ALEC anti-union push includes key players from Michigan, Arizona think tanks

By Paul Abowd

iWatch News

The American Legislative Exchange Council, which backs free-market legislation in the states, has been controversial in part because its membership includes major corporations as well as state legislators. Largely unnoticed has been the influence wielded by a third group of ALEC members: state-based think tanks. Two of those think tanks took center stage at last weekend's ALEC Task Force Summit in Charlotte.

The Arizona-based Goldwater Institute and the Michigan-based Mackinac Center between them successfully shepherded five model bills through ALEC's Commerce, Insurance, and Economic Development Task force -- all targeting public sector unions.

Goldwater representative Byron Schlomach introduced two bills, one requiring that public employees approve their state employer's automatic deduction of union dues from paychecks every year. Another would prohibit union officials from taking paid leave from public sector jobs to perform union duties.

Michigan's Mackinac Center sent labor policy analyst Paul Kersey to introduce three more bills targeting unions. One of those model bills is already Michigan law, requiring public sector unions to make audits of their financial activities public. Another Mackinac proposal would require public sector union members to vote on their union membership every three to five years, and a third would make it easier for public and private employees to decertify their union.

Members of the commerce task force confirmed that the five union bills were approved in Charlotte and will become ALEC model legislation if ALEC's board of directors does not initiate a formal review of the bills within 30 days. ALEC will then likely encourage its member legislators to introduce the model bills back in their home states. Since its founding in 1973, ALEC has successfully pushed hundreds of state-based laws. According to the ALEC website, legislators introduce nearly 1,000 bills each year that are based on ALEC model legislation, and 20 percent of them become law.

Documents released by the left-leaning group Common Cause ahead of the Charlotte meeting offered an unprecedented look at the ALEC agenda. Amid heightened scrutiny, ALEC restricted press access and shortened the summit to one day. ALEC did not return calls requesting information.

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Comments

[Angie Sullivan]

06:37 PM on 05/23/2012

The ALEC agenda is pushed in a nasty little think tank in Nevada too - NPRI - Nevada Policy Research Institute. There main agenda has been to kill public education. They were particularly nasty during the last legislative session and imported all sort so of legislation - that even Democrats implemented. Sad day for Nevada - Sad day for kids :0(

http://thenevadaview.com/2243/alec-and-npri-outsider-influence-in-nevada/

[Mitchell Nussbaum]

11:01 PM on 05/17/2012

If Arizona state employees are now at-will, they should have access to political contribution data so they know which polluters and other lawbreakers are subject to enforcement action.

[gozona2001]

11:48 AM on 05/17/2012

For those in Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Wyoming and Southern California: DO NOT BUY PRODUCTS FROM SHAMROCK FARMS/FOODS -- they are a major contributor to the Goldwater Institute which is actively seeking to dismantle public education.

[danneb1024]

09:30 AM on 05/17/2012

2011 ALEC National Chairman
Rep. Noble Ellington
Louisiana
 
2012 ALEC National Chairman
Rep. Dave Frizzell
Indiana
 
 
Second Vice Chairman
Rep. John Piscopo
Connecticut
Treasurer
Rep. Linda Upmeyer
Iowa
Secretary
Rep. Liston Barfield
South Carolina
Immediate Past Chairman
Rep. Tom Craddick
Texas Board Members
Sen. Curt Bramble
Utah
Rep. Harold Brubaker
North Carolina
Sen. Jim Buck
Indiana
Sen. Kent Cravens
New Mexico
Rep. Jim Ellington
Mississippi
Sen. Billy Hewes III
Mississippi
Speaker Bill Howell
Virginia
Sen. Owen Johnson
New York
Sen. Michael Lamoureux
Arkansas
Rep. Steve McDaniel
Tennessee
Sen. Ray Merrick
Kansas
Sen. Dean Rhoads
Nevada
Sen. Chip Rogers
Georgia
Sen. William Seitz
Ohio
Rep. Fred Steen II
North Carolina
Rep. Curry Todd
Tennessee
Sen. Susan Wagle
Kansas