NRTWC bak
NATIONAL RIGHT TO WORK COMMITTEE
not full bak, main has extensive info
this is also new content
note steady decline of funding
https://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/lookup2.php?strID=C00395533&cycle=2018
2018
| Total Receipts | $31,898 |
|---|---|
| Total Spent | $26,180 |
| Begin Cash on Hand | $27,773 |
| End Cash on Hand | $39,341 |
| Debts | $0 |
| Date of last report | December 31, 2018 |
2018 PAC Contribution Data
Contributions from this PAC to federal candidates (list recipients) (16% to Democrats, 84% to Republicans) | $31,100 |
|---|---|
| Contributions to this PAC from individual donors of $200 or more (list donors) | $26,250 |
Official PAC Name:
THE NATIONAL RIGHT TO WORK COMMITTEE PAC
Location: NORTH SPRINGFIELD, VA 22151
Industry: Misc Issues; Labor, anti-union
Treasurer: MOURAD, GREGORY W. MR.
FEC Committee ID: C00395533
(Look up actual documents filed at the FEC)
Total Contributions from this PAC to federal candidates (16% to Democrats, 84% to Republicans) | $31,100 |
House
Total to Democrats: $5,000
Total to Republicans: $17,600| Recipient | Total |
| Banks, Jim (R-IN) | $1,000 |
|---|---|
| Edwards, Eddie (R-NH) | $5,000 |
| Fulcher, Russ (R-ID) | $1,000 |
| Hartzler, Vicky (R-MO) | $500 |
| Jordan, Jim (R-OH) | $2,100 |
| King, Steven A (R-IA) | $6,000 |
| Leneghan, Melanie (R-OH) | $1,000 |
| Loebsack, David (D-IA) | $5,000 |
| McClintock, Tom (R-CA) | $1,000 |
Senate
Total to Democrats: $0
Total to Republicans: $8,500| Recipient | Total |
| Brakey, Eric (R-ME) | $1,000 |
|---|---|
| Moore, Roy (R-AL) | $5,000 |
| Morrisey, Patrick (R-WV) | $2,50 |
VETOS, ROSEMARY GOLDEN, CO 80403 | RETIRED | 05/18/18 | $5,000 |
|---|---|---|---|
VETOS, WILLIAM GOLDEN, CO 80403 | RETIRED | 05/18/18 | $5,000 |
BROUGHTON, LENORE F MS BURLINGTON, VT 05401 | BUSINESS OWNER | 07/10/18 | $5,000 |
BROUGHTON, LENORE F MS BURLINGTON, VT 05401 | BUSINESS OWNER | 10/05/17 | $5,000 |
BASSLER, ALFRED SEYMOUR WOODBINE, MD 21797 | RETIRED | 07/09/18 | $2,000 |
alito?
https://www.alternet.org/2022/05/alito-drawing-inspiration-medieval-zealot/
shitstorm leaked roe memo
https://books.google.com/books?id=_pQ4DwAAQBAJ&dq=clarence+manion+radio+jbs&source=gbs_navlinks_s
Hayek: A Collaborative Biography: Part IX: The Divine Right of the 'Free' Market
edited by Robert Leeson
:{
}:
reed larson natl rtw w/ manion and jbs
stranahan bunch of art'ls under staffergate heading eg
https://leestranahan.com/category/staffergate/
Sunlight=Disinfectant: Republican Group Lays Out Case Against National Right To Work Committee
by Lee Stranahan | Apr 23, 2014 | Staffergate, Uncategorized |
Two complaints filed this week by a Republican led group in Montana lay out a damning case against lobbying group National Right To Work Committee and affiliated groups and individuals for years of extensive illegal campaign activity.
Two complaints were filed on Monday, April 21st with the Montana Commissioner of Political Practices. The first was filed against the National Right to Work Committee and people associated with it. Thesecond complaintwas against people and organizations including Western Tradition Partnership / American Tradition Partnership and the people behind those groups including Christian and Allison LeFer and Donny Ferguson. Ferguson is currently communications director for Texas Congressman Steve Stockman.
National Right To Work Committee Allegations
The allegations made against the National Right to Work committee are stark and consistent with the months of reporting I’ve done on the group — it claims that they operated secret printing presses, coordinated illegally with candidates and operated a number of deceptive front groups.
This complaint is being filed against National Right to Work Committee and its affiliates, agents, officers, and directors for violations of Montana campaign finance and practices laws. For many years, the National Right to Work Committee has operated a secret political mail operation. The National Right to Work Committee owns its own printing presses and has the ability to produce thousands of mailings
in less than a few weeks. During the 2008, 2010, and 2012 election cycles the National Right to Work Committee through its affiliates and agents mailed thousands of pieces of election material to Montana voters. The National Prolife Alliance, National League of Taxpayers, National Association of Gun Rights, National Gun Owners Alliance, and Western Tradition Partnership/American Tradition Partnership are nothing more than front groups/agents of the National Right to Work Committee and act under the direction of the National Right to Work Committee.
Although the National Right to Work Committee has taken various steps to conceal the connection of the front groups/affiliates, there is enough publically available information to suggest a connection between the National Right to Work Committee and entities identified above. The National Right to Work Committee is located at 8001 Braddock Road, Suite 500 in Springfield, VA 22160. The National Prolife Alliance is located at 5211 Port Royal Road, Suite 500, Springfield, VA 22151. It is believed these addresses are for the same office building. The office building where the National Right to Work Committee is located is at the intersection of Braddock Road and Port Royal Road in Springfield, Virginia. An analysis of Google Maps shows the same office building is used for both addresses.
The connection between these entities is more apparent when reviewing other publically available information. According to documents submitted to the Federal Elections Commission, the treasurer for the National Prolife Alliance PAC is Steve Antosh. Mr. Antosh’s personal residence is 3237Fairfax, VA. (Fairfax County Treasurer Records). This is the same address as the National League of Taxpayers. The President of the National Gun Owners Alliance is Dennis Fusaro who was also a prominent member of the National Right to Work Committee. The National Gun Owners Alliance has also used the same mailing address as the National League of Taxpayers.
Christian Lefer is the officer of Montana Citizens for Right to Work. Montana Citizens for Right to Work is financed by the National Right to Work Committee. See National Right to Work IRS Tax Returns. Mr. Lefer has also acted as an agent of Western Tradition Partnership/American Tradition Partnership. On information and belief, the National Right to Work Committee contributed to and/or financed the political operation of Montana Citizens for Right to Work/Western Tradition Partnership/American Tradition Partnership. These entities have never filed any of the necessary paperwork required by Montana law and have never disclosed any contributions and/or expenditures. The complaint filed by Bruce Tutvedt shows a flyer paid for by the National Association for Gun Rights. The bulk mail postage stamp shows the flyer originated from the same mail house as the mailers sent by Western Tradition Partnership. It is believed the mailers were produced by Christian Lefer and/or Direct Mail and Communications.
Lefers, Donny Ferguson May Face Multi-Million Dollar Fines
Both complaints is seeking remedies including hefty fines and other injunctions from the LeFers, Ferguson, National Right to Work President Mark Mix and others because it says they are personally liable under Montana law:
The agents, officers, and directors of WTP/ATP/TFL/AAF/MCRW are personally liable for all fines, penalties, and other sanctions resulting from the violations listed above under the following statutes:
1. Section 13-35-105, MCA. Under Montana law, a person who aids and abets the conduct of a person who violates a provision of Montana election law is also guilty of a violation of that provision.
- Section 28-10-702, MCA. Under Montana law, a person who assumes to act as an agent is responsible to third persons when the agent’s acts are wrongful in their nature.
The complaint asks for:
A fine against each party in the amount of three times the amount spent by WTP/ATP/TFL/AAF/MCRW and the other associated entities in the 2010 and 2012 election cycles under § 13-37-128, MCA. It is my understanding WTP/ATP alone spent roughly $500,000 in the 2010 election cycle. Thus, for the 2010 election cycle, I would request a fine against each person or entity who committed violations in the 2010 election cycle for the amount of $1,500,000 just for the WTP/ATP expenditures. I would request other equivalent fines based upon the amount of spending by the other entities in 2010 and 2012;
An inspection of documents and reports under § 13-37-121, MCA and issuance of orders of noncompliance as authorized by law;
An injunction pursuant to § 13-35-108, MCA to prohibit WTP/ATP/TFL/AAF/MCRW and its entities, associates, affiliates, subsidiaries, officers, directors, treasurers, and agents from spending any money or performing any election related activity until WTP/ATP/TFL/AAF/MCRW are in compliance with Montana law;
Complaints Filed By Republican Group
The complaints were filed by a Republican affiliated group calledBusiness Advocates for Sensible Elections. As Montana TV station KXLH reported:
“Dark money” is the term commonly used to refer to money spent to influence an election that does not disclose the source of the funding.
After MT State Senator Ed Buttrey (R-Great Falls) didn’t vote in a way that satisfied so called “dark money” groups during the session, he says that he was threatened: “It was told to me, ‘You are dead in the next election…we are coming after you.'”
But despite fear of possible retaliation, Buttrey, along with several Republican lawmakers, are fighting back.
The group is called Montana Business Advocates for Sensible Elections – abbreviated Montana BASE – and their issue is with 501(c)4 organizations, also known as “dark money” groups.
https://progressive.org/dispatches/behind-national-right-work-committee-anti-union-crusade/
Who Is Behind the National Right to Work Committee and its Anti-Union Crusade?
Submitted by Mary Bottari on June 3, 2014 -
mary bottari
Jay Riestenberg and Mary Bottari
As the U.S. Supreme Court's 2014 session comes to a close, one of the major cases left for a decision is Harris vs. Quinn,which could effect some 7 million public sector workers in the United States.
The case originates in Illinois, where home health care workers have been successfully organized by public sector unions. Now, a small group of these workers, represented by lawyers from the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, have sued and their lawyers contend that the agency fees, or the fair share dues that even non-union members of a bargaining unit are required to pay to unions that bargain for higher wages on their behalf,violate the First Amendment. Agency fees are barred in so-called "right to work" states, which have much less unionization and lower wages and benefits.
Joel Rogers, a professor of law and sociology at the University of Wisconsin, calls it "the most important labor law case the court has considered in decades." This is because when the Supreme Court decided to take on the case, the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation dramatically expanded the scope of the case beyond the home health care workers to include all public sector workers, from teachers and firefighters to sanitation workers to librarians. If the court follows National Right to Work's lead, every state in the country would essentially turn into an anti-union "right to work" state, which would be a significant blow to public sector unions' collective bargaining efforts and also complicate thousands of existing contracts between organized workers and municipalities, cities, counties, and states across the country.
The National Right to Work**Legal Defense Foundation**(NRTWLDF) is the 501(c)(3) arm of the National Right to Work Committee (NRTWC), a 501(c)(4) organization.Additionally, the National Institute for Labor Relations Research is an affiliated anti-union research shop. Founded nearly 60 years ago, the NRTWC has been a national leader in the effort to destroy public and private sector unions. The groups have increased their funding and staffing in recent years. In 2012, the three groups combined reported over $25 million in revenue, making them a powerful instrument of the corporate and ideological interests that want to keep wages low and silence the voice of organized labor in the political arena.
NRTWC's success and the demise of unions in the United States has directly contributed to the erosion of high-paying middle class jobs and to growing inequality, as this chart from the Economic Policy Institute graphically illustrates.
National Right to Work's Deep Connections to the Koch Brothers and the John Birch Society
The NRTWC has deep connections within the national right-wing network led by the Koch brothers.Reed Larson, who led the NRTW groups for over three decades, hails from Wichita, Kansas, the hometown of Charles and David Koch. Larson became an early leader of the radical right-wing John Birch Society in Kansas, which Fred Koch (the father of Charles and David) helped found. Several other founders and early leaders of the NRTWC were members and leaders of the John Birch Society, specifically the Wichita chapter of which Fred Koch was an active member.
The groups remain tied to the Kochs.In 2012, the Kochs'Freedom Partners group funneled $1 million to the National Right to Work Committee, while the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation gave a $15,000 grant to the NRTWLDF, which has also received significant funding from the Koch-connected DonorsTrust and Donors Capital Fund. Today, at least three former Koch associates work as attorneys for the NRTWLDF.
In June 2010, Mark Mix, the current head of the NRTW groups, attended the Kochs' exclusive Aspen strategy meeting to give a presentation on how to mobilize conservatives for the 2010 election, along with representatives from Koch-backed groups such as the Center to Protect Patient Rights (now called American Encore) and Americans for Prosperity.
In addition to the Koch brothers, the NRTWLDF has received significant funding from many big name conservative donors, including the Walton Family Foundation (of Walmart), the Coors family's Castle Rock Foundation, Wisconsin's Bradley Foundation, the John M. Olin Foundation, and the Searle Freedom Trust.
A $33 Million Anti-Worker Lobby Shop with Ties to ALEC, SPN, and More
In order to push their extreme agenda, the NRTWC has launched a massive lobbying effort at both the state and federal level. In the U.S. Congress alone, the NRTWC has spent over $33 million on lobbying between 1999 and 2013. NRTWC has lobbied Congress to pass a national "Right to Work Act," which is sponsored by Senator Rand Paul (R-KY). Paul has lent his name to several NRTWC advocacy and fundraising letters and received over $27,000 in campaign contributions from the NRTWC’s federal political action committee. The NRTWC also strongly opposed the Employee Free Choice Act, which would have made it easier for workers to organize, while supported legislation that would weaken the regulatory authority of the National Labor Relations Board over employers.
The NRTWC also does extensive lobbying on the state level. In 2012, lobbyists registered with the NRTWC were on the ground in Indiana and Michigan when both states passed anti-union "right to work" bills and are big supporters of Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and his efforts to crush public sector unions. The NRTWC was an exhibitor at the 2011 annual conference of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), the corporate bill mill exposed by CMD in 2011. ALEC's "Right to Work Act," which has been in the ALEC library since at least 1980, is one of its most commonly used "model" bills. When Republicans took trifecta control of 26 state houses in November of 2010, it was a top agenda item at the December 2010 ALEC meeting. According to a 2010 emailfrom ALEC to Wisconsin legislators that CMD obtained, ALEC referred to its "Right to Work Act" as a "solution… for your state's most pressing issues." Currently 24 states are so-called "right to work" states. In 2013, 15 states introduced legislation based on ALEC's "Right to Work Act."
The NRTWLDF is also an associate member of the State Policy Network (SPN),an $84 million dollar network of 64 state-based "think tanks." The State Policy Network's affiliate in Michigan, the Mackinac Center, was one of the major supporters behind "right to work" when the legislature passed the bill in 2012. Through its board, staff, and other activities, the NRTW groups also have close connections to Americans for Prosperity, the Cato Institute, the American Conservative Union, and the Republican National Committee.
Crossing the Line: Whistleblower Alleges New Election Law Violations
From the beginning, the NRTWC had a focus on influencing U.S. elections. The NRTWC has spent millions in dark money electoral ads, including $7 million during the 2012 election. Although a leading group on the right, the NRTWC has also attacked Republicans such as John Boehner and Bob Dole for not adhering to their extreme policy agenda.
The NRTWC's long history of pushing the line in campaign finance and electoral activity as a nonprofit led to an FEC case against it at the U.S. Supreme Court in 1982, in which the court ruled against the NRTWC for illegally raising money for electoral activities. The NRTWC continued to engage in controversial campaign-related activities, and evidence suggests that the National Right to Work Committee spent $100,000 on private detectives in 1984 to infiltrate the AFL-CIO, NEA, and Walter Mondale's presidential campaign. By the time that case was brought to court, the statute of limitations had expired.
