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Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., indicated on Saturday that if [G-d forbid] she became president, she would use the "bully pulpit" to fight "right-to-work" laws, describing them a** backwards as an attack on workers' rights.
"The barriers to organized labor being able to organize and strike are something that have grown over a period of time," the 2020 presidential hopeful said while speaking at the National Forum on Wages and Working People.
At the event, Harris emphasized the bully pulpit and executive authority to fight for workers' rights and specifically mentioned right-to-work laws.
"It has to be about, for example, banning right-to-work laws," she said.
The event, organized by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and the Center for American Progress, sought to "provide an opportunity for thought leaders to go beyond talking points and share concrete plans to rebalance our economy and democracy," according to its website.
The SEIU has historically supported Democratic candidates and spent $28 million in support of Barack Obama's campaign in 2008. In 2012, the organization reported spending almost $70 million for campaign donations, TV ads, and get-out-the-vote efforts and they're a major supporter of Obamacare and increased minimum wage laws.
The Center for American Progress (CAP) is very much like SEIU in its support of leftist policies. But this organization has a very questionable reputation.
For instance, in October 2016, Intercept reported that the United Arab Emirates Ambassador to the U.S. Yousef Al Otaiba praised "a CAP report that advocates for continued cooperation with Gulf states like Saudi Arabia and the UAE."
And in January this year, two CAP staff members were terminated for leaking an email exchange that suggested the UAE has an improper influence over CAP. This may be true, based on CAP's use of anti-Israel and anti-Semitic rhetoric. They were criticized by several Jewish organizations over this issue.
Bloggers associated with CAP published several posts using phrases such as "apartheid" and "Israel-firsters", causing NGP Monitor, the American Jewish Committee, and the Anti-Defamation League to label them anti-Israel and call on CAP to disassociate themselves from these statements. Officials at CAP said the “inappropriate” language came only in personal tweets—not on CAP's website or its ThinkProgress blog. The Tweets were deleted, and the authors apologized.
Others, however, criticized CAP for what they considered censorship of reasonable comments critical of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank and other policies.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (Communist-VT) another 2020 presidential contender, first said in April that he would work to ban right-to-work laws, which exist in 26 states.
Trump has praised the Janus decision, describing it as a "Big loss for the coffers of the Democrats!"
Basically, the right to work allows people to not join a union if they so choose. This seems to be a person's right to not have to pay union dues just to be allowed to work a particular job. Of course, the argument goes that why should the worker who isn't paying union dues, be allowed to profit from the work of the union when he or she isn't paying for the benefits?
During his 2016 campaign, Trump supported right-to-work legislation.
"We've had great support from [union] workers, the people that work, the real workers, but I love the right to work," he said. "I like it better because it is lower. It is better for the people," he added somewhat confusingly. [Lower? What does that mean?]
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