Yesterday (March 11) morning I had a handful of protestors at my Senate district office in York criticizing me over the principled stances that I have been taking in Harrisburg on your behalf, including my efforts to enact Paycheck Protection legislation to prevent taxpayers from paying to collect political money for government unions.
During the demonstration, York County’s Democratic Party Chairman Bob Kefeaver made the claim to me that unions cannot use their member dues for political purposes under current law.
To hear his exact words, click here and you will be taken to York Daily Record reporter Ed Mahon’s website where you can listen for yourself (it is the second video down).
Chairman Kefauver either knows that his comment is untrue or is completely naive as to how dues money is used.
Union dues that have been deducted from teacher paychecks that are sent to the PSEA (Pennsylvania State Education Association) are repeatedly used for political activities – even drawing national attention to this issue by Yahoo News.
The Yahoo News article notes that Mary Trometter, an assistant professor of culinary arts at the Pennsylvania College of Technology in Williamsport, filed a complaint with the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board alleging the state’s largest teachers’ union violated a law that says union funds cannot be used to support political candidates.
The PSEA sent a personalized letter to her husband asking him to “join Mary” in voting for Tom Wolf, even though she did not support Tom Wolf and never specified who she was voting for to her union.
In addition, the PSEA acknowledged that similar letters were sent to other PSEA members’ spouses.
Also noted in the Yahoo News article, the November edition of the PSEA magazine featured numerous pro-Wolf ads, potentially violating the Public Employees Relations Act.
And this is just one incident – under the recent Citizens United Supreme Court decision, the dues portion of member dues is eligible for use in SuperPACs.
It is time to correct the lie that union dues are not used for political purposes and put an end to using taxpayer resources to collect money used for political purposes.
In addition, Mr. Kefauver wanted to challenge me over the minimum wage issue and the fact that some people are just unemployable because they cannot pass a drug test and they do not show up for work.
I asked Mr. Kefauver, “How many people do you employ?”
“I don’t employ anybody,” Mr. Kefauver replied.
As an employer, I live with these issues every day.
I have a tough time listening to criticism from someone who does not have first hand experience with it.
That being said, I am not going to let a handful of union protestors intimidate me into backing off of fighting for you and I have every intention of seeing Paycheck Protection make it across the finish line.
Party Boss Gets Schooled In York County
Ed note: I misread Sen. Wagner’s column. The headline has been corrected and my comment below edited.
Seriously Mr. Kefauver, why do you want union members to pay their dues via automatic deducations? Are you afraid they won’t? The NRA doesn’t have a problem getting money without automatic deductions. Tea Party groups don’t have a problem getting money without automatic deductions.
You think maybe your rank and file might not be real happy with their bosses giving money to the politicians in your Democrat Party?
You think maybe they are not happy about Democrats killing jobs in the guise of “protecting the envrionment”? And how about all that cheap labor flowing in from that open border to the south? Oh, I’m sure the rank and file loves that.
And that’s not even considering the lifestyles of the rich and union boss funded with their dues.
How are the union health plans doing LOL? Gotta love that Obamacare, right? Way to go getting it passed.
OMG … We finally have a fearless Republican in Harrisburg!
So looking forward to his appearance at the next meeting of The Delaware County Patriots at the Knights of Columbus Hall in Newtown Square on April 6th.
To reserve a seat, call me at 610-789-9260. All are welcome!