Today, the NRTWC continues to generate controversy for engaging in campaign related activities. In January 2014, the Center for Responsive Politics detailed whistleblower allegations that the NRTWC was running "a massive off-the-books mass mailing operation" attempting to influence the 2010 election in Iowa and possibly other states. The NRTWC did not disclose that it was participating in political activity that year to the IRS. The whistleblower also alleged that the NRTWC was coordinating its activities with candidates' campaigns during the election. Former IRS official Marcus Owens commented to the news outlet that "people have gone to jail for precisely the facts that you are describing." At the center of the controversy was then-NRTWC Vice President Doug Stafford, who is the former chief of staff for U.S. Senator Rand Paul (R-KY).
NRTWC Lawyers Push Their Agenda through the Courts
The legal armof NRTWC was launched in 1968 to take the anti-worker agenda to the courts. With the Harris v. Quinn case, the NRTWLDF is seeking to re-litigate the Abood vs. Detroit Board of Education Supreme Court case it lost in 1977, which upheld the constitutionality of fair share dues. Over the years, the NRTWLDF has done little to improve wages, benefits, health or safety protections for American workers, but has tried scores of cases against unions and organized labor revealing its political agenda. With a large team of lawyers and millions in funding from national right-wing sources, the NRTWLDF is currently trying cases in Arkansas, Missouri, California, Michigan, Colorado, and Ohio.
NRTWLDF's also recently filed suit to block workers in the Volkswagen Chattanooga plant from voting for union representation and to prevent Volkswagen from voluntarily consenting to any future organizing drives.
Professor Rogers and other labor experts contend that the NRTWC's success in the U.S. Supreme Court "would be a disaster for labor, particularly for the public sector unions that traditionally rely more heavily on agency shop agreements." [JANUS?!]As Rogers points out, it is technically possible to form a union in a "right to work" state, but when union members are free to stop paying their dues, the union becomes a weak and ineffective organization. The results for American workers are clear. Research shows that "right to work" states have lower wages, less health care and more poverty.
Tags
SPECIAL REPORTS CIVIL RIGHTS DEMOCRACY
by Mary Bottari
June 4, 2014
==
stranahan/feed html
http://leestranahan.com/category/staffergate/feed/
National Right To Work Committee Allegations
The allegations made against the National Right to Work committee are stark and consistent with the months of reporting I’ve done on the group — it claims that they operated secret printing presses, coordinated illegally with candidates and operated a number of deceptive front groups.
This complaint is being filed against National Right to Work Committee and its affiliates, agents, officers, and directors for violations of Montana campaign finance and practices laws. For many years, the National Right to Work Committee has operated a secret political mail operation. The National Right to Work Committee owns its own printing presses and has the ability to produce thousands of mailings
in less than a few weeks. During the 2008, 2010, and 2012 election cycles the National Right to Work Committee through its affiliates and agents mailed thousands of pieces of election material to Montana voters. The National Prolife Alliance, National League of Taxpayers, National Association of Gun Rights, National Gun Owners Alliance, and Western Tradition Partnership/American Tradition Partnership are nothing more than front groups/agents of the National Right to Work Committee and act under the direction of the National Right to Work Committee.
Although the National Right to Work Committee has taken various steps to conceal the connection of the front groups/affiliates, there is enough publically available information to suggest a connection between the National Right to Work Committee and entities identified above. The National Right to Work Committee is located at 8001 Braddock Road, Suite 500 in Springfield, VA 22160. The National Prolife Alliance is located at 5211 Port Royal Road, Suite 500, Springfield, VA 22151. It is believed these addresses are for the same office building. The office building where the National Right to Work Committee is located is at the intersection of Braddock Road and Port Royal Road in Springfield, Virginia. An analysis of Google Maps shows the same office building is used for both addresses.
The connection between these entities is more apparent when reviewing other publically available information. According to documents submitted to the Federal Elections Commission, the treasurer for the National Prolife Alliance PAC is Steve Antosh. Mr. Antosh's personal residence is 3237 Fairfax, VA. (Fairfax County Treasurer Records). This is the same address as the National League of Taxpayers. The President of the National Gun Owners Alliance is Dennis Fusaro who was also a prominent member of the National Right to Work Committee. The National Gun Owners Alliance has also used the same mailing address as the National League of Taxpayers.
Christian Lefer is the officer of Montana Citizens for Right to Work. Montana Citizens for Right to Work is financed by the National Right to Work Committee. See National Right to Work IRS Tax Returns. Mr. Lefer has also acted as an agent of Western Tradition Partnership/American Tradition Partnership. On information and belief, the National Right to Work Committee contributed to and/or financed the political operation of Montana Citizens for Right to Work/Western Tradition Partnership/American Tradition Partnership. These entities have never filed any of the necessary paperwork required by Montana law and have never disclosed any contributions and/or expenditures. The complaint filed by Bruce Tutvedt shows a flyer paid for by the National Association for Gun Rights. The bulk mail postage stamp shows the flyer originated from the same mail house as the mailers sent by Western Tradition Partnership. It is believed the mailers were produced by Christian Lefer and/or Direct Mail and Communications
Lefers, Donny Ferguson May Face Multi-Million Dollar Fines
Both complaints is seeking remedies including hefty fines and other injunctions from the LeFers, Ferguson, National Right to Work President Mark Mix and others because it says they are personally liable under Montana law:
==
==
http://documentedinvestigations.org/2018/07/12/janus-decision-rooted-koch-wishlist/
With last month’s monumental Janus decision by the Supreme Court, the Koch family won a major victory in their multi-generational attack on unions.
The ruling spreads to the entire public sector one of the laws the Koch fortune first helped push through in Kansas 60 years ago: “right-to-work.” And in doing so it enshrines the union-busting agenda their fossil fuel money has helped advance for decades.
(This story was first published by In These Times.)
Through a single vote, the Court’s 5-4 Janus decision reverses decades of legal precedent that had obstructed part of the Koch’s pro-corporate agenda. That vote was secured with the Kochs’ help in bankrolling efforts that include: helping to maintain a GOP Senate majority; helping the Senate block President Obama from filling the February 2016 Supreme Court vacancy; and helping to win the confirmation of right-wing corporate activist Neil Gorsuch.
Janus helps cement the nation’s highest court as the Koch Court, and Charles Koch wants to keep it that way.
As Documented first detailed in partnership with the Intercept, for months the Kochs had been investing heavily in anticipation of Justice Anthony Kennedy’s retirement from the Court, which was announced on June 27, the same day as Janus. Earlier this year, the Koch group “Americans for Prosperity” (AFP) hired Sarah Field from the Koch-funded Federalist Society to spearhead its campaign to extend the Koch hold on the Court for perhaps a generation or more.
Despite claims by AFP that helping to seat Gorsuch was their “first” foray into Supreme Court nominations, the Koch effort to influence who becomes a judge and how they interpret the law goes back much further.
In fact, the Kochs have been investing in reshaping the law to suit their personal agenda for decades.For example, the Koch group Citizens for a Sound Economy, AFP’s predecessor, backed Clarence Thomas’ controversial confirmation to the Court more than 25 years ago.
The Kochs’ long-term agenda to remake the United States in their image is a multi-pronged effort that includes changing both the law and who makes or interprets the laws, including the anti-union Janus decision.
THE SEEDS OF JANUS [previous case Harris v failed? same aim?)
The effort to roll back union rights actually began almost a century ago, as wealthy industrialists objected to the National Labor Relations Act of 1935, known as the Wagner Act, which enshrined the right to collective bargaining in the United States.
Many tycoons of the time, like Alfred Sloan, head of General Motors, opposed those rights along with other business reforms of FDR’s New Deal.
Fred Koch, co-founder of the corporation that later became Koch Industries, harshly criticized American workers under New Deal policies in 1938. He extolled the economic policies of Emperor Hirohito and fascists Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini:
Although nobody agrees with me, I am of the opinion that the only sound countries in the world are Germany, Italy, and Japan, simply because they are all working and working hard… The laboring people in those countries are proportionately much better off than they are any place else in the world. When you contrast the state of mind of Germany today with what it was in 1925 you begin to think that perhaps this course of idleness, feeding at the public trough, dependence on government, etc., with which we are afflicted is not permanent and can be overcome.
Only recently, through the investigative work of Jane Mayer, has the public learned that the Koch fortune was actually built in part on directly aiding Hitler by building the oil-cracking factory that became “a key component in the Nazi war machine.” As Mayer noted in her 2016 book Dark Money:The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right, that factory refined high-octane fuel needed for the Luftwaffe, which targeted, terrorized, and killed many thousands of innocent civilians. Fred Koch’s praise of Germany came afterHitler’s air bombers helped murder 136 men, women, and children in Guernica in the Basque region, a tragedy made famous by the mural painted by Pablo Picasso.
Meanwhile, industrialists like Sloan pursued efforts to undo New Deal reforms. In 1947, Congress amended the Wagner Act with the Taft-Hartley Act. It gave states the power to pass “right-to-work” laws that undermined collective bargaining by not requiring workers who benefit from bargained rights to pay dues to the unions that secured and enforced them.
HOW THE KOCHS FERTILIZED “RIGHT-TO-WORK”
As Mayer noted:
[Fred Koch] was an early and active member of the Wichita-based DeMille Foundation for Political Freedom, an anti-labor group [founded in 1945] that was a forerunner of the National Right to Work Defense Foundation. In a revealing private letter, one of its staff members explained the group’s ‘Astroturf’ strategy. In reality, he said, big-business industrialists would run the group, serving as its ‘anonymous quarterbacks,’ and ‘call the turns.’ But he said they needed to sell the ‘yarn’ that the group was ‘composed of housewives, farmers, small businessmen, professional people, wage earners-not big business industrialists.’ Otherwise, he admitted, the movement was ‘almost certainly doomed to failure.’
By 1954, an engineer from Wichita, Kan., Reed Larson,took a leave from his job at the Coleman Company, to launch Kansans-for-the-Right-to-Work. The following year, former Rep. Fred Hartley, Jr., (R-N.J.) co-founded the National Right to Work Committee (NRTWC). By 1958, the NRTWC was targeting six states to adopt right-to-work laws but it failed in every place, except Kansas.
“Fred [Koch] co-led a referendum drive to alter the state constitution in order to make it harder for unions to take root in Kansas,” Duke University Professor Nancy MacLean noted.
On Nov. 9, 1958, the New York Timesreported that right-to-work won in Kansas because anti-union views had taken hold, noting:
More campaign efforts and more money were expended on the emotion-provoking issue than on the campaigns of all Republican and Democratic state and Congressional candidates combined. … For the last 10 days or so before Election Day an organization called Kansans-for-the-Right-to-Work flooded newspapers, television channels and other advertising media with appeals to ‘vote yes.’ These by far outnumbered the ‘vote no’ advertisements of unions opposing the amending.
A month later, Fred Koch joined Robert Welch and ten other men in Indianapolis to found the extreme rightwing group dubbed the “John Birch Society” (JBS).
As the Washington Post noted in its 1961 profile of JBS:
At the top of the Society’s structure in Wichita are several very wealthy industrialists. Oil engineer Fred Koch is president of the Rock Island Oil and Refining Co. A millionaire several times over, he is on the Society’s national council. … Wichita is the John Birch Society’s center of strength in Kansas, and one of its greatest in the country. … The leadership of the Birch Society overlaps heavily with the leadership of the organizations that successfully campaigned in 1958 for a right to work amendment to the State’s Constitution.
As detailed by Group Research Inc. in its 1962 history of JBS, Koch worked with both NRTWC and the Christian Crusade in arguing against union dues like those at issue in the Januscase.
A History of Hostility
In 1959, Fred Koch joined the Executive Committee to plan the JBS strategy to push back against what it viewed as communism in nearly every American institution.
In 1960, Koch published his polemic “A Business Man Looks at Communism” and distributed it to JBS chapters across the country. That pamphlet makes a variety of hysterical claims against unions, including:
Labor Unions have long been a Communist goal. How far they have been penetrated by Communists I have no idea, but it must be very far indeed, judging the hatred andvenom poured out in some labor papers….
Koch also accused the U.S. Supreme Court under former Gov. Earl Warren (R-CA) of issuing pro-Communist decisions, the universities of having thousands of Communist professors, the United Nations of being subversive, and former GOP President Dwight Eisenhower of being soft on Communism.
Similar sentiments were expressed in numerous other publications the JBS also pushed. The organization pitched a screed against the union workers who organized against Kohler fixtures in Wisconsin. It pushed attacks on the UAW’s Walter Reuther, who was posthumously awarded a Presidential Medal of Freedom.
It published and peddled right-wing writer Rosalie Gordon’s attack on the U.S. Supreme Court for decisions enforcing collective bargaining rights as protecting the “labor-union monopoly,” along with what she called the “plague” of desegregation caused by Brown v. Board of Education.
The JBS also pushed reprints of tomes by Ludwig von Mises attacking unions as illegitimate intervenors in the “free market,” artificial inflators of wages for workers, and thieves of the profits of tycoons. It promoted F.A. Hayek’s vilification of government regulation of corporations as leading to fascism and Hilaire du Berrier’s conspiracy theories that American labor unions were supposedly using union dues to finance communist terrorist violence abroad.
Fred Koch’s son Charles urged visitors to the John Birch Society bookstore in Wichita to read copies of JBS pamphlets, including those by anti-labor writers from the Austrian School of Economics, like Mises.
Indeed, as the present author first documented for the Center for Media and Democracy, Charles Koch became active in JBS after returning home to Wichita to help with the family business. Charles was a leader and fundraiser for JBS, including underwriting its publications and national radio network, while it attacked collective bargaining and leaders of the civil rights movement such as the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., and Rosa Parks.
CHARLES KOCH IN ACTION
Though he left JBS in 1968, Charles Koch never abandoned its core anti-union agenda and the lessons of his father’s commitment to right-to-work. He did try to shed some of the rhetoric around communist conspiracies, though of late he was painted by Koch political strategist Richard Fink as a martyr against “collectivism,” in audio obtained by the Undercurrent, which also included outlandish claims linking fascism and the minimum wage.
It was Charles Koch’s investment in lifting up the work of Mises and Hayek, who made similar claims, that helped preserve and extend their legacy. As Stephen Moore noted in a 2006 profile on Charles for the Wall Street Journal:
The authors who have had the most profound influence on his own political philosophy include
, Ludwig von Mises, Joseph Schumpeter, Julian Simon, Paul Johnson and Charles Murray. Mr. Koch says that he experienced an intellectual epiphany in the early 1960s, when he attended a conference on free-market capitalism hosted by the late, great Leonard Reed.
Charles brought Mises to Wichita to speak and deployed F.A. “Baldy” Harper’s Institute for Humane Studies (IHS) to promote Mises and his protégé Hayek. As lauded by Reed’s Foundation for Economic Education (FEE), Hayek argued that unions violated the very idea of the “rule of law” and that the Wagner Act was central to that violation, a sentiment he promoted in numerous writings.
Charles Koch is deeply devoted to an alternative universe in which collective bargaining undermines the rule of law and is not a major cause of increased wages.Moore noted in his interview:
As we continue, Mr. Koch becomes increasingly animated. He discusses another seminal work in his collection, F.A. Harper’s 1957 Why Wages Rise. The book demonstrates ‘that wages rise not because of unions or government action, but because of marginal productivity gains — people get more money when they produce more value for other people.’ Then he confides, “I was so thrilled by this revelation that I had what Maslow called a ‘peak experience.’'”
Koch has also supported the NRTWC, which “sought to put a new face on the anti-union campaign by building its rhetoric on the arguments of Hayek, Mises, and others with a ‘respectable’ pedigree.” The NRTWC argues that:
Compulsory unionism itself violates the dignity of the individual worker, regardless of how the forced union tribute is spent. As the late Nobel Prize-winning economist Friedrich A. von Hayek wrote: “[T]he coercion which unions have been permitted to exercise … is primarily the coercion of fellow workers.
