Democrats allege bill establishing voting rights is “undemocratic”

Last week, the Senate Commerce and Labor Committee passed legislation that seeks to grant public employees the ability to de-authorize mandatory union dues in their workplace. The law currently contains union security provisions in public employee contracts that “require all employees in the workplace to pay union dues or be fired.”

Senate Bill 5045, introduced by Sen. Jan Angel (R-Port Orchard), would “require the Public Employment Relations Commission to hold a vote about whether to keep a union security provision whenever 30 percent or more of a bargaining unit submits a petition calling for an election.” All four Republicans on the committee voted in favor of the bill, all three Democrats opposed it for rather ironic reasons.

According to the Freedom Foundation, Democrat Sens. Bob Hasegawa and Steve Conway asserted that the legislation was “undemocratic.” Hasegawa said it was “totally undemocratic and anathema to national labor policy.” Conway echoed Hasegawa’s concerns and argued that the bill is “anti-democratic” and “that it does go against the clear principle of America of majority rules.”

Hasegawa and Conway claims are, quite obviously, ridiculous. Through some twisted and strange logic, a bill that seeks to grant a vote to workers—the freedom to choose—is “undemocratic.” A bill that seeks to identify the majority’s will is “anti-democratic.”

The irony of the two Democrats’ comments was not lost on fellow legislators present. Republican Sen. John Braun (R-Centralia) stated, “This is about giving union workers more opportunity to participate with their union in the workplace… Certainly I would challenge the claim that this bill is somehow undemocratic.

The Freedom Foundation points out that SB 5045 is “based on the 80-year-old National Labor Relations Act, which governs private-sector union workers. Other states, including California and Oregon, have already copied the federal deauthorization process into their laws governing in-state public employees.” Further, Freedom Foundation analysis “indicates that three-quarters of union workers nationwide are employed in states and sectors in which either (1) union security provisions are banned entirely, or (2) employees may deauthorize a union security provision in their contract. “

So, according to Democrats, not only is the practice of voting undemocratic but a common, 80-year-old labor relations law is as well… those poor three-quarters of union workers that are currently being subjected to the completely undemocratic freedom of voting.