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1st Amendment: It's also for public employees
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If there was any doubt about the intent of House Bill 2023, proponents made it clear on Wednesday.
“I need this bill passed so we can get rid of public sector unions,” Eric Stafford, senior director of government affairs for the Kansas Chamber of Commerce, told the House Commerce, Labor and Economic Development Committee.
It was perhaps the most honest statement in the hearing about a proposal to prohibit professional employee organizations from collecting funds from an employee’s paycheck and using those funds for political purposes, such as donating to candidates, or working for the passage of a bond issue. Public employee organizations would be prohibited from endorsing candidates.
Teacher unions would also be effectively gagged from responding to Gov. Sam Brownback’s plan to change the state constitution rather than adequately funding education.
 While public employees could still privately give donations to any political cause they choose, the union busters such as Stafford make it clear that they don’t want these people to be heard, and they know that will be the effect of this legislation.
Other statements made to the committee on Wednesday just played to the anti-union prejudices of the increasingly conservative Legislature. Sen. Greg Smith, R-Overland Park, said when he became a teacher he was pressured to join the Kansas National Education Association. As if thugs with rubber hoses showed up after school, demanding he sign up.
Stafford said union leaders protect their self interests instead of the interests of those they serve. Kind of like – hmm – elected officials?
Stafford also thought some state employees earn excessive salaries and benefits. But Mike Marvin, executive director of the Kansas Organization of State Employees, could point to places like Larned State Hospital, where people are working double shifts to cover worker shortages caused by low wages.
Citizens have been known to tell public employees, “We pay your salary!” If those citizens are business owners, who hate the thought of their own workers forming a union, they may think – erroneously – that the people they “hire” with tax dollars should face the same restrictions. It is akin to telling employees where they can and cannot spent their paychecks.
In an era where corporations are “people,” shouldn’t real people, such a teachers, have the same access to free speech? When unions collect funds on a voluntary basis, their members have a greater voice in the political process than they would individually.