Labor & Employment Law

Paul Taps Longtime Anti-Union Group Exec. as Top Aide

By Mike Hall

When the Republican majorities?especially the newly elected extreme right-wing members?take control of Congress in January, they likely will quickly take aim at workers and their unions. One of the people who might be calling those shots has a long history of trying to undermine workers’ rights.

Senator-elect Rand Paul (R-Ky.), the poster child for the Republican tea party, appointed Doug Stafford, vice president of the slyly named National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, as his chief of staff . Described as a ?long time Republican operative in Washington,? Stafford will serve as Paul?s guide to the ins and outs of Congress and help develop and set his agenda.

American Rights at Work describes the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation as part of

the country?s oldest organization dedicated solely to destroying unions. Its network consists of four organizations that share leadership, offices, resources and staff, all with the common goal of undermining workers? freedom of association….The Foundation consistently wages litigation to weaken workers? rights to form unions.

Click here for more on the groups under the National Right to Work umbrella and other groups in the ?Anti-Union Network.? Many of those groups were major players and spenders in the recent elections and no doubt they will be guiding lights for Republican policies and attacks during the next two years, including:

• Attacking collective bargaining rights and opposing the Employee Free Choice Act.
• Privatizing Social Security and Medicare.
• Enacting job-killing ?free? trade deals like NAFTA and CAFTA.
• Cutting taxes for millionaires while leaving the rest of us behind.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on November 08, 2010 (boomark / email).