Appealing to workers' legitimate desire to control the use of their money, big business has mounted a dishonest campaign under the name of "paycheck protection" that, if successful, would actually accelerate "paycheck destruction" and silence workers' political voice.

Although corporations now outspend unions 11-1 on politics, they want the playing field to be even less level. They are furious because labor was a more effective force in the 1996 elections than in the recent past. They are so angry they want to permanently cripple labor unions--workers' voice.

It is outrageous that these right-wing union busters are trying to accomplish their goal by portraying themselves as champions of workers. These are the same people who want to eliminate the prevailing wage; slash unemployment insurance benefits; destroy the Federal Employers' Liability Act, which protects BMWE members injured or killed on the job. These are the people who want to wipe out the minimum wage, the 8-hour workday, the 40-hour work week. These are the people who try to raid pensions; cut Medicare, Social Security and Railroad Retirement. They want to dismantle job safety laws. They're the ones who want to set up company unions through a dishonest "TEAM" Act. They want to make "right to work" the law of the land.

Who are "they?" They're big business groups, working in coalition to diminish the political role of unions on a variety of fronts. They're people like U.S. Chamber of Commerce President Thomas Donahue who said last November, "You're going to see us everywhere... We will energetically oppose union-led programs to hijack the American political system..."

They're people like John Patrick Rooney, a conservative businessman and former chairman of the Golden Rule Insurance Company whose long-term profitability is threatened by the trend toward managed care.

They're people like House Speaker Newt Gingrich and members of GOPAC, his political action committee (Golden Rule was a charter member). Gingrich has led the charge to roll back Medicare and has been an outspoken critic of union political education and mobilization. He has repeatedly accused unions of coercing members into participating in the political process.

They're people like Grover Norquist, long-time Republican consultant and president of Americans for Tax Reform, an organization which is one of the leading backers of initiatives to silence working families.

They're the people at the National Center for Policy Analysis, a right-wing think tank funded largely by Rooney and other wealthy individuals, which has been actively promoting anti-worker legislation like "right-to-work" bills, the TEAM Act, the privatization of Social Security and opposing raises in the minimum wage.

They're the people like Jesse Helms who has co-sponsored the National Right to Work Bill, because, he says, he wants "to repeal forever big labor's power to force workers to pay union dues in order to work."

And that's the hook--by attacking union dues and "big union bosses," these people think they've found the key to swaying union members' minds.

"Paycheck protection" initiatives and/or legislation are proceeding in Congress and all 50 states. Basically, the idea is to prohibit the use of a union members' dues for political purposes without the members' express permission, and in many cases, written permission.

One of the reasons "paycheck protection" is so deceitful is because this is not about money contributed to political candidates. Unions already are prohibited by law from using union dues for that purpose.

This is about using union dues for any political activity. In the BMWE, this would mean no money to fight our Railroad Retirement battles, no money to educate our members about issues important to them and about candidates who support or oppose those issues. No money to lobby for leadership at government agencies--the National Mediation Board, the Surface Transportation Board, the Federal Railroad Administration--who will be fair to labor. No money to lobby Congressmen during contract struggles and Presidential Emergency Boards. We say "no money" because it would be virtually impossible to get express permission from every member on every political activity a union undertakes.

Not only is this proposal dishonest, it's unfair. It's one-sided--it singles out unions. Restrictions are for unions only--not corporations or other organizations.

The deviousness of their plan is appalling. Trying to divide union members from their leadership by using the rhetoric of "radical union bosses" and trying to twist members' democratic right to say how their dues are spent is a smokescreen to cover their hidden agenda. They don't want to "protect" workers paychecks, they want to destroy labor's ability to speak and thereby silence the voices of working Americans.

These "paycheck protection" proposals hurt workers. If they get unions out of they way, workers lose--in their paychecks, pensions, healthcare, education and more. Unions are one of the few groups out there speaking up for working Americans. Through unions, we work for laws that serve our interests--not the interests of big corporations. If they get unions out of politics, who's going to stand up for workers?