Senate Republicans such as Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky will be pushing hard for this clamp on labor. And Bush made it one of the two provisions he specifically pressed on McCain when they met to discuss the campaign-finance bill late last month. In its most restrictive form, the language requires unions to get prior approval from each member before using any dues money for any type of politically connected activity. That would include everything from the kind of lobbying unions did last year to push for HMO reform to setting up phone banks where volunteers make calls to support candidates in local, state or federal races. Add onerous reporting requirements to the magnitude of getting permission to use dues money and the result is likely to severely hamstring labor's role in the political arena.
Business revs up.
At the same time that Republicans hope to shut down union political operations, they are trying to beef up business political power to directly challenge union politics in the workplace. Union power in the workplace will be undercut by Republican plans to reintroduce TEAM Act, a bill President Clinton vetoed in 1996. The legislation would reverse current law, which prohibits employers from taking over worker organizations or creating competing ones. Companies would be able to set up an employees' organization, decide which workers will act as representatives, set the agenda for meetings, determine the outcome and also abolish the organization if the employer isn't satisfied with it. That kind of control would weaken or eliminate unions and stop increasingly successful efforts to bring labor's political message to working people.