Deep Devotion and Investment
Hayek and Mises are not the only two virulently anti-union economists Charles Koch backed. As Nancy MacLean documented in Democracy in Chains, one of the key architects of the Koch agenda domestically and internationally,James Buchanan, also railed against the so-called “union monopolies” for distorting “free market” wages.
And, as UnKoch My Campus has detailed, Koch money has funded scores of academics to push their agenda at universities, buying control over content and personnel with restrictive dictates attached to their donations.
Many of the rightwing groups Charles Koch is known to have made a major investment in since the 1970s have pushed right-to-work or attacked collective bargaining rights. These include Reason magazine, the Cato Institute, Americans for Prosperity, the American Legislative Exchange Council, the State Policy Network and many more.
During David Koch’s 1980 bid to become vice president, running on the ticket of Libertarian Ed Clark—which was pushed by Charles and fueled with Koch cash—the campaign platform included making right-to-work the law of the land:
[W]e urge repeal of the National Labor Relations Act, and all state Right to Work Laws, which prohibit employers from making voluntary contracts with unions. We oppose all government back-to-work orders as imposing a form of forced labor.
That is, there would be no need for state right-to-work laws if there were no NLRA that protects collective bargaining rights. As a result, right-to-work would be effectively nationalized at the determination of the employer.
After badly losing that election, the Kochs have invested heavily in changing the culture—and courts of America—to make their anti-union vision a reality.
Right-to-work is part of that vision.
MILLIONS SPENT
A leak of the Kochs’ summer retreat in 2010 revealed that they featured NRTWC leaders at their gathering of billionaires to plot plans for that year’s midterm elections.
In 2012, before most of America even knew that the Kochs had branded their billionaire conclave as “Freedom Partners,” that group injected $1 million directly into the NRTWC among the more than $200 million of its known spending that cycle.
In 2016, they focused much of their known political spending on keeping a GOP majority in the Senate, and they influenced the make-up of the U.S. Supreme Court by helping to block Judge Merrick Garland’s confirmation.
For the 2018 election, they’ve pledged to spend more than $400 million through the Seminar Network, the latest rebranding of their network of tycoons.
To be clear, the Koch family fortune is not the only one that has been expended pushing right-to-work laws to try to weaken the power of ordinary people to negotiate through unions. A major funder of right-to-work effort has been the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, along with Donors Trust and Donors Capital Fund, which Mother Jones has dubbed “the ATM” of the right wing.
Collective bargaining has provided women with greater economic opportunities and job security. Right-to-work laws also have a disproportionate impact on people of color, who are union members at a higher rate than whites. Black women will likely be the group most adversely affected by the Janus case. Notably, workers in right-to-work states also have lower wages than in states that have rejected this agenda.
UNDERMINING PROGRESSIVES TOO
The spread of right to work through Janusalso will affect our elections.
As In These Times has documented with the Center for Media and Democracy,the national push for right-to-work is designed to undermine the power of unions and to “defang and defund” them as a way to weaken the chances for progressives to win in politics and policy.
The Koch investment in making right-to-work a national reality represents one of the longest and deepest commitments to this agenda, aside from NRTWC itself.
And this year marks the 60th anniversary of Fred Koch’s victory of making right-to-work legally binding in Kansas.
Now, six decades later, Charles Koch has helped make his father’s wish binding on the rest of America through helping to make the Janusruling a reality.
Lisa Graves
==
10/18
| Chamber | Member | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| House | Loebsack, David (D-IA) | $5,000 |
| Senate | Moore, Roy (R-AL) | $5,000 |
| Senate | **Morrisey, Patrick (R-WV)** | $2,500 |
| House | Jordan, Jim (R-OH) | $2,100 |
| House | Comstock, Barbara (R-VA) | $1,500 |
| House | Banks, Jim (R-IN) | $1,000 |
| Senate | Brakey, Eric (R-ME) | $1,000 |
| House | Culberson, John (R-TX) | $1,000 |
| House | Fulcher, Russ (R-ID) | $1,000 |
| House | King, Steven A (R-IA) | $1,000 |
| House | Leneghan, Melanie (R-OH) | $1,000 |
| House | McClintock, Tom (R-CA) | $1,000 |
| House | Hartzler, Vicky (R-MO) | $500 |
| Senate | Strange, Luther (R-AL) | $500 |
| House | Taylor, Scott W (R-VA) | $75 |
| **See all recipients** | **See all recipients** | **See all recipients** |
==
2016
| Senate | Rubio, Marco (R-FL) | $6,700 |
|---|---|---|
| House | King, Steven A (R-IA) | $6,000 |
| Senate | Glenn, Darryl (R-CO) | $5,000 |
| House | Bacon, Donald John (R-NE) | $4,500 |
| Senate | Burr, Richard (R-NC) | $3,500 |
| House | Comstock, Barbara (R-VA) | $3,000 |
| House | Lewis, Jason (R-MN) | $3,000 |
| House | Blum, Rod (R-IA) | $2,000 |
| House | Garrett, Scott (R-NJ) | $2,000 |
| House | Banks, Jim (R-IN) | $1,000 |
| House | Bergman, John (R-MI) | $1,000 |
| Senate | Boozman, John (R-AR) | $1,000 |
| House | Coffman, Mike (R-CO) | $1,000 |
| House | Garrett, Tom (R-VA) | $1,000 |
| House | Gohmert, Louis B Jr (R-TX) | $1,000 |
| Senate | Grassley, Chuck (R-IA) | $1,000 |
| House | Hardy, Cresent (R-NV) | $1,000 |
| Senate | Johnson, Ron (R-WI) | $1,000 |
| House | Jolly, David (R-FL) | $1,000 |
| House | Knight, Steve (R-CA) | $1,000 |
| **See all recipients** | **See all recipients** | **See all recipients** |
==
1018 update
https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/National_Right_to_Work_Committee
National Right to Work Committee (NRTWC), the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation (NRTWLDF), and the National Institute for Labor Relations Research are a related group of nonprofits that have been the national leaders in the effort to destroy public and private sector unions by pushing anti-union legislation at the state and federal level and by bringing lawsuits, such as the 2014 Harris vs. Quinn pending in the U.S. Supreme Court. In 2012, the three groups combined reported over $25 million in revenue.[1] NRTWC reported $11,071,587 in revenue in 2013.[2]
While the NRTWC claims to be a “nonpartisan, single-purpose citizens’ organization,” a Center for Responsive Politics analysis on the National Right to Work Committee PAC shows that100% of its political contributions have gone to Republicans.[3][4]
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News and Controversies
Harris vs. Quinn in the U.S. Supreme Court
Harris vs. Quinn, decided by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2014, may have been "the court’s first step toward nationalizing the 'right to work' gospel by embedding it in constitutional law," according to Cynthia Estlund and William E. Forbath, professors of law at New York University and the University of Texas-Austin, respectively.[5]
The case originated in Illinois, where home health care workers have been successfully organized by public sector unions. A small group of these workers, represented by lawyers from the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation (NRTWLDF), sued, and their lawyers contended that the agency fees, or the fair share dues that even non-union members of a bargaining unit are required to pay to unions that bargain for higher wages on their behalf, violated the First Amendment. Agency fees are barred in so-called "right to work" states.[1]
Before the decision was announced, Joel Rogers, a professor of law and sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, called the case "the most important labor law case the court has considered in decades." This is because when the Supreme Court decided to take on the case, the NRTWLDF dramatically expanded the scope of the case beyond the home health care workers to include all public sector workers, from teachers and firefighters to sanitation workers to librarians.[1]
The Supreme Court issued a 5-4 decision in favor of the plaintiffs on June 30, 2014. In a decision written by Justice Samuel A.Alito, Jr., the Court ruled "that some government employees did not have to pay any fees to the unions representing them. But the court declined to strike down a decades-old precedent that required many public sector workers to pay union fees," according to the New York Times.[6]
As The Nation explained, the ruling "created -- and exempted -- a new category of worker, the 'partial public employee.' Because these workers are paid by the government but hired, fired and managed by individual clients, Alito declared, they are neither fully of the public sphere, nor fully of the private, but hover in some liminal, unprotected half-space." The language of the ruling raised concerns about how it would be interpreted and about future Supreme Court decisions on labor issues.[7]
In response to the ruling, NRTW president Mark Mix said, "We applaud these homecare providers' effort to convince the Supreme Court to strike down this constitutionally-dubious scheme, thus freeing thousands of homecare providers from unwanted union control."[8]
Former NRTWC Staffer Alleges Illegal Campaign Activity in Iowa
In 2014, former NRTWC lobbyist Dennis Fusaro, who had served as an aide to Ron Paul, released email and audio recordings that "show top officials from the National Right to Work Committee […] were extensively involved with a massive off-the-books mass mailing operation for state candidates in 2010," as described by the Center for Responsive Politics.[9]
Fusaro alleged that NRTWC "had broken state laws and falsely reported to the IRS that it had not participated in political activities." According to conversations recorded by Fusaro, he and Doug Stafford (then vice president of NRTWC) discussed a mailing program that involved cooperating with candidates, some of whom confirmed their involvement to the Center for Responsive Politics.[9]
Several of the candidates noted that they had reported the effort as an in-kind contribution on their own campaign filings. However, NRTWC did not disclose any involvement in political activity to the IRS.[9]
Former IRS official Marcus Owens commented to the Center for Responsive Politics that "people have gone to jail for precisely the facts that you are describing."[9]
NRTWC did not respond to requests for comment from the Center for Responsive Politics.[9]
Ties Between NRTW and Ron and Rand Paul Campaigns
Former NRTWC staff have served in key roles for the campaigns of former Rep. Ron Paul and his son, Sen. Rand Paul, and some were involved in a campaign finance scandal that led to a criminal probe and the resignation of an Iowa state legislator. The fundraising and organizing network established by NRTWC supplied "some of the key talent to Ron Paul's growing organization" in the 1990s, according to Slate.[10]
Mike Rothfeld, who ran a direct-mail program for NRTWC between 1987 and 1991, later started a direct mail company, Saber Communications, and ran direct mail fundraising for Ron Paul's 2012 presidential campaign. Slate reports that, "of the $40.6 million raised for Ron Paul's 2012 presidential campaign, nearly $7.7 million went to Saber," and Rand Paul "paid nearly $800,000" to the company during his 2010 U.S. Senate campaign.[10]
Former NRTWC Vice President John Tateserved as the political director of Ron Paul's presidential campaign in 2008 and has headed the Campaign for Liberty since 2010.[10] According to Mother Jones, Rand Paul also credits Tate "with playing a 'crucial role' in assembling his 2010 Senate campaign, including introducing Paul to Stafford, now his closest adviser."[11]
Ron Paul's former chief of staff, Doug Stafford, who left that position in 2013 to run Rand Paul's political action committee, had also worked for NRTWC for a number of years, starting as a writer and eventually serving as vice president.[12]
Dimitri Kesari was director of government affairs at NRTWC before becoming deputy campaign manager of Ron Paul's 2012 campaign.[10]
Rand Paul's 2010 Senate campaign also received direct financial support from the NRTWC, according to Mother Jones. NRTWC contributed $7,500 to the campaign "and deployed field staffers and other personnel to Kentucky to support Paul during his primary fight against establishment-backed Trey Grayson. In an email sent the day after Paul's primary upset, an NRTWC staffer congratulated the committee's field organizers: 'What a week of History, and you get to say you were a part of it. Nice job!'"[11]
Iowa State Senator Resigns over Bribery Scandal Involving Former NRWTC Staff
In 2013, Iowa State Senator Kent Sorenson resigned over accusations that he had effectively sold his endorsement of Michele Bachmann to Ron Paul in the Republican presidential primary campaign in 2011, and in 2014 Sorenson pleaded guilty "to concealing payments he received from a presidential campaign in exchange for switching his support and services from one candidate to another and to obstructing a subsequent investigation into his conduct."[13]
Former NRTWC operatives played key roles in getting Sorenson to change his endorsement, Mother Jones reports, based on emails and recordings released by former NRTWC staffer Dennis Fusaro. A lengthy memo spelling out Sorenson's requests, including $8,000 a month and a $100,000 contribution to his PAC, was sent to John Tate, Paul's campaign manager and a former NRTWC vice president. The memo stated that the payments would help "build a major state-based movement that will involve far more people into a future Rand Paul presidential run."[11]
Former NRTWC lobbyist Dimitri Kesari reportedly handed a $25,000 check to Sorenson's wife two days before the state senator switched his endorsement.[11] The Iowa Republican obtained a recording of a phone conversation between Sorenson and Fusaro in which Sorenson "unambiguously confirm[ed] that he had possession of a check from a Ron Paul operative."[14]
Slate reported in 2014 that Rand Paul's campaign was "working to distance themselves from the key figures" of the scandal, including Kesari.[15]
Documents Found in "Meth House" Suggest NRTWC Operative Improperly Coordinated with Campaigns in Montana
A group called Western Tradition Partnership (WTP), which was registered as a 501(c)(4) nonprofit and headed by a NRTWC lobbyist, flooded several races with direct mail in the 2010 election cycle, including attack ads and letters from candidates' wives that contained personal details and likely required the cooperation of the candidates' campaigns, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.[9]
The following spring, boxes filled with drafts of the mailers, bank records, and other documents connected to WTP were discovered in what PBS called "a meth house" in Colorado, including one folder labeled "Montana $ Bomb."[16]
A Frontline/Pro Publica investigation of the documents suggested that WTP was coordinating with candidates, possibly violating federal and state election laws, and despite the fact that WTP had reported to the IRS that it was not engaged in activity attempting to influence elections.[16]
WTP later changed its name to American Tradition Partnership and has maintained that any allegations of illegal activity are false.[16]
WTP was headed by Christian LeFer, then also employed as a lobbyist by NRTWC. The documents uncovered included email from NRTWC staff member Jared Gamble (now deceased) telling recipients "never to refer to him as part of an [sic] Right To Work program," adding the names of other lobbyists including LaFer, Dimitri Kesari, Doug Stafford, and other NRTWC operatives. In the email, Gamble also writes, "Have you not heard the famous words from WWII, 'Loose lips sink ships.'"[9]
See also
- "Anti-union group accused of breaking state law in 2012," Casper Star Tribune, January 16, 2016.
