by a 3:1 margin in the 10 closest 2008 State Senate races.   The huge influx of Labor Union campaign money is the single biggest reason for the Democrats financial advantage.

Why do Labor Unions care about legislative elections in the least unionized state in the country?

The simple answer is they want to overturn North Carolina’s “Right to Work” law in a two step process.

Step 1 – Use their political influence purchased with Democrats to allow public employees to unionize.

Step 2 – After gaining a foothold with public employees, expand unionizing efforts into North Carolina’s private sector workforce.

This would severely damage North Carolina’s economy and business climate.

The Unions strategy of using campaign cash to win influence with Governor Perdue and Legislative Democrats appears to be working:

• Governor Perdue recently signed an executive order requiring her Department Secretaries meet with SEIU Leaders to “confer” about State Employee work conditions on a quarterly basis.
• Democrats introduced bills during this legislative session giving public employees collective bargaining rights.
• Just this week the State Employees Union (SEIU Local 2008) held a rally demanding collective bargaining rights.

If you want to see the impact of unionized public employees on a state’s budget and economy look no further than New Jersey and California.

Unionized public employees require collection of dues by local governments; negotiate every aspect of their job performance and discipline through union reps, Teachers and State Employees strike for higher pay, and tie up billions of taxpayer dollars in public employee pension and insurance accounts.

A unionized state government will be a more expensive and less customer-friendly state government dominated by liberal Teacher and State Employee Unions.

New Jersey’s Republican Governor, Chris Christie, is confronting the issue now:

Christie speaks in Washington DC, calling Newark schools ‘absolutely disgraceful’

North Carolina sits at a crossroads. Can our state really afford to continue down the path that has led New Jersey and California to the brink of bankruptcy?

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