Top Union Bosses File U.S. Supreme Court Briefs Contending That Government Recognition of Same-Sex Marriages Is Constitutionally Required

AFL-CIO Files Supreme Court Amicus Briefs to Support Marriage …

Last May, few Democrat party constituencies were quicker and more vociferous than the union brass in commending President Obama’s public endorsement of state court decisions and statutes that change the traditional definition of marriage by formally instituting same-sex unions.  The top bosses of the AFL-CIO, AFSCME, the CWA, the AFT, the UAW, the SEIU, and a host of other unions also issued statements clearly implying that all right-thinking people should agree with the President’s just announced stance, rather than the one he had previously purported to hold.

Now the hierarchies of the AFL-CIO and “Change to Win” union conglomerates, as well as officers of the National Education Association (NEA) teacher union, have taken an even more provocative public stance.  A couple of weeks ago,  union lawyers for the these three outfits filed legal briefs with the U.S. Supreme Court effectively stating that official recognition of same-sex marriages is constitutionally required for the federal government and for the government of California.  (See the link above.)    The briefs, which were presumably financed with money taken from the forced dues-fueled treasuries of the AFL-CIO, Change to Win, and the NEA, are intended to influence the High Court to declare the federal Defense of Marriage Act and California’s Proposition 8 unconstitutional in court cases scheduled to be heard soon.

Polling data show that the America people continue to be closely divided on the issue of “gay marriages.”  And in  dozens of state ballot measures or referenda over the past decades regarding the particular question of whether public policy should recognize and encourage same-sex unions, proponents of formal recognition have lost the vast majority of time.  Rank-and-file union members have disparate views on this controversial issue, just as other Americans do.

Yet AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, Change to Win Chairman Joe Hansen, NEA President Dennis Von Roekel and other union officials whose influence and power rest on Organized Labor’s government-granted privilege to force millions of Americans to pay union dues or fees as a condition of employment have taken it upon themselves to take a strongly partisan stance on an issue that has at most a tangential relationship to the workplace.  Top union bosses obviously feel free to use the forced-dues clout they wield to advance an agenda that millions of forced-dues paying workers oppose, in many cases passionately.

Unionized workers should have the same right as other Americans to make personal choices about which public policies and politicians they support or oppose.  Once federal law and the laws of every state protect the individual employee’s freedom to get and hold a job without being forced to fork over tribute to a union czar, union officials’ use of the organizations they control to advance the cause of same-sex unions will be a matter of concern for union members only.  But as long as forced union dues and fees remain legal, Mr. Trumka’s, Mr. Hansen’s, and Mr. Von Roekel’s activism on an issue that has little if anything to do with the workplace will remain a matter of public concern.