- "Documents allege Right to Work’s involvement in Montana elections," Bozeman Daily Chronicle, January 26, 2016./
Connected to National Right-wing Network, Including the Kochs and ALEC
The National Right to Work organizations have strong connections to the national right-wing network, including to the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), the Koch brothers, Americans for Prosperity, the Cato Institute, the Republican National Committee, and the State Policy Network (SPN). The National Right to Work Committee also received over $1 million in 2012 from Koch-linked sources.[17] See chart below for more on these ties.
| About ALEC |
|---|
| ALEC is a corporate bill mill. It is not just a lobby or a front group; it is much more powerful than that. Through ALEC, corporations hand state legislators their wishlists to benefit their bottom line. Corporations fund almost all of ALEC's operations. They pay for a seat on ALEC task forces where corporate lobbyists and special interest reps vote with elected officials to approve “model” bills. Learn more at the Center for Media and Democracy's ALECexposed.org, and check out breaking news on our PRWatch.org site. |
Funds to Lobby Congress and Support GOP Candidates
The National Right to Work Committee has become an anti-worker lobbying powerhouse on the federal level, having reported spending $33 million between 1999-2013 (see below). Furthermore, many of the National Right to Work organizations’ board and staff members are major Republican donors who have given large amounts of money to countless GOP committees, presidential candidates, governors, U.S. senators, members of congress, and state legislators over its 58 year history.[18]
Massive Off-the-Books Mass Mailing Operation
In January 2014, the Center for Responsive Politics detailed whistleblower allegations that the NRTWC was running "a massive off-the-books mass mailing operation" attempting to influence the 2010 election in Iowa, and possibly other states. Reportedly, the NRTWC did not disclose it was participating in political activity that year to the IRS. The whistleblower also alleged that the NRTWC was coordinating its activities with candidates' campaigns during the election. Former IRS official Marcus Owens commented to the news outlet, saying that "people have gone to jail for precisely the facts that you are describing."[19]
Convicted of Violating Campaign Finance Laws by the U.S. Supreme Court
In a 1982 lawsuit with the FEC, the U.S. Supreme Court found the NRTWC had violated campaign finance law by mailing to 267,000 individuals during the 1976 election to solicit contributions for their Employees Rights Campaign Committee for federal candidates. As a result of these solicitations, the NRTWC received $77,000 in contributions, but at the time non-stock holding corporations, labor unions, and nonprofit organizations could only solicit political contributions to a separate fund for federal candidates from “members” of the organization. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the 267,000 individuals who received NRTWC’s mailing were not “members” of the NRTWC.[20]
Role in Indiana Right to Work 2012
The National Right to Work Committee had registered lobbyists in the Indiana since at least 2006.[21] In 2010 alone, the National Right to Work Committee led a group of national and local organizations to send out 278,000 pieces of targeted mail identifying legislators’ position on Right to Work.[22] NRTWC President Mark Mix admitted "we practically mailed the phone book in targeted districts." The National Right to Work Committee was also accused of using the Indiana Opportunity Fund to run pro-Right to Work ads in Indiana during the 2012 debate over Right to Work in the state.[23][24]
Right to work in Pennsylvania
The NRTWC has coordinated with several groups to support the “right to work” effort in Pennsylvania, including Americans for Prosperity, the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry, and the Associated Builders & Contractors.[25]In January 2013, the NRTWC, along with the mentioned organizations, jointly held a press conference with select Pennsylvania legislators to announce their push for “right to work.”[26]The NRTWC previously worked with Americans for Prosperity, the Independence Institute, and the Associated Builders & Contractors to push for a failed Right to Work ballot amendment in Colorado in 2008.[27]
Infiltrated unions and Walter Mondale's presidential campaign in 1984
In 1984, the National Right to Work Committee spent $100,000 to hire private detectives to infiltrate the AFL-CIO, the National Education Association (NEA), and the Mondale for President Committee for the purpose of gathering evidence that the unions were using their general treasury monies to provide support to Walter Mondale's presidential campaign, which was prohibited at the time.[28]After a legal battle with the NEA over the issue, the FEC filed a lawsuit against the NRTWC in 1990, but a district court later ruled that the lawsuit was void because the five-year statute of limitations had expired.[29]
Accuracy of Research Questioned
The accuracy of research dealing with labor relations and working conditions produced by the National Right to Work organizations has been questioned by academics, labor leaders, and elected officials alike.[30]
Ties to the Koch Brothers
Organizations with links to the Koch brothers have reported giving funding to the National Right to Work Committee, including DonorsTrust and the Donors Capital Fund. In 2012 alone, NRWC received $1 million from the Koch-linked organization Freedom Partners Longtime NRWC director Reed Larsonshares a hometown--Wichita, KS--with Charles and David Koch. According to reporting by PR Watch, Larson "became an early leader of the radical right-wing John Birch Society in Kansas," which was co-founded by Fred Koch, and many "other founders and early leaders of the NRTWC were members and leaders of the John Birch Society, specifically the Wichita chapter of which Fred Koch was an active member."[31]
Mark Mix, the Foundation's president, attended the June 2010 Koch Strategy Group Meeting. He spoke on a panel entitled "Mobilizing Citizens for November" along with Koch operative Sean Noble, Karl Crow of Themis, and Tim Phillips of Americans for Prosperity.[32]
According to Jane Mayer in her book Dark Money,
Fred Koch "was an early and active member of the Wichita-based DeMille Foundation for Political Freedom, an anti-labor group that was a forerunner of the National Right to Work Defense Foundation. In a revealing private letter, one of its staff members explained the group's "Astroturf" strategy. In reality, he said, big-business industrialists would run the group, serving as its "anonymous quarterbacks," and "call the turns." But he said they needed to sell the "yarn" that the group was "composed of housewives, farmers, small businessmen, professional people, wage earners-not big business industrialists." Otherwise, he admitted, the movement was "almost certainly doomed to failure.""[33]
| Koch Wiki |
|---|
| The Koch brothers -- David and Charles -- are the right-wing billionaire co-owners of Koch Industries. As two of the richest people in the world, they are key funders of the right-wing infrastructure, including the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and the State Policy Network (SPN). In SourceWatch, key articles on the Kochs include: Koch Brothers, Koch Industries, Americans for Prosperity, American Encore, and Freedom Partners. |
Lobbying and Legislative Activities
NRTWC spent $33 million on lobbying and influencing Congress between 1999 and 2013
As a 501(c)(4) organization, the NRTWC can participate in unlimited lobbying activity as long as it pertains to the organization’s mission. The federal lobbyist disclosure database shows that the National Right to Work Committee has reported spending $33,680,000 on lobbying the federal government between 1999 and 2013.[34]
On its 2011 IRS 990 tax form, the NRTWC disclosed $8,142,985 in total nondeductible lobbying and political expenditures.[35] NRTWLDF and NILFF did not itemize any expenditures for lobbying in 2011.
NRTWC opposes the Employee Free Choice Act, calling it "forced unionism" and claiming that it would "empower union bosses to force a business's employees to accept a union as their exclusive bargaining agent solely through the acquisition of signed union authorization cards from employees in a particular bargaining unit." [36]
NRTWC opposed the nomination of then-Congresswoman Hilda Solis as President Barack Obama's Labor Secretary. NRTWC's Mark Mix called Solis "a die-hard forced unionism activist who apparently believes that all workers should be gathered into union collectives whether they like it or not." [37] An NRTWC press release stated, "The U.S. Department of Labor is not supposed to be the U.S. Department of Big Labor. The Labor secretary should be on the side of workers, not union bosses who seek to trample workers' rights." [38]
The following are current and former registered lobbyist for the NRTWC:
| Federal Registered Lobbyist | Years Registered to Represent NRTWC |
|---|---|
| Mark Mix | 1999-2013 |
| Raymond J. LaJeunesse | 1999-2012 |
| George W. Mourard | 2004-2013 |
| Dimitri N. Kesari | 2007-2011 |
| Patrick H. Parsons | 2008-2011 |
| Douglas A. Stafford | 2004-2011 |
| Reed E. Larson | 1999-2007 |
| Richard J. Clair | 1999-2006 |
| John F. Tate | 2002-2003 |
| Christopher J. Tosto | 1999-2003 |
NRTWC's State-Level Lobbying
The NRTWC also had registered lobbyists in Indiana and Michigan in 2012, the year both states became so-called “right to work” states, and were in Indiana since at least 2006.[39][40]Both the NRTWC and New England Citizens for Right to Work, an organization that has received significant funding from the NRTWC, have had registered lobbyists in New Hampshire.[41] New Hampshire passed its own Right to Work bill in 2011 but was later vetoed by the governor.[42]
Chart created by Center for Media & Democracy
NRTWC Connected to the National Right-Wing Network
| Organization/Person | Connection |
|---|---|
| American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) |
|
| Koch Brothers |
|
| Americans for Prosperity |
|
| Cato Institute |
|
| State Policy Network (SPN) |
|
| Amerian Conservative Union |
|
| Republic National Committee |
|
| Associated Builders and Contractors |
|
| The Council for National Policy |
|
| National Rifle Association (NRA) |
|
| Mackinac Center for Public Policy |
|
| Rio Grande Foundation |
|
| Independence Institute |
|
Elections Spending and Activities
NRTWC runs twopolitical action committees, the National Right to Work Committee PAC and the State Employee Rights Campaign Committee. NRTWC spent $3.62 million on lobbying in 2013.[66]
A Center for Responsive Politics analysis of the NRTWC PAC shows that 100% of its contributions have gone to Republicans.[67]
Some notable political candidates, members of Congress, and political organizations who received funding from the NRTWC PAC include:
- 2012: former Sen. George Allen (R-VA), Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ), Congressman Joe Wilson (R-SC), and former Congressman Todd Akin (R-MO)[68]
- 2010: Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA), Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), and the Senate Conservatives Fund[69]
- 2008: Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann (R-MN), Congressman Ron Paul (R-TX), former Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC), Congressman Joe Wilson (R-SC), and then-Congressman and now-Governor Mike Pence (R-IN)[70]
- 2006: Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann (R-MN), Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN), Governor Bobby Jindal (R-LA), former Sen. George Allen (R-VA), the House Conservatives Fund, and the Free Enterprise Fund PAC[71]
- 2004: Congressman Todd Akin (R-MO), former Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC), and Sen. John Thune (R-UT)[72]
As of the first quarter of 2014, the National Right to Work Committee PAC had donated $34,900 to federal candidates, including $20,000 to Senator Rand Paul (R-KY).[73] All of its donations were to Republicans. Since 1992, the PAC has given $587,690 to federal candidates.[74] It has never given any money to a Democratic candidate.
Supported Todd Akin in 2012 as Part of $7 Million Campaign
In November 2012, the National Right to Work Committee announced that would spend $25,000 on print and television advertising in the final week of the 2012 general election campaign to boost Rep. Todd Akin, the 2012 Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate infamously known for his “legitimate rape” comment. The spending on Akin was part of $7,000,000 the NRTWC spent in other Senate races, including races in Virginia, Nebraska, North Dakota, and Arizona.[75]
Pressured U.S. Senators on Card Check Legislation
In 2009, the Scranton Times-Tribune reported that the National Right to Work Committee was “running hundreds of television ads in states” to put pressure on U.S. Senators to oppose card check legislation.[76]
Launched $1.7 Million Attack Ad Campaign in 2002 against Congressional Candidates
In August 2002, the National Right to Work Committee launched a $1.7 million TV advertising campaign to target members of Congress to support a National Right to Work Act. Most notability, one of the NRTWC’s targets was Rep. John Boehner (R-OH), then-Chairman of the House Committee on Education and Workforce. Despite Boehner’s history of opposing labor unions and his support for the National Right to Work Act, the NRTWC still ran ads connecting him to labor leaders because Boehner would not hold a vote on the bill because he did not think it had a chance of passing his committee or the full House.[77]
Released Attack Ads against U.S. Senate Candidates in 2002; May Not Have Reported Activity
The National Right to Work Committee has a history of running political ads against legislators who oppose the organization’s anti-union activities, according to a Public Citizen report. In 2002, the NRTWC ran ads attacking six federal Republican incumbents for refusing to introduce right-to-work legislation. NRTWC also ran attack ads near Election Day against incumbent Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) and Mark Pryor, a Democratic challenger to a U.S. Senate incumbent in Arkansas. Public Citizen stated that since the NRTWC did not report any expenditures for political activities to the IRS between 2000 and 2002, the group claimed that none of its communications mentioning the names of candidates were intended to influence the outcomes of elections.[78]
Released Attack Ads against U.S. Senate Candidates as Part of $1 Million Campaign in 2000
In 2000, the National Right to Work Committee released ads in four U.S. Senate races against candidates who opposed the National Right to Work Act. The NRTWC spent $100,000 on these Senate ads, part of a larger $1 million campaign for that year, including ads against Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) and Bill Nelson (D-Fla.).[79]
Major Funder of the 2008 Colorado Right to Work Ballot Campaign
The National Right to Work Committee made two contributions, totaling $500,000, to the “A Better Colorado” ballot measure committee in October 2008. [80]“A Better Colorado” was the primary organization behind Colorado’s Amendment 47 in 2008, which would have made Colorado a “Right to Work” state.[81] One of the initiative’s major supporters was Jonathan Coors, a prominent member of the Coors family.[82] The Coors family had previously contributed $35,000 to the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation in 1997 through the family’s Castle Rock Foundation.[83] Amendment 47 was defeated with over 56% of the vote in November 2008. Colorado Secretary of State records show the funding committee as the “National Right to Work Committee,” and therefore it was likely the 501(c)(4) nonprofit contributing to “A Better Colorado,” and not one of the FEC or IRS registered political action committees.[84]
Political Contributions by Key People in NRTWC
Mark Mix has contributed at least $15,298 to political candidates and committees on the state and federal level between 1992 and 2012, including contributions to Governor Mike Pence (R-IN), former Senator George Allen (R-VA), Governor Bob McDonnell (R-VA), Dick DeVos’s 2006 Michigan gubernatorial campaign, and the National Right to Work Committee PAC.[85][86]
Core Finances
2016[87]
- Total Revenues: $11,599,787
- Total Expenses: $10,679,607
- Net Assets: $11,823,624
Grants Distributed
- Conservative Action League: $260,000
- Delaware Right to Work Committee: $85,000
- Kentucky Right to Work Committee: $185,000
- Western States Right to Work Committee: $50,000
- New England Citizens for Right to Work: $120,000
- South Dakotans For Freedom and Jobs: $145,000
- Independent Women's Voice: $25,000
2015[88]
- Total Revenues: $9,000,337
- Total Expenses: $8,420,286
- Net Assets: $10,568,384
Grants Distributed
- Coalitions for America: $5,000
- Conservative Action League: $200,000
- Mid-America Right to Work Committee: $65,000
- Keystone Community Action: $25,000
- Western States Right to Work Committee: $57,500
- New England Citizens for Right to Work: $40,000
- Delaware Right to Work Committee: $25,000
- WMC Mobilization Council: $100,000
2014[89]
- Total Revenues: $13,653,045
- Total Expenses: $12,866,294
- Net Assets: $10,341,289
Grants Distributed
- Coalitions for America: $7,000
- Conservative Action League: $360,000
- Iowans for Right to Work Committee: $23,000
- Keystone Community Action: $25,000
- Montana Citizens Right to Work: $60,000
- New England Citizens RTW: $60,000
2013[2]
- Total Revenues: $11,071,587
- Total Expenses: $11,424,412
- Net Assets: $9,566,147
Grants Distributed
- Conservative Action League: $112,000
- Enterprise Freedom Action Committee: $25,000
- Mid-American Right to Work Committee: $5,000
- Montana Citizens for Right to Work: $100,000
- New England Citizens for Right to Work: $6,000
- Young Conservatives of Michigan: $15,000
- Independent Women's Voice: $25,000
- Michigan Freedom Fund: $100,000
2012[90]
- Total Revenues: $16,236,323
- Total Expenses: $14,498,410
- Net Assets: $9.356,043
Grants Distributed
- Mid-America Right to Work Committee: $565,250
- Montana Citizens Right to Work Inc.: $502,000
- New England Citizens for Right to Work: $152,100
- Conservative Action League: $318,000
- New Hampshire Advantage Coalition: $25,000
- Michigan Alliance for Business Growth: $500,000
- Michigan Freedom Fund: $150,000
- Committee of One Million: $40,000
- Independent Women's Voice: $25,000
Personnel
Staff
As of June 2018[91]
- Charles Serio, Chairman of the Board of Directors
- Cornell Gethmann, Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors
- Mark Mix, President
- Matthew Leen, Vice President of Programs
- Gregory Mourad, Vice President for Legislation
- Anne Casper, Secretary
- Stephen Goodrick, Vice President & Treasurer
- John Kalb, Vice President
- Mary King - Vice President & Assistant Treasurer
Former Staff
- Anne M. Coulter - Secretary
Board of Directors
As of July 2017:[87]
- Charles Serio, Chairman of the Board
- Cornell W. Gethmann, Vice Chairman of the Board
- Mark Mix, Director and President
- Donald Vaughn, Director
- Morton Blackwell, Director
- Sandra Crandall, Director
- R. R. Ebbing, Director
- Greg Hagenston, Director
- Erik Hanson, Director
- Jennie Stephenson, Director
- L. A. Vernon, Director
- Michael Fleming, Director
- Guy Short, Director
- Duncan Scott, Director
- R. Bruce Simpson, Director
Former Directors
- ReedLarson, Director
- Dr. James M. Baird, Jr., Director
- Annabelle Fetterman, Director
Contact Information
National Right to Work Committee
8001 Braddock Road, Suite 500
Springfield, VA 22160
Phone: (800) 325-7892
Fax: (703) 321-7342
Web: http://www.nrtwc.org
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Right2Work
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NationalRightToWork
Articles and Resources
[docs]
Related SourceWatch Articles
- AFL-CIO
- Agriculture for a Democratic Workplace
- Alliance to Save Main Street Jobs
- Center for Union Facts
- Coalition for a Democratic Workplace
- Employee Free Choice Act
- Employee Freedom Action Committee
- Front groups
- Rick Berman
- U.S. Chamber of Commerce
- Workforce Fairness Institute
off bs 1018
Mark Mix is President of the National Right to Work Committee, a 2.8 million-member public policy organization. He also serves as President of the Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation.
