NEW VIDEO: “Perpetual Contracts” legislation named the Progressive Bad Bill of the Week
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 14, 2018
Progressive Land of Make Believe Bad Bill of the Week: Perpetual Contracts
Are union-progressives seeking to evade the expected US Supreme Court ruling?
Providence, RI — The legislative onslaught continues by progressive-Democrats against taxpayers and, now, against union workers. Once again, labor unions are pushing for perpetual contracts as an overt money grab, even as the US Supreme Court may soon rule against them.
Tabbed as the “Progressive Land of Make Believe Bad Bills of the Week” in a new post by the RI Center for Freedom & Prosperity, three related bills, H7198, H7633, and H7634, would give unions an unfair negotiating advantage when it comes to Collective Bargaining Agreements for government workers. Worse, there may be an even more devious motive behind these bills, even though similar legislation was vetoed by the Governor in 2017.
The Center suggests, if passed, this legislation could potentially subvert the expected June 2018 landmark ruling in the Mark Janus vs AFSCME case, which was heard by the Supreme Court Justices in late February.
Under one likely Supreme Court ruling scenario against unions, and with the goal of lessening the immediate financial impact on unions, the Justices may allow for forced dues and fees to continue to be collected for those government workers under an existing collective bargaining contract. And that such employees could exercise their newly-granted freedom to opt-out only after those existing contracts expire. But if Rhode Island’s state and municipal contracts are “perpetual” – and could never automatically expire – then Rhode Island public employees might never have the chance to opt out.
“Not only are union bosses desperate to keep their political coffers and their personal compensation packages well funded, but they may be seeking to actively deny workers new freedoms that may be granted to them by the Supreme Court,” warned the Center’s CEO, Mike Stenhouse. “We call on the Governor to once again exercise her veto powers.”
In recent years, government worker unions and progressives have banded together to promote centralized-government-control and a high tax political environment. These three bad bills are the result of this powerful union-progressive partnership.
For decades, unions and their political cronies in statehouses across the country have seemingly found every possible way to extract money from taxpayers – as well as their own members – so that their financial and political power can be maintained.
“At a higher level, in this fantasy world of perpetual contracts, unions would never have to bargain in good faith, even in the worst of possible economic times, as they would be able to just sit back and continue to reap in their overly-generous benefits,” added Stenhouse. “In the real world, your local taxes could never ever go down.”
Stenhouse’s related Youtube blog can also be viewed on the post.
Other Bad Bills: An interactive table of other progressive bad bill candidates, as well as posts and video commentary on previously tabbed “progressive bad bills of the week” can be found at RIFreedom.org/Bills.
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