Friday, February 22, 2013

Good news from AZ: ALEC anti-union bill fails

Here's one victory for working people and a loss for ALEC: A bill to weaken unions by making it illegal to automatically deduct dues failed last night in an Arizona Senate committee.

The Associated Press reports:
Republicans pushing a ban on automatic deductions of union dues from public employees' paychecks are having a rough time getting legislation through the Senate. 
The Senate Committee of the Whole took several votes that saw the anti-union bill fail on Thursday. Two votes saw 17 Republicans and Democrats unite against the measure that would impact police and firefighters unions.
ALEC is the billionaire-backed dating service for corporations and state lawmakers. The dues deduction bill  is straight out of ALEC's playbook. According to ALEC Exposed, ALEC's "Prohibition on Compensation Deductions Act":
...will limit funding for public employee unions by prohibiting public employers from deducting union dues from worker paychecks. Unions will have to collect dues directly from workers, reducing total dues that unions will collect and distracting from other workplace or union member issues by requiring unions to focus energy on the task of collecting dues.
The Arizona Republic reports the bill is dead for this year.

It will be back, though. The greedy billionaires behind ALEC never die, they just fade away until the next legislative session.