Prior to joining the National Right to Work Committee in 1990, Mr. Mix worked for several state-level Right to Work groups. He joined the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation in 1999.
Mr. Mix frequently appears on national television shows including Fox News Channel’s Your World: With Neil Cavuto and Fox & Friends, as well as CNBC’s Power Lunch. Mr. Mix also often serves as a guest on nationally syndicated radio shows such as the Michael Reagan Show and the Jim Bohannon Show.
Similarly, Mr. Mix’s writings have appeared in national outlets such as the Wall Street Journal, Washington Times and National Review. His pieces have also been featured in widely-read regional publications across the country including the Detroit Free Press, the Orange County Register and the San Antonio Express-News.
Mr. Mix is also a sought after speaker on political technology and grass-roots lobbying tactics. He often travels across the country, speaking and training participants in the political process.
---Vice President of Strategic Programs for the National Right to Work Committee, Matthew Leen develops and recruits nationwide support for the Committee’s major legislative initiatives.
Matt’s lifelong dedication to fighting compulsory unionism began in the National Right to Work Committee mailroom in the summer of 1992.
An early political mentor who had worked for the Committee urged Matt to give up his lucrative summer college job waiting tables for tourists at the local Pizza Hut and commute over an hour each way to the Committee’s mailroom and phone bank operation “to learn how politics REALLY works.”
The pay wasn’t as good as Pizza Hut tips, but the experience was priceless.
A morning shift as a phone operator mobilizing Right to Work supporters to call their U.S. Senators in opposition to Ted Kennedy’s Pushbutton Strike bill was followed by an afternoon shift stuffing mail in the mailroom. Then back on the phones for the evening shift.
Indeed there was a lot to learn. By the time Matt graduated with an Economics degree from the College of William & Mary in 1993, he had immersed himself in most of the details that make up an effective national grassroots public policy operation including direct mail production, state legislation, copy writing, telecommunications and major donor fundraising.
Matt later applied that knowledge to various political campaigns, serving as Campaign Manager for candidates at both the federal and state level.
Matt returned to the Committee full time in 1994 and was promoted to Vice President of Strategic Programs in 1999.
Today, he manages a staff of 22 in the Committee’s Strategic Programs Department. But what Matt enjoys most of all is traveling the country personally visiting with the Committee’s supporters.
Greg Mourad has worked for the National Right to Work Committee for almost 15 years, and currently serves as its Vice President for Legislation. He is responsible for directing the Committee’s efforts to advance the cause of employee freedom in Congress and in the 50 states.
Greg has testified before committee hearings in numerous state legislatures around the country, has appeared on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal, Breitbart.tv, on numerous national and local radio shows, and is regularly quoted in print publications such as the New York Times, Washington Examiner and Detroit Free Press.
He has also lectured at a variety of seminars and conferences, regarding both legislative policy and legislative strategy.
Before joining the Right to Work Committee, Mourad served as staff on the political campaigns of several conservative candidates seeking office in Congress and the Virginia General Assembly. He has been married fourteen years and has five children. He received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Virginia in 1993.
==
chr bd chls serio not
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana has promoted as vice presidents Shawn Leake, accounting; Adrian Serio, underwriting; Duke Williams, treasury and cash management; Ben Vicidomina, analytics and quality improvement; and named Korey Harvey as vice president, deputy general counsel.
Leake is responsible for the financial reporting of the organization. Serio develops and executes corporate pricing and underwriting strategies. Williams is responsible for the treasury functions of the company, including cash management and investments. Vicidomina provides analytical leadership for population health management in government and commercial lines of business. Harvey provides legal services to the company and its subsidiaries
==
National Right to Work Committee is the only national grass-roots organization in America dedicated exclusively to combatting the evils of compulsory unionism.
As part of a coalition of 2.8 million workers, small business owners and freedom-loving Americans, National Right to Work Committee members bring the power of grassroots pressure to bear on their elected officials in Congress and all 50 state legislatures.
Their message is simple: No worker should be forced to join or pay dues to a labor union in order to get or keep a job — a belief shared by more than eight in ten Americans.
Since 2012, six new states have passed Right to Work laws, protecting millions of workers from the threat of being fired from their jobs for refusing to support a union.
But much work remains to be done.
Despite all the recent victories by Right to Work supporters, there are still more than 10 million workers in America who are forced to pay union dues – or be fired. These workers pay more than $9 billion in forced union dues every year, just to a have a job and feed their families.
The battle against Big Labor’s multi-billion dollar forced dues political machine is the ultimate David versus Goliath fight.
And, thanks to citizens just like you, David is winning.
Now is the time to take this fight to Washington DC to end compulsory unionism in America once and for all with the National Right to Work Act.[$ button]
OFFICERS
- Mark Mix President
- Matthew M. Leen Vice President, Strategic Programs
- Greg Mourad Vice President for Legislation
- Charles R. Serio Chairman of the Board of Directors
- Cornell W. Gethmann Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors
- Anne M. Casper Secretary
- Stephen O. Goodrick Vice President & Treasurer
- John A. Kalb Vice President
- Mary J. King Vice President
nb privacy polivy top item:
PRIVACY POLICY
Donor and/or Member Policy
The National Right to Work Committee believes the privacy of contributors and members is paramount. The Committee will not share, sell or exchange donor or member information for third party fundraising or marketing purposes. And, the Committee strives to protect the First Amendment right of its members and supporters to associate with the Committee in private to promote its cause. That means opposing unconstitutional or unlawful demands for donor or member information from union officials, government officials, or others.
E-mail Policy
By submitting your e-mail address, you agree to receive occasional (approximately twice per week) breaking news updates from the Committee. Your e-mail address will not be used for any other purpose. It will be held in strict confidence and will never be sold, rented, or distributed to anyone for any reason.
srcwtch
...
Documents Found in "Meth House" Suggest NRTWC Operative Improperly Coordinated with Campaigns in Montana
A group called Western Tradition Partnership (WTP), which was registered as a 501(c)(4) nonprofit and headed by a NRTWC lobbyist, flooded several races with direct mail in the 2010 election cycle, including attack ads and letters from candidates' wives that contained personal details and likely required the cooperation of the candidates' campaigns, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.[9]
The following spring, boxes filled with drafts of the mailers, bank records, and other documents connected to WTP were discovered in what PBS called "a meth house" in Colorado, including one folder labeled "Montana $ Bomb."[16]
A Frontline/Pro Publica investigation of the documents suggested that WTP was coordinating with candidates, possibly violating federal and state election laws, and despite the fact that WTP had reported to the IRS that it was not engaged in activity attempting to influence elections.[16]
WTP later changed its name to American Tradition Partnership and has maintained that any allegations of illegal activity are false.[16]
WTP was headed by Christian LeFer, then also employed as a lobbyist by NRTWC.The documents uncovered included email from NRTWC staff member Jared Gamble (now deceased) telling recipients "never to refer to him as part of an [sic] Right To Work program," adding the names of other lobbyists including LaFer, Dimitri Kesari, Doug Stafford, and other NRTWC operatives. In the email, Gamble also writes, "Have you not heard the famous words from WWII, 'Loose lips sink ships.'"[9]
See also
- "Anti-union group accused of breaking state law in 2012," Casper Star Tribune, January 16, 2016.
- "Documents allege Right to Work’s involvement in Montana elections," Bozeman Daily Chronicle, January 26, 2016./
see stafford for graphic, highlight and links:
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/04/rand-paul-2016-kent-sorenson-iowa
Update, 8/5/15: The Justice Department has indicted Paul world operatives Dimitri Kesari, John Tate, and Jesse Benton on numerous charges including making false statements, conspiracy, and obstruction of justice in connection with the alleged scheme to payoff then-Iowa state senator Kent Sorenson for his endorsement of Ron Paul’s 2012 presidential bid. Read the indictment here.
On December 26, 2011, a week before Iowa's first-in-the-nation presidential caucuses, an influential Republican state senator named Kent Sorenson and his wife, Shawnee, arrived at a steak house in Altoona, a suburb of Des Moines. A goateed Mr. Clean look-alike, Sorenson was a hot commodity. His deep ties to the state's evangelical leaders and home-schooling activists made his endorsement highly sought after by GOP presidential hopefuls, particularly the second-tier contenders who had staked their campaigns on a strong Iowa showing. Sorenson had picked his horse early, signing on as Michele Bachmann's Iowa chairman in June 2011—a coup for the Minnesota congresswoman's upstart campaign.
Joining the Sorensons was a bespectacled political operative named Dimitri Kesari, the deputy campaign manager of Rep. Ron Paul's 2012 presidential bid. As caucus day neared, Ron Paul's campaign was surging in the polls but needed a late boost if he wanted to meet his goal of finishing in the top three.
That's where Sorenson came in.
When the state senator left to use the restroom, Kesari produced a $25,000 check—drawn from the account of Designer Goldsmiths, a jewelry store run by his wife—and gave it to Shawnee Sorenson. Two days later, Kent Sorenson left a Bachmann campaign event, drove straight to a Ron Paul rally, and declared that he had defected.
"It'
As it turned out, Paul's inner circle had been secretly negotiating for months to lure Sorenson away from the Bachmann campaign. In an October memo to Paul campaign manager John Tate, a Sorenson ally outlined the state senator's demands, which included an $8,000-a-month payment for nearly a year, another $5,000-a-month check for a colleague of Sorenson's, and a $100,000 donation to Sorenson's political action committee. The memo explained that these payments would not only secure Sorenson's support in the near term but also help to "build a major state-based movement that will involve far more people into a future Rand Paul presidential run." Kesari's $25,000 check, in other words, amounted to more than a down payment on an endorsement for Ron Paul; it was an investment in Rand Paul 2016.
The Kentucky senator officially declared his candidacy on Tuesday. With the 2016 Iowa caucuses nine months away, this scheme could become a liability for the latest Paul presidential enterprise. The Sorenson deal exploded into public view in 2013, thanks to a pair of whistleblowers from the Ron Paul and Bachmann campaigns, and the episode now hangs over Rand Paul and his inner circle like a dark cloud.
The Sorenson scandal has sparked state and federal investigations. After resigning his seat in 2013, Sorenson pleaded guilty last year to two criminal charges for which he faces up to 25 years in prison. The episode involves central figures in the Paul family's political apparatus, including Kesari and Jesse Benton, who served in senior roles on Rand and Ron Paul's recent campaigns. (Benton is also married to Ron Paul's granddaughter and Rand's niece.) And it has pulled back the curtain on the roguish band of advisers, political organizers, and fundraisers whose sometimes sketchy tactics have fueled Rand Paul's political ascent. This crew—call it Paul World—reflects the damn-the-rules, libertarian worldview of the candidate himself. But as Paul may find out, the brash operatives largely responsible for his political rise could end up posing a major threat to his presidential ambitions.
"It's a strange universe," says a conservative strategist who's well acquainted with members of the Pauls' inner circle. "You've got the real Star Wars cantina identified—Hammerhead, Greedo—and let's be honest, a lot of these guys would not have work in the mainstream, even in the tea party."
Many of the central players in Paul World hail from the National Right to Work Committee, the leading anti-union group where these operatives spent their formative political years. Doug Stafford, who is Rand Paul's Karl Rove, is a former NRTWC vice president. John Tate, Ron Paul's former campaign manager, worked with Stafford at the NRTWC; he is now the president of Campaign for Liberty, the political group founded by the elder Paul. Kesari—described by someone who knows him as "like Radar from M*A*S*H"—previously led the NRTWC's government affairs department. Mike Rothfeld headed the committee's direct-mail operation in the late '80s and early '90s; he now runs the fundraising firm of choice for Rand Paul's PAC, as well as the NRTWC and Campaign for Liberty.
Thanks in large part to this crew, Rand Paul has broken into the political mainstream, a feat never achieved by his father. But some of the operatives who have formed the backbone of his machine have at times thought little of stretching the rules to win elections and acquire power. And their past tactics may come back to haunt Paul during what could be the most important campaign of his political career.
Of the GOP's current presidential hopefuls, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker is most closely associated with an anti-union agenda, due to his 2011 law curbing collective bargaining for the state's public-sector unions. But the Republican whose policy stances pose the most direct threat to labor is Rand Paul. In the eyes of the National Right to Work Committee, one former NRTWC staffer told me, "he is the golden child."
After Paul was sworn into the Senate in 2011, one of the first pieces of legislation he cosponsored was the National Right-to-Work Act, the committee's holy grail. The bill—also championed by Ron Paul—would make every state in the union a so-called right-to-work state and eviscerate organized labor as we know it. (Twenty-five states currently have such laws, banning unions from collecting dues from nonmembers to pay for representing those workers and bargaining on their behalf.) Since 2013, Paul has twice more introduced the legislation. (The bill never has gotten out of committee.)
Paul has credited John Tate, a former NRTWC vice president, with playing a "crucial role" in assembling his 2010 Senate campaign, including introducing Paul to Stafford, now his closest adviser. NRTWC donated $7,500 to that campaign and deployed field staffers and other personnel to Kentucky to support Paul during his primary fight against establishment-backed Trey Grayson. In an email sent the day after Paul's primary upset, an NRTWC staffer congratulated the committee's field organizers: "What a week of History, and you get to say you were a part of it. Nice job!"
He has frequently lent his name to NRTWC fundraising emails andpetitions drumming up support for the bill and the group. Days after Paul took office, an NRTWC email blast went out under his name spelling out his intentions: "They snickered when I said I came to the US Senate to change Congress," it reads. "But their laughter stopped when I sponsored the National Right to Work Act to free US workers from forced unionization and break Big Labor's multi-billion dollar political machine forever."
Just as the libertarian-leaning Pauls have worn the Republican label with unease, the 60-year-old NRTWC hasn't always played well with the conservative movement or the GOP. (The mantra inside NRTWC, says an ex-staffer from the 1990s, was: "We're Right-to-Work. We hate everybody.") The group's origins on the far right (its longest-serving president, Reed Larson, was affiliated with the John Birch Society) and fixation solely on defeating labor unions created a cultlike atmosphere in which even allies on the right were viewed with suspicion. "There has been a culture from the beginning of isolation and hyper-self-reliance," says a former NRTWC senior staffer. "It's the hermit kingdom of the conservative movement."
Still, throughout the '80s and '90s, the committee gained respect for its brutally efficient political operation. It was one of the first outside groups to create an in-house phone bank to influence elections around the country, an operation that proved so successful that NRTWC spun it off into a stand-alone firm named Liberty Phone Center, Inc. Mike Rothfeld, a heavily caffeinated, hard-charging mentor to a generation of Virginia political consultants, cut his teeth running NRTWC's direct-mail shop; he went on to form his own fundraising firm, Saber Communications, the Paul World's go-to consultancy. (A born-again Southerner whose office features a mural of Confederate General J.E.B. Stuart, Rothfeld is no libertarian: He once referred to Ron Paul's most die-hard supporters as "cwazy wabbits.")
