Our Right-to-Work law is one of Virginia’s foundational strengths and competitive advantages. The laws that protect workplace Freedom have made Virginia one of the best places to start or grow a business, but not everyone sees things as we do.
This is especially true in Washington. Rather than recognizing the fact that Right-to-Work laws are good for everyone, President Obama’s administration and his allies seem bent on destroying them.
As I travel around Virginia, I am constantly reminded of the importance of our freedom to work. Virginians remind me about the companies that have relocated to or expanded in Virginia since we declared that “Virginia is Open for Business!” in 1994.
Others recall those 50,000 Virginians who have left the welfare rolls to find gainful employment. I often wonder how successful our economic development and ground-breaking welfare reform efforts would have been in a less job-friendly state.
These are not abstract concepts. These are real jobs created because Virginia respects and protects our Right to Work.
Through executive fiat and the intrusive action of the National Labor Relation Board (NLRB), the Obama administration and their congressional and big labor allies are waging war on private employers under the guise of protecting workers.
They believe that more regulation and government control will protect jobs, but this couldn’t be further from the truth. Businesses create jobs when entrepreneurs believe that their anticipated return on investment outweighs the risks.
Over-regulation creates uncertainty and additional risk, which in turn stifles investment and diminishes job opportunities.
The threat to Virginia’s jobs from Washington is real, and it must be checked. From the President’s job-killing monstrous health-care dictates to his gigantic $1.5 trillion tax increase proposal and Executive Orders, bureaucracy and lawsuits trying to tell Boeing where it can build a business, the opponents of our freedom to work are seriously threatening.
That is why I have created a three-part Freedom to Work agenda that will 1) help America’s businesses create jobs; 2) save taxpayers money; and 3) protect the liberty of working men and women.
It begins with Freedom of Movement. The NLRB’s complaint against Boeing is an attack on the foundational principles that helped forge our great country. These actions threaten to send more American jobs overseas and put at risk the very freedom and competitiveness of every Right-to-Work state in the country – including Virginia.
A business enterprise in America should have the freedom to move or locate where the owners decide, without fear that the NLRB will order it to shut down, move, or transfer employees.
The NLRB must be constrained by law, as the House has proposed and the U.S. Senate must now act to constrain this NLRB bureaucracy now!
Secondly, we need to protect the Freedom to Contract for by eliminating of mandatory Project Labor Agreements (PLAs) and Depression-era Davis-Bacon wage laws that diminish competitive bidding and inflate the costs that taxpayers pay for construction when the federal government is involved.
Under an Obama Executive Order, Washington is using mandatory PLAs to impose union work rules on federal construction contracts – despite the fact that the overwhelming majority of construction workers (over 86 percent) choose not to be represented by labor unions (only 4 percent of Virginia’s private construction workforce belongs to a union).
The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA) is attempting the same in Northern Virginia with Phase II of the Dulles Rail project, over the protests of the taxpayers and users of the Dulles Toll Road who will foot the bill.
A further example of Washington’s misguided mandates is the onerous and outdated Davis-Bacon wage laws, whose reach has expanded under the failed Stimulus.
These federal strings take away the competitive advantage of Virginia’s contractors and workers by imposing union pay scales – often well in excess of local rates – when federal funds are involved. And they drive up costs - renovations for a high school here in Virginia shot up $1.6 million because of Davis-Back wage premiums.
It is a punishing disgrace for the federal government to impose higher costs to taxpayers or toll road users with less competitive bidding. And, it is truly aggravating that the construction jobs job to union contractors from outside of Virginia since nearly all Virginia contractors are not unionized.
Finally, the Freedom of Association for America’s workers must be restored. No American working man or woman should be compelled to join a union or pay union dues to get or keep a job.
Americans should be free to associate with unions if they choose, provided it is done fairly and without intimidation – with the same secret ballot protections we use to elect our public officials.
It is not union or non-union workers who are the problem. It is union bosses and their backers in Washington who are more interested in advancing their ideological agendas that are hurting the workers. That must stop.
The Freedom to Work agenda that I am proposing to unite Virginians and all Americans will help create more job opportunities, save the taxpayers money, prevent unnecessarily higher tolls and advance liberty for all working men and women
Former senator and governor George Allen of Virginia is seeking the Republican nomination for another term in the U.S. Senate.
