Schumer vs the U.S. Chamber of Commerce

Senator Chuck Schumer took the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to task this week, accusing them of becoming a partisan organization bankrolling the Republican Party. He makes this claim based upon the organization donating $16Mill to Republican candidates while only $329K to Democrats. At the heart of this is the proposed Employee Free Choice Act that might be passed if the Democrats increase their control of the Senate to 60 or more seats.

For starters, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is a not-for-profit organization representing over 3 Million businesses, 2800 state and local chambers, and over 800 business associations with the mission “to advance human progress through an economic, political and social system based on individual freedom, incentive, initiative, opportunity, and responsibility.” In short, they are a pro-growth and pro-job advocacy group.

The Employee Free Choice Act is designed to overrule the individual states right to be classified as a right-to-work state and remove the practice of a private ballot within Unions. Right-to-work laws prohibit employers from making union membership compulsory, and also makes it easier for employers and employees to terminate their employment agreements without fear of repercussions. The underlying purpose of this legislation is to benefit the Union lobbies since their enrollment numbers continue to decrease, especially since half of the states in the union have right-to-work laws on their books.

Fearing that the Democrats might gain 60 seats in the Senate as well as Obama wins the election, there would be no way to stop this bill from being passed and enacted into law. This leads to businesses possibly being bullied into unionizing their workforce against their will while states would lose more power to the Federal government. So, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is sponsoring issue-based ads in key states against Democratic candidates, hoping to help the Republican candidate win the election. As a result, Schumer is claiming that the organization is violating the campaign funding laws though the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that issue-based ads are permitted within 60 days of the election.

It is in my opinion that this bill should not be passed. While unions have done many positive things over the decades, the state and Federal labor laws provide many of the protections that the unions of old fought for, so many of the foundations for unions to exist have become antiquated. In addition, union interference has caused industries to struggle and be less competitive with non-union and foreign companies due to unnecessary benefit demands that exceed what much of the private sector already offers. If we really want to see industrial job growth in the United States, we need to ensure the companies have as much flexibility as reasonable in order to control costs while increasing output and revenue.

Related articles:
The Hill – “Schumer rips Chambers of Commerce”
U.S. Chambers of Commerce – Official Website