Over the years, NRTWC has served as a training ground for operatives drawn to the group's zealous focus and its bare-knuckled style. Former staffers say NRTWC instilled a cutthroat, survival-of-the-fittest mentality in its employees. One former staffer from the 1990s recalls that the group hired nine people for only five or six positions, pitting the new hires against each other to see who came out on top. The group was also notorious for its low pay—until the early 2000s, midlevel staffers got less than $20,000 a year and worked overtime to eke out a living.
To earn extra cash, NRTWC staffers also moonlighted for political candidates who supported the right-to-work cause—a practice supported by the top brass—often spending lunch breaks and evenings helping candidates with their mail programs or fundraising pitches.
The near-religious devotion to the cause, the hard-ass attitude, and the freelancing all melded to create a win-at-all-costs approach that sometimes saw NRTWC, a tax-exempt nonprofit, disregard campaign laws banning outside groups from coordinating with candidates and officeholders. "They treated the rules as guidelines," the ex-staffer from the '90s says.
The circuitous path to the Kent Sorenson debacle leads, of all places, through a dilapidated meth house on the outskirts of Denver. That's where boxes of files and bank records belonging to Western Tradition Partnership, an energy-company-funded Montana nonprofit created to fight environmentalists, were discovered and handed over to Montana's Commissioner of Political Practices. As the commissioner later concluded, these files indicated that Western Tradition Partnership and its leader, an operative named Christian LeFer, had possibly broken the law by directly coordinating with candidates for Montana's Legislature.
"The
LeFer was a key cog in the right-to-work movement. Internal NRTWC emails depict him as the committee's man on the ground in Montana, where, in addition to Western Tradition Partnership, he ran Montana Citizens for Right to Work. NRTWC funded LeFer's group to the tune of $217,600 in 2010 and $56,500 in 2011, tax records show. After the meth house documents came to light, LeFer and his wife, Allison, sued to reclaim them, but a state judge dismissed their suit in October 2013, and the documents remained in the hands of a federal grand jury investigating Western Tradition Partnership.
Two thousand miles away, at his home in rural Virginia, a former NRTWC staffer and Ron Paul aide named Dennis Fusaro watched the drama unfolding in Montana with growing alarm. Fusaro knew all too well who LeFer was—in 2009 and 2010, Fusaro worked for NRTWC in Iowa and had been included on many email chains with LeFer. He feared the Montana investigation could spark a probe of NRTWC activities. Fusaro says he tried to bring his complaints to NRTWC leadership, but was rebuffed. (NRTWC did not respond to multiple requests for comment.)
So, in what Fusaro says was an effort to save his own skin, he went public, eventually releasing to conservative bloggers a trove of emails, memos, and other records showing potentially illegal coordination between the NRTWC and a host of GOP candidates. But the biggest bombshell he dropped had to do with Kent Sorenson, whom Fusaro knew well from his days as an NRTWC operative in Iowa. Fusaro had been included on Paul campaign correspondence about securing Sorenson's endorsement. Attached to one of those emails was the three-page memo outlining Sorenson's demands for joining Ron Paul's presidential campaign; its publication in August 2013 fueled the criminal investigation that eventually brought Sorenson down.
Fusaro's documents also laid bare how NRTWC may have overstepped the rules banning outside groups from coordinating with political candidates. (We'll spare you the legalese, but coordination is a campaign finance no-no because it provides a way to circumvent contribution limits to political campaigns.) Fusaro's documents show NRTWC was involved in creating and sending out mailers on behalf of dozens of Republican candidates for the Iowa Legislature in 2010. Mailers ostensibly authored by candidates or their spouses were written on NRTWC computers and later approved by the candidates. In some cases, candidates instructed NRTWC on the mix of Republican and independent voters that should receive their mailers. Helping oversee this NRTWC mail program were two Paul World fixtures: Doug Stafford and Dimitri Kesari. (Stafford, emails obtained byMother Jones show, also worked on Rand Paul's 2010 Senate campaign while he was an NRTWC employee. Stafford declined to comment.)
Not only did Fusaro's documents show evidence of coordination, but on their 2010 tax forms NRTWC and a Midwestern affiliate told the IRS they didn't plan to get involved in any political work that year. Marcus Owens, a tax lawyer who from 1990 to 2000 ran the IRS division that oversees tax-exempt groups, says that filing false tax reports "could not only be a civil problem but a criminal one."
While it is unclear whether Fusaro's documents have prompted IRS scrutiny of NRTWC, they caused a world of hurt for Kent Sorenson. Nearly three years after his dramatic switch to the Ron Paul campaign, Sorenson pleaded guilty to covering up payments from both the Paul and Bachmann campaigns—her campaign was secretly paying him as well—and to obstructing an investigation into the payments. Sorenson never ultimately cashed Kesari's jewelry store check, but he admitted to receiving payments totaling $73,000, which an Iowa Senate ethics investigation all but concluded came from the Paul campaign.
Had the Sorenson saga ended there, Rand Paul and his presidential team could probably breathe easy. But on February 19, a Justice Department lawyer requested a delay in sentencing Sorenson because the feds were "making progress" on a "larger investigation" into the scandal. This prompted conservative radio host Steve Deace to tweet: "Asteroid coming. Impact could produce potentially large blast radius." The DOJ did not say who else was in its crosshairs, but emails and internal documents show that Benton and Kesari both played roles in the deal. Sorenson, for his part, isn't holding anything back. "He's cooperating and answering their questions about all the information that he knows," says F. Montgomery Brown, Sorenson's attorney.
In the meantime, Paul World has lawyered up. Ron Paul's 2012 campaign has shelled out $364,000 in legal fees since August. Reached on his cellphone, Kesari said he wouldn't comment and hung up; Benton and his lawyer did not respond to repeated interview requests. At least publicly, Rand Paul has said little to suggest he's worried about the legal headaches that may ensnare Paul World fixtures. In December—before the Justice Department's latest announcement but after emails showed Jesse Benton's involvement in the Sorenson deal, prompting Benton's resignation as Sen. Mitch McConnell's 2014 campaign manager—Paul defended Benton to the Hill newspaper as an "honest" political operative who would be "welcome" on his 2016 team. "He'll help us," Paul said.
But as Rand Paul launches his presidential campaign, questions linger about how long his cadre of advisers and operatives will last under the merciless glare of the national stage. "They are in such a bubble in this Rand Paul universe, and I think the bubble's going to pop real quick in the heat of the primaries," says the conservative strategist familiar with the Pauls and their allies. "They are not ready for prime time."
==
1962 rept pdf online
heads have been popping up lately from the National Right to Work Committee and the National Right to Work Legal Attack Defense Foundation.
The Foundation supported the case against the Teamsters that resulted in Friday's court ruling that President Obama's recess appointments to the National Labor Relations Board were unconstitutional. The former showed up at a Pennsylvania news conference advocating a No Rights At Work bill:
Tuesday’s announcement was made at a news conference with about three dozen lawmakers, business officials, school board directors and political advocates, 20 of whom gave personal testimony on why they believe Pennsylvania should become a right-to-work state.
That included non-union member and public school employee Neil Weidman, and Mary Burkholder, a nurse and former union member. There was also a presence from the national right-to-work movement, including Justin Davis of the National Right to Work Committee.
We thought we'd expose the vast right wing conspiracy behind these groups. (You didn't think it was working people, did you?) They are part of an interlocking, billionaire-funded network that has a staggering reach.
Sourcewatch tells us the National No Rights At Work Legal Attack Foundation is funded by five foundations: Castle Rock, John M. Olin, Shelby Cullom Davis, Jaquelin Hume and Roe. Here are the gory details:
Castle Rock Foundation
Castle Rock, founded by the union-busting Coors family, gives money to more than 40 other billionaire-backed groups. (You can see them here.) Some of our least favorite phony think tanks and astroturf organizations are on the list: Dick DeVos' Mackinac Center, smear merchant Brent Bozell's Media Research Center and Barre Seid and the Bradley's Scott Walker-loving Heartland Institute.
And of course the Coors help out the Benedict Arnold Koch brothers' ALEC, Cato Institute, Reason Foundation, Citizens for a Sound Economy, the Heritage Foundation, Landmark Legal Foundation, the National No Rights At Work Legal Defense Foundation. To name a few.
The money just sloshes around these groups.
John M. Olin Foundaton
John M. Olin, who made his fortune in munitions, created the foundation to promote free enterprise. Never mind that the biggest purchaser of munitions is government. The foundation funds the same groups that the Castle Rock Foundation funds. According to Sourcewatch, the John M. Olin Foundation teams up with:
Joseph Coors and family, and Richard Mellon Scaife, to create a chain of anti-environmental, pro-business, legal advocacy organisations.
Shelby Cullom Davis Foundation
Davis was an investment banker (charming) who set up the foundation to support many of the same anti-worker groups supported by the Kochs, the Coors, the DeVoses, et al. The foundation is thankfully defunct.
Jaquelin Hume Foundation
Hume was a right-wing, Ronald Reagan-loving California businessman who made his fortune in dehydrated garlic and onion. Hume tried to bust the union at his Basic Vegetables plant in 1999 -- members of Teamsters Local 890. Now his union-busting legacy lives on in the foundation.
Roe Foundation
Thomas Roe was a South Carolina businessman who founded Builder Marts. He also founded a group called the State Policy Network, an ALEC-lite organization that gets money from -- you guessed it, Castle Rock, et al. Andy Kroll at Mother Jones reported in 2011:
...the State Policy Network (SPN) is a little-known umbrella group with deep ties to the national conservative movement. Its mission is simple: to back a constellation of state-level think tanks loosely modeled after Heritage that promote free-market principles and rail against unions, regulation, and tax increases...
Founded in 1992 by businessman and Reagan administration insider Thomas Roe—who also served on the Heritage Foundation's board of trustees for two decades—the group has grown to include 59 "freedom centers," or affiliated think tanks, in all 50 states. SPN's board includes officials from Heritage and right-wing charities such as the Adolph Coors and Jacqueline Hume foundations. Likewise, its deep-pocketed donors include all the usual heavy-hitting conservative benefactors: the Ruth and Lovett Peters Foundation, which funds the Cato Institute and Heritage; the Castle Rock Foundation, a charity started with money from the conservative Coors Foundation; and the Bradley Foundation, a $540 million charity devoted to funding conservative causes.
The National Right to Work Committee is linked directly (of course) with the Attack Foundation. It's a little more secretive than the Foundation. Our friends at American Rights At Work report,
A lawsuit revealed that 84 percent of the National Right to Work Committee’s 1973 budget was funded by corporations, and other employers.
Early known donors include:
Wofford Camp who served on a U.S. Chamber of Commerce committee and was a California grower who fought efforts by farm workers to organize unions.
Roger Milliken, former president of Milliken & Company, who shut down one of his southern textile plants as retaliation against his employees’ vote to form a union…
...the Committee’s first chairman of the board was Edwin Dillard, president of Old Dominion Box Company, who vehemently fought his workers’ efforts to organize his company’s plants in the South.9 Fred Hartley, the Committee’s first president, was the former Congressman who sponsored the Taft-Hartley Act amending the National Labor Relations Act to expand employers’ rights, not workers.
Charming folks.
ALEC EXPOSEDKOCH BROTHERSRIGHT TO WORK FOR LESS
I/
Sec 4 - SPECIAL #12)
12 /13 /62 -,THE NATIONAL 'RIGHT TO WORK COMMITTEt',
1025 Connecticut Avenue, N. W.
Washington 6, D. C.
I. Background of the "Right-to-Work" Movement
IL Founders of NRTWC 3
III. Some Forerunners of NRTWC 5
IV. The NRTWC, 1955-61 6
V. Officers and Staff 9
VL Former Directors 12
VIL NRTWC Operations: Propaganda 13
Publications .14
New s lette r 15
Opinion Research Corp. Survey 15
Films 15
Radio Series 17
VIIL National Council for Labor's Rank and File 17
IX. NRTWC Operations.- Direct Action 19
INSTITUTE OF INDUSTRIAL
X. Size and Finance s RELATiONS LIBRARY 21
XI. Ties to Other Groups: Employer MAR 2 5 1963 23
Chamber of Commerce UNIVFRSITY OF CALIFORNIA 23
BERKELEY National Association of Manufacture 27
American Farm Bureau Federation 29
XIL Ties to Other Groups: Right-Wing Political 30
John Birch Society 31
Other Right-Wing groups- 32
American Enterprise As oc. ; Arkansas Free Enterprise
Assoc. ; Christian Crusade; Christian Freedom Foundation;
Christianity To ; Committee for Constitutional Govern.
ment; Council for Individual Freedom; Kent and Phoebe
Courtney; DeMille Foundation for Political Freedom; Heritage
Foundation; Human Events; Labor Policy Assoc.; Manion
Forum; Nat'l Labor-Management Foundatio7n-o Nat'l Right to
Work Federation; Young Americans for Freedom.
Sec 4 - SPECIAL #12
12/13/62
Facts About: THE NATIONAL RIGHT TO WORK COMMITTEE
1025 Connecticut Avenue, N. W.
Washington 6, D. C.
With major references to other leading groups on the "right-to-work"
front.
Background of the "Right-to-Work" Movement
The current so-called "right-to-work" movement is merely the latest
phase in the long-standing opposition of employer groups to such forms
of union security as the closed shop and the union shop. In the period
of the 1920's and '30's the preferred public relations title for the open
shop movement was "American Plan. " Since the 1940's it has been
"right-to-work. " Just who originated the latter term is not certain.
At least as early as 1935, the Automobile Manufacturers Association
was stating, as part of its opposition to the Wagner Act, that "men
have an inalienable right to work, free from coercion . .. "('if. Y.
Times 4/7/35 quoted in John G. Shott, How "Right-to-Work" Laws Are
Passed, Public Affairs Institute, 1956) The National Association of
Manufacturers referred in 1939 to "the right to work or not to work
."(N. Y. Times 12/3/39 quoted in ibid.) Possibly the first to
use the term as a full-blown slogan was Vance Muse, a professional
right-winger whose activities dated back to before the First World War.
In 1936, Muse was an organizer of the Christian American Association,
Inc., an anti-Negro, anti-Semitic group which had as an affiliate something
called "the Right to Work Union. " (See 1945 membership card reproduced
in John Roy Carlson's The Plotters, E. P. Dutton & Co., 1946,
p. 267)
In Arkansas and Florida-the first two states to adopt "right-to-work"
laws-the Christian American Association and a related group called the
Veterans Industrial Association both played important roles. As noted,
a prime mover in the first group was Vance Muse, of Houston, Texas.
Muse was a protege of John Henry Kirby, oil and lumberman and onetime
President of the N.A. M. Among the Kirby-Muse organizational
enterprises were the American Taxpayers' League, the National Council
of State Legislators, the Southern Committee to Uphold the Constitution,
and the Southern Tariff Association. While their funds frequently came
from such big names as John J. Raskob, Alfred P. Sloan and the duPonts
(all prominent anti-Roosevelt Liberty Leaguers), Kirby and Muse were
not above joining forces with the dean of American anti-Semites, Gerald
L. K. Smith. (See George Wolfskill, The Revolt of the Conservatives,
Houghton-Mifflin, 1962, pp. 175-8, 234 and 240-2)
Sec 4 - SPECIAL #12
The Veterans Industrial Association was founded in 1946 by an Arkansan,
James T. Karam. It appears to have worked closely with the Vance
Muse organization in the early period. (See Arkansas Gazette 6/16/46)
The Karam group operated as a strike-breaking organization, among
other things, and talked about "The Communist-dominated labor unions"
and " 'foreign' labor bosses." (Advertisement in Arkansas Gazette 3/3/46
and materials reproduced in Carlson, op. cit., p. 263. See also N. Y.
Times 8/26/46) It had the support and cooperation of George S. Benson,
President of Harding College in Searcy, Arkansas, an outstanding figure
in today's right wing. (See advertisement in Arkansas Gazette 2/21/46
and Carlson, op. cit., pp. 265-6)
The Christian American Association was credited with being a major
sponsor of the successful "right-to-work" campaign in Arkansas in 1944.
(N. Y. Times 11/8/44 and St. Louis Post-Dispatch 10/17/46) The Veterans
Industrial Association organized a branch in Florida to assist in the
campaign to enforce the new law there, coming at the specific invitation
of the state's Attorney-General, who had been a leading proponent of the
1944 adoption of a "right-to-work" amendment in Florida. (Miami Herald
5/24/46 cited in Shott, op. cit.) Both organizations have since disappeared
from the scene.
Two years after Florida and Arkansas had adopted "right-to-work" anelidments,
three more states followed suit: Arizona, Nebraska and South
Dakota. The following year, which also saw the passage of Taft-Hartley
with its Section 14(ki) invitation to state action in the field of union security,
no less than six more states adopted such laws: Georgia, Iowa, North
Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia. In 1948, North Dakota was
belatedly added to the list. A-three-year gap intervened before the next
state (Nevada in 1952) adopted a "right-to-work" law. Alabama did so
in 1953 and in 1954 Louisiana, Mississippi and South Carolina put such a
law on the books (Louisiana narrowed its act to cover only agricultural
workers in 1956). Thus, as the National Right to Work Committee was
being formally established, 17 states - 11 southern and 6 others
already had "right-to-work" laws.
Formation of the National Right to Work Committee was announced in
January, 1955 by E. S. Dillard, then President of the Old Dominion Box
Co. of Charlotte, N. C., and Fred A. Hartley, Jr., former Congress--
man (R-N. J.) and co-sponsor of the Taft-Hartley Act. The purpose of the
group was a "national educational and information program" against "comen!
pulsory unionism, " by which was meant the union shop. (See Wall Street
Journal 1/31/55)
The announcement was not unexpected. Republican Secretary of Labor
James Mitchell's condemnation a month earlier of "moves by employer
groups to form a national organization dedicated to the adoption of
Page 2
Sec 4 - SPECIAL #12
'right-to-work' laws all over the country" had brought a prompt statement
by the White House that the Secretary was speaking only for himself.
(See N. Y. Times 12/8/54 and 12/9/54)
Founders of NRTWC
At least six men were in the group which founded the National Right to
Work Committee in 1955. They were:
- Edwin S. Dillard - As indicated, he was then President of
the Old Dominion Box Co. in Charlotte, N. C. Since 1959 he has been
listed as President of the Old Dominion Box Co. of Lynchburg, Va.
Dillard is an endorser of the John Birch Society (1962 brochure) and of
the Manion Forum (lists of 1957-62). He served as NRTWC's first Chairman
of the Board and has been a Director throughout. Currently he is on
the Advisory Committee to the Executive Committee. (NRTWC Newsletter
1/31/62)
- Fred A. Hartley - Famous as co-sponsor of the Taft-Hartley
Act, the New Jersey Congressman decided not to run for re-election in 1948.
From February 16, 1949 until June 13, 1950 he served as President of
the Tool Owners Union, an organization founded by Allen W. Rucker of
Massachusetts and representing "investors, farmers, small businessmen
and those who live on savings or income from property. " The Tool Owners
Union had been organized in 1946 (see ad in N. Y. Times 5/20/46) and
among those involved with it was Alfred P. Haake, an active figure on the
right-wing from the days of the Liberty League until his death in 1961. It
was during this period that Hartley was also listed, by the New York Post
(6/30/49) as a sponsor of a proposed political action conference being
organized by Merwin K. Hart, long-time anti-Semite and later a John
Birch Society chapter leader. (On the 1949 conference see Arnold Forster,
A Measure of Freedom, Doubleday and Co. , 1950, pp. 70-71. ) Hartley
quit the Tool Owners Union, he said at the time, in order to form a "rightwing"
political organization. (N. Y. Times 6/14/50) There is no evidence
that the organization he had in mind was ever formally organized and by
late 1952, Hartley was saying that he had left the Tool Owners Union because
he was "dissatisfied" with it. (N.Y. Times 11/23/52, Magazine
Section)
In view both of the timing and of Hartley's association with former Senator
Hawkes, there may be some connection between the "right-wing" group to
which Hartley referred in mid-1950 and the short-lived National Committee
for Political Realignment organized the following year by Hawkes, together
with Senators Owen Brewster and Karl Mundt and former Farm Bureau
Federation head Edward O'Neal. (See Congressional Record 8/4/58,
pp. 14556 ff., for reference to this group. )
Page 3
Sec 4 - SPECIAL #12
An ardent Taft supporter in 1952, Hartley's work with the National
Right to Work Committee followed an active but unsuccessful effort in
1954 to defeat Republican Senator Clifford Case (in spite of President
Eisenhower's endorsement of Case). In this campaign Hartley had the
support of the New Jersey chapter of Pro America and of a local group
called the Committee for a Stronger New Jersey Republican Party. Also
active in the work was former-Senator Albert W. Hawkes, who had been
President of the Chamber of Commerce and Vice- President of the NAM
and who was a contributor to For America in 1956 (Gore Subcommittee
Report) and is more recently an endorser of the Manion Forum (4/2/62
listing). (See N. Y. Times 9/22/54 for Hawkes' participation in antiCase
movement.) A "write-in" campaign for Hartley in place of Case
netted him less than half of one per cent of the total vote, but Hartley
warned that his group "expected to be a potent force before the 1956 campa'gn."
(N.Y. Times 12/18/54)
When the NRTWC was formed, Hartley was announced as its President.
By late 1956 his title had changed to Chairman of the Advisory Board
and Labor Consultant. By the end of 1958 his name had disappeared from
the NRTWC letterhead and his formal connections with the Committee
appear to have ended.
- S. D. "Duke" Cadwallader - Cadwallader is a former B&O
railroad conducter from Cincinnati. In addition to being one of NRTWC's
founding directors (Newsletter 1/31/62), he served as Chairman of the
Board in 1958 and has replaced William T. Harrison as President. Like
other top officers of NRTWC he is frequently to be found in states where
a "right-to-work" fight has been launched, organizing and advising the
local group.
- P. M. French - Formerly the President of Southern Manufacturing
Co., a sport shirt and work clothes firm in Nashville, Tenn.,
French died of a heart attack while attending the 1960 meeting of the Committee.
He had served as Chairman of the Board in 1959. (See NRTWC
press release of 6/7/60 which identifies French as "a founder of the Committee.
")
- Robert A. Englander - Englander, formerly with the Gary
Steel Products-of Lynchburg, Virginia, is now President of the Dacam
Corp. in the same city. He was listed by Congressman William Tuck
as one of the "original members of the board of directors" of NRTWC.
(Congressional Record 7/25/61) He was Chairman of the Board in 1961
and is currently a member of the Executive Committee. (1961 brochure
and 1/31/62 Newsletter)
Page 4
Sec 4 - SPECIAL #12
- Nathan Thorington - Thorington is the head of a Richmond,
Va. construction company and is another listed by Congressman Tuck as
an original NRTWC member. He was Chairman of the Board in 1957 and
is currently on the Advisory Committee to the Executive Committee.
(2/19/58 letterhead and 1/31/62 Newsletter)
A seventh key figure in NRTWC Is history has been William Taylor Harrison,
a former clerk with the Louisville and Nashville Railroad. Harrison
came to NRTWC in its first year and in 1956 became its Executive
Secretary, probably replacing Hartley as the chief staff member. He remained
in this post until 1959 when a major reorganization of NRTWC
saw Harrison become President and Reed Larson become Executive VicePresident.
In 1961 Harrison's title changed to "Chairman, Honorary
Advisory Board" and then, in June of that year, it was announced that he
had left the Committee to become Executive Vice-President of a right-wing
organization in Indiana, the Council for Individual Freedom. The death
of the founder of the Indiana group, Sherwood Ide, seems to have changed
Harrison's plans as he now is listed as "Special Assistant to the President"
of the National Labor-Management Foundation (of which more later).
(See NRTWC Newsletter 8/18/61 and Partners, the official magazine of
the Labor-Management Foundation, July-August, 1962) Prior to joining
the NRTWC, Harrison had his own organization, the National Committee
for Union Shop Abolition. (Preface, The Truth About Right-to-Work Laws
by William T. Harrison, NRTWC, 1959)
Some Forerunners of NRTWC
As has been noted, the National Right to Work Committee is a relative
newcomer on the open shop scene. While any attempt at a complete listing
of the organizations which have been active in this campaign would be
impossible, a few predecessors of NRTWC may be worth mentioning
aside from such general organizations as the American Farm Bureau Federation,
the NationalAssociation of Manufacturers and the U. S. CIamber
of Commerce, all of which have been forces in the "right-to-work" movement.
The activities of the Christian American Association and the Veterans
Industrial Association in Arkansas and Florida have been mentied. The
Christian American Association was still an active force in 1947 when
Texas adopted a "right-to-work" law. (See Fred Meyers, "Right to Work"
in Practice, a 1959 report to the Fund for the Republic.) Another local
organization, the Arkansas Free Enterprise Association, attempted to
form a nationwide "open shop union" under the name "Federated Workers
of America. " (Miami Citizen 12/5/46 cited in Shott, op. cit.) This is
probably the group with which Norman Zolezzi of Indianapolis was connected
and for which his paper. Labor Digest, became the official
Page 5
Sec 4 - SPECIAL #12
publication at a later date. (The names shown on the 1959 masthead of
Labor Digest were "'Federated Unions of America" and "Right to Work
Federation." See Labor Digest February, 1959 and reference in subsequent
section to the National Right to Work Federation.)
In any event, the Arkansas Free Enterprise Association has continued
and by the mid-1950's was a $20, 000 a year-organization with an acrossthe-board
right-wing philosophy. (See application file and annual informational
returns filed with Internal Revenue Service) The Southern
States Industrial Council is another regional rightist group § longstanding
which was particularly active on the open shop front in the 1940's.
(See The Nation 5/16/42 cited in Shott, op. cit.)
More closely tied with NRTWC are two organizations which were represented
at the 1948 hearings held by Hartley's House Education and
Labor Committee bn the question of "right to work. One witnes s was
the famous movie director, Cecil B. DeMille. While DeMille appeared
"at the invitation of the Chairman as an individual citizen, not representing
any organization, " ha had already set up his DeMille Political Freedom
Foundation to campaign for the open shop. This organization was active at
the state level in the years prior to formation of NRTWC. (Cf story on its
activities in California, Colorado, Oregon and Wyoming in 1953, Wisconsin
CIO News 2/27/53) That it has continued to operate in the field is indicated
by William T. Harrison's reference to it in 1959 as "a professional,: wellfinanced
research institution. . . /which/functions as a support bulwark
in state Right-to-Work campaigns." (The Truth About Right-to-Work Laws,
published by NRTWC) DeMilk's anti-union shop movie, "Showdown", is
one of five which are utilized and distributed by NRTWC.
Another witness at the 1948 Hartley hearings who argued for Federal
egislation to outlaw the union shop was Maurice Franks, head of the
National Labor-Management'Foundation. This organization was established
by Franks in late 1947 and lists "voluntary union membership" as
one of its "aims and objectives." Closely associated with Franks in this
endeavor, prior to their deaths in 1961, were Alfred P. Haake and George
Peck.*I As Was Apted. earlier, Haake was involved a' wide variety
of right-wing activities through the years. Peck and his public relations
firm, George Peck Associates, were connected with -an off-shoot of the
old Committee for Constitutional Government, America's Future, Inc.
As will be noted subsequently, there has been a substantial degree of interlocking
between the NRTWC and the older Franks group,
The NRTWC, 1955-61
After little more than a year of existence, NRTWC announced in early
1956 an ambitious political action program, with claims that "right-toPage
6
Sec 4 - SPECIAL #12
work" campaigns were "likely" in 10 states and "possible" in 5 more.
These included such major industrial states as Calibinia, Illinois,
Indiana and Ohio. (N.Y. Times 4/2/56) The results for the year were
not as impressive. Louisiana narrowed the application of its law to
agricultural workers and Washington voterh rejected a "right-to-work"
initiative measure overwhelmingly. Only in Nevada, where a unionbacked
repeal proposal was rejected for the third time, could NRTWC
find much comfort. (Ibid. 7/13/56, 11/7/56, and 11/11/56) The following
year, the open shop forces did substantially better when the Indiana
legislature adopted a "right-to-work" bill and the governor allowed it to
become law. Since this was its first victory in an industrial state, NRTWC
and its allies could afford to overlook their near-miss in Idaho the same
year. (Ibid. 3/2/57 and 3/4/57)
In 1958 the tempo increased and the issue went on the ballot in a total of
six states, including California and Ohio. But again, the election returns
were disappointing to NRTWC. Not only did it succeed in only one state
of the six, but the "right-to-work" issue appeared to have played a major
role in a surprise Democratic sweep of California. In Kansas, where the
open shop forces won, it was reported that they spent more money in doing
so than was spent by all the Republican and Democratic state and congressional
campaigns combined! (Ibid. 11/9/58) When the 1958 record was
followed, in early 1959, by rejection of "right-to-work" proposals in both
New Mexico and Vermont, the NRTWC appears to have decided on major
reorganization. (See ibid. 2/19/59 and 4/1/59 for New Mexico and Vermont
actions. )
William Harrison was shifted from Executive Secretary to President and
Reed Larson was brought in-as Executive Vice-President, the post which
he still holds. Previously active in the JuniQr Chamber of Commerce,
Larson, for the four years prior to 1959, had been the Executive VicePresident
of Kansans for the Right to Work, the successful state organization.
Harrison was to continue with NRTWC, primarily in a speech
making tapacity, until 1-961. The change in executive leadership was
followed by formal incorporation of the NRTWC in September, 1960, under
the laws of the District of Columbia. In addition to Harrison and Larson,
Robert B. Byrnes of Washington, D. C. was an incorporator. (Files of
D. C. Superintendent of Corporations)
Late in 1960, NRTWC continued its reorganization with the formation of
an offshoot group aimed specifically at workers: the National Council
for Labor's Rank and File, headed by Lafayette A. "Lafe" Hooser, NRTWC's
Director of Employee Membership, and with a governing board made up of
the employee members of NRTWC's Board of Directors. (NRTWC Newsletter
12/20/60) A former Baltimore and Ohio engineer, Hooser left the
Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers to become one of the organizers of
a dissident group called the United Railway Operating Crafts. Since
Page 7
Sec 4 - SPECIAL #12
resignation from the Brotherhood constituted "failure to comply with the
terms of the Union Shop Agreement" which was in effect, Hooser lost
his job with the B&O. He became active in the successful Indiana "rightto-work"
movement priotkto joining the staff of the NRTWC. He is now
described as being "on leave from the Louisville and Nashville Railroad,
the only major rail line in the nation which has not signed a computsory
union membership agreement. " (1961 NRTWC pamphlet and
1962 hand-out from Council for Labor's Rank and File)
In early 1961 the final stages of reorganization were completed. Hooser
was given the title of Vice-President in addition to Director of Employee
Membership and another Vice-President.y was created, for the newly
employed Director of Information, Glenn A. Green. Green came to NRTWC
from the National Education Program of Harding College, Searcy, Arkansas
where he had worked for 12 years as a chief assistant to the President
George S. Benson. He is perhaps best known as the producer of the
notorious film strip, "Communism on the Map, " and its revised version,
"Communist Encirclement." It is not surprising that this film strip closely
parallels the optning material in the Blue Book of the John Birch Society
since Green stated in early 1961 that he had been a member of that extremist
group for nearly 1 1/2 years. (Newsweek 5/1/61) Prior to his long tenure at
Harding College, Green had been the executive director of the state "rightto-work"
organization in Arkansas. (NRTWC Newsletter 1/31/61) Before
that-at least in early 1946- he was listed as Publicity Director for the
state. (Arkansas Gazette 2/26/46)
Another major addition to the NRTWC staff in early 1961 was Warren
Richardson, who came to the Committee from the National Lumber Manufacturers
Association. Richardson had been a congressional liaison man
for NLMA and was supposed to "Maintain constant contact with developments
in Congress" for NRTWC. (1961 NRTWC pamphlet) He was given
the title of Associate General Counsel. In early 1962, Richardson left
NRTWC for private law practice. Charles W. Bailey, formerly with the
Pittsburgh public relations firm of Ketchum Inc., came to NRTWC in
mid-1961. He had been one of the incorporators of the Indiana Right-toWork
Committee. With NRTWC he was given the title of Secretary and
Director of State Activities.
Miss Jane Bottorff, NRTWC's Office Manager, is another who came to the
Committee from the Indiana state organization in 1961. Prior to that she
is said to have worked in advertising and, for a while, in Indiana's Public
Relations Department. (1961 NRTWC pamphlet) In addition to her job as
office manager, Miss Bottorff has responsibility for women's activities.
(Wall Street Journal 4/19/61)
Page 8
Sec 4 - SPECIAL #12
With the reorganization apparently completed, Lar-son announced that
NRTWC was "in better shape now than we've ever been before, in both
members and finances, " and plans were laid for campaigns in a number
of states, including Maine, Oklahoma and Pennsylvania. (Ibid.) By the
time NRTWC held its 2-day "seminar" for "right-to-work leaders" in
Chicago, October 24-25th, it could claim attendance of "nearly 200"
from 40 states. (Newsletter 11 /3/1aJl)
In 1962, in---addition to efforts in various states, NRTWC made opposition
to the union shop in the aerospace industry a priority item. This
is virtually the only major industry in the United States in which union
shop contracts are not accepted practice and - at votes on the que stion wan
favdred. -by a Presidential fact-finding committee. Failure of union
Shop proponents to secure the necessary two-thirds majorities in elections
at North American, General Dynamics and Ryan were hailed by NRTWC
as a major victory. (See NRTWC Newsletter 8/31/62, 9/29/62,7 10/31/62
and 11/26/62) While the "right-to-work" issue was not on the ballot in
the November elections, NRTWC efforts in such states as Oklahoma,
Maine, Pennsylvania, and Wyoming continue.
Officers and Staff
A complete roster of the 1962 officers and staff of NRTWC follows, with
brief notes on those not previously mentioned. (Newsletter 1/31/62 and
March, 1962 reference manual)
S. D. Cadwallader, President
Reed Larson, Executive Vice-President
Glenn Green, V. P. and Director of Information
Lafayette Hooser, V. P. andDirector of Employee Membership
Charles Bailey, Secretary and Director of State Activities
John L. Kilcullen, Washington Counsel - Washington, D. C. attorney,
member firm of McNutt, Dudley and Easterwood' member of NAM's
new "Center for the Study of Union Power" (listed in Congressional Record
10/10/62)
Jane Bottorff, Office Manager
Theodore J. Hamilton, in charge of membership and contributions
- member of Washington, D. C. public relations firm, Wilson E. Hamilton
and Associates, Inc., which handles fund-raising for NRTWC; former Director
of Public Relations for National Labor-Management Foundation (Partner-s,
September, 1959)
Page 9
Sec 4 - SPECIAL #12
John H. Wynn, Chairman of Board of Directors - Ft. Thomas,
Ky., retired conductor for Chesapeake and Ohio Railway.
Kenneth C. Kellar, Vice-Chairman of Board of Directors and
Chairman of Executive Committee - Lead, S. D. attorney, chief counsel
for Homestake Mining Co.; former employer delegate to International
Labor Organization (N. Y. Times 1/1 /58); member of NAM's new "Center
for the Study of Union Power. " (Congressional Record 10/10/62)
Other members of the Executive Committee (all of whom are also Directors):
Granville Alley - Tampa, Florida, attorney
Robert A. Englander
Al B. Gibson - Gary, Inc., steelworker, employee of U. S.
Steel's National Tube Division
Rev. Howard E. Mather - pastor of First United Presbyterian
Church, Amenia, N. Y. Director, Christian Freedom Foundation
(Christian Economics 11 /27/62)
Louis E. Weiss - former President of Spencer Safford Loadcraft,
Inc. in Augusta, Kansas, now President of Midland Manufacturing
Co. in Wichita; President of Kansans for the Right to Work
Members of the newly-created Advisory Committee to the Executive Committee
(all of whom are also Directors):
Paul S. Russell, Chairman - Labor Relations Manager, Wolverine
Tube Co., Decatur, Alabama; NRTWC Chairman of the Board in 1960
John R. Albaugh - Baltimore and Ohio engineer from Cumberland,
Maryland
Whiteford S. Blakeney - Charlotte, N. C. attorney, member of
firm of Blakeney and Alexander; also General Counsel of NRTWC
E. S. Dillard
Dr. Frederick C. Fowler - pastor of First Presbyterian Church
of Duluth, Minn.; speaker at two 1962 meetings of Hargis's Christian
Crusade; Director, Christian Freedom Foundation (Christian Economics
11/27/62); listed by Ralph Lord Roy as on advisory council of Protestants
and Other Americans United (Apostles of Discord, Beacon Press, 1953,
p. 150)
Page 1 0
Sec 4 - SPECIAL #12
John H. Martin - Vice-President of Sonoco Products Co.,
Hartsville, S.C.
Nathan Thorington
Other members of Board of Directors:
William A. Barry - former member of the Machinists' union
from Wichita, Kansas; now listed as "member of the Building Service
Employees Union"
Howard F. Brown - Trenton, N, J. railway clerk; formerly a
Director, National Labor-Management Foundation (Partners, various issues,
1 956-59)
Father John E. Coogan, S. J. - sociology professor at West
Baden College, West Baden Springs, Indiana; author of Voluntary Unionism
for Free Americans.(NRTWC, 1958), and NRTWC pamphlets "Pope
John XXIII and Voluntary Unionism" and C'Pope John and the Ri ght to
Work;" frequent contributor to Human Events.
Charles E. Daniel - head of Daniel Construction Co., Greenville,
S. C.; director of Chemical Bank New York Trust, Eastern Airlines,
Georgia-Pacific Corp., Prudential Insurance, Southern Bell Telephone
and Telegraph, and J. P. Stevens Co.; interim U. S. Senator 1954; member,
Committee on Electoral College Reform of the American Good Government
Society (3/62 letterhead)
Eugene B. Germany - Dallas, Texas oil and steel businessman,
senior partner of E. B. Germany and Sons, President of Lone Star Steel
Co.; fund raiser for Americans for Constitutional Action (1960 ACA pamphlet);
endorser, Manion Forum and its offshoot Committee for Equal
Anti-Trust Protection (4/2/62 listing); spbnsor of Texas appearances by
Nicholas Nyaradi, Ronald Reagan and others.
Clark Ghiselin- Secretary, Citrus Industrial Council, Lakeland,
Ebrida
Dr. Russell Humbert - President, DePauw University, Greencastle,
Indiana
Mrs. Juanita Lamuel - "assembly worker in an electronics
factory, " Bethel, Kansas
Herbert D. Livingston - President, Wyoming Farm Bureau Federation;
Vice-President, Wyoming Citizens for Right to Work
Page 1 1
Sec 4 - SPECIAL #12
Cecil G. Mitchell - aircraft worker and ex-riember of Machinists'
union from Tujunga, California
Walter O'Bannon- head of a Tulsa, Oklahoma bilfield equipment
firm; an incorporator of Oklahomans for the Right to Work
Charles O'Brien - Mooreland, Iri. employee of Perfect Circle
Corporation and officer in plant's "independent" union
Oscar Romerill - Celina, Ohio member of Upholsterers' Union
Lpuis A. Rozzoni - President, California Farm Bureau Federation
Eldon F. Scoutten - Vice-President and director of industrial
relations, Maytag Co., Newton, Ib*a
Richard Snelling - President, Shelburne Industries, Inc., Burlington,
Vt.; "businessman, member of the State Legislature, and a member
of the Board of the Vermont Freedom of Association Committee"
(NRTWC release 6/7/60)
Former Directors
Among others who have served in recent years on the NRTWC Board of
Directors are the following: (From 1960 and 1961 NRTWC pamphlets)
Paul Brauer - pastor, First Lutheran Church, Boston, Mass.;
Director, Christian Freedom Foundation (Christian Ecmomics 11/27/62)
Eldon R. Carl - General Manager, California Association of
Employers; former employee of NAM; Chairman, National Advisory Committee
of Sherwood Ide's Council for Individual Freedom; former Industrial
Relations Consultant for Partners, official magazine of the National
Labor-Management Foundation (Dawn, 1961 Special Supplement and Partners,
various issues, 1959-60)
Maurice Fr.awnks - founder and head of the National Labor-Management
Foundation
Wilson E. Hamilton - retired head of public relations firm which
handles NRTWC's fund-raising; former Director of Member Relations,
National Labor-Management Foundation (1958 and 1959 issues, Partners);
now lives at Delray Beach, Florida, a community "which boasts that it has
erected walls against Americans of Jewish faith" (Arnold Forster- and
Benjamin Epstein, The Troublemakers, p. 261)
Page 12
Sec 4 - SPECIAL #12
Leonard P. Keefer - Los Angeles grocery store owner; member,
Advisory Board, Council for Individual Freedom; Chairman of
California Citizens Committee for Voluntary Unionism (Dawn, 1961
Slpcial Supplement)
Rev. Edward A. Keller, CSC - economics professor, University
of No'tre Dame; author, The Case for Right-to-Work Laws
(Heeritge Foundation, 1956); member, Advisory Board, Young Americans
for Freedom (2/16/62 letterhead); former long-time member,
Board of Advisors, National Labor Management Foundation (Partners
various issues 1949-60)
J. C. Laney - Birmingham, Alabama engineer with Louisville
and Nashville Railroad; head of Railway Employees for FreedoW; member,
Advisory Board, Council for Individial Freedom (Dawn, 1961 special
Supplement); member, Board of Advisors, National Labor-Management
Foundation (Partners, July-August 1962)
Donald R. Richberg - Charlottesville, Va. attorney; former
official with Nadional Recovery Administration in early 1930's; former
member, National Policy Committee, For America (N.Y. Times 11/14/54);
former Trustee, Foundation for Economic Education (1956-59 listings);
author, Labor Union Monopoly (Henry Regnery, 1957)
August Sommerfeld - former member of Machinists' union and
former organizer for the Sheetmetal Workers, North Hollywood, California
(1961 NRTWC pamphlet); member, Board of Advisors, National
Labor-Management Foundation (Partners, July-August, 1962)
Leo Wolman - emeritus professor, Columbia University;
Trustee (since incorporation in 1946), Foundation for Economic Education;
former chairman of NAM study group on "Monopoly Power Exercised by
Labor Unions" (undated brochure of about 1957)
NRTWC Operations: Propaganda
IniAially, NRTWC announced that its campaign would be carried out through
"publications,: newspaper advertisements, 'personal contacts, ' and the
like. " (Wall Street Journal 1/31/55) While, as will be seen, direct action
has come to play an increasingly important role in the Committee's work,
the propaganda aspect has not been neglected. Thus, less than three months
after its formation, NRTWC was announcing the results of a study which
"showed" that 12 "right-to-work" states "generally have outstripped" the
average in "economic gains. " (N. Y. Times 4/13/55) This claim, based
primarily on the use of percentage figures which are misleading because
of the lower initial position held by "right-to-work" states, has been a
Page 13
Sec 4 - SPECIAL #12
staple item in NRTWC's "educational" campaign. (Cf. 1960 pamphlet,
"The Economics of Right to Work" and 1962 pamphlets, "The Pra6f
of Right-to-Work Benefits" and "The Right to Work Fact Sheet" as well
as new reference manual)
Other Pamphlets and Books - A variety of pamphlets have been published
by NRTWC, ranging from "Americans Believe" -quoting numerous
people in and out of context in support of the principle of "the right to
work" - through "Pope John and the Right to Work" - in which Father
Coogan claims to find papal authority on the NRTWC side - to "Union
Sources Admit" - purporting to quote union leadership stating that
"Anti-Right to Work Statements are Unfounded," " Violence and Corruption
Follow Compulsion, " and "Political Supremacy Is Their Objective"
and "The Voluntarism of Samuel Gompers" - which cites the founder of
the AFL on the side of "voluntarism. "
More lengthy publications by NRTWC have included:
America's Chixe: Right to Work or Compulsory Unionism - a 24-page
reference manual for use by NRTWC supporters (1962 - sells for 75¶
each or as little as 35 ¢ each in quantities of 100 or more)
The Anatomy of a Wildcat by Rev. Edward W. Greenfield (1957 - price
unknown) - a local minister who led a "bck-to-work" movement during
a Princq6n, Indiana, strike tell0 his own story. Greenfield is now
pastor of the Church of Reflection located at Knott's Berry Farm in Buena
Park, California, which is owned and operated by Walter KnOtt,-, head of
the California Free Enterprise Association and Treasurer of the leading
income-tax repeal group, the National Committee for Economic Freedom.
Check-Off by Jameso6Ca ignp`(19:fO 150 each or $12 a hundred) -
a reprint of 2 chapters from the book of that name (Regnery, 1961) by the
editor of the Indianapolis Star, which includes such statements as "1imposing
their will on millions by coercion and propaganda, electing
political candidates and influencing national policies, 1a.bor's baronies
are the 'monopoly trusts' of the twentieth century" and "Reuther's power
in the United States continues to be virtually unlimited by law".
The Legal and Moral Basis of Right to Work Laws by Jonathan C. Gibson
(undated - single copies free) - 32-page reprint of a 1955 address before the
American Bar Association by the General Counsel of the Atchison, Topeka
and Santa Fe railway, who is also a member of the Chamber of Commerce's
Special Committee on Voluntary Unionism.
The Truth About Right-to-Work Laws by William T. Harrison (1959 - $2. 00
each, less in quantity) - published as an "answer" to the materials being
put out by the AFL-CIO (N. Y. Times 7/5/59)` the book goes beyond the
Page. 14
Sec 4 - SPECIAL #12
"right-to-work" issue to attack the Wagner Act -- "For all practical
purposes, the Wagner Act made the government itself an avowed partner
in a campaign to unionize the entire United States" - and the
Minimum Wage law - "In 1938, Congress adopted the Minimum Wage
Act with its upward moving pay scales, and the unions' victory over
the American employer was complete."
Right to Work National Newsletter - NRTWC publishes a regular
newsletter (monthly plus special issues from time to time) generally of
4 pages, but occasionally including an additional Z-page supplement. Subscription
price is $4 a year. Billed as a "digest of right to work news. "
it covers primarily the activities of NRTWC and affiliated groups, though
picking up other general anti-union items.
Opinion Research Corp. and its P-ublic Opinion Survey - Another
major item in the NRTWC "educational kit" is -the report of Opinion Research
Corp. of Princeton, N. J. on public attitudes toward unions and
"right-to-work. " The Opinion Research Corp. was founded in 1938 by
Claude Robinson, a former associate of Dr. Gallup and a Trustee of the
Foundation for Economic Education from its formation in 1946. (Exemption
application of FEE at Internal Revenue Service and 1960-61 listing
of FEE trustees.) Robinson and his firm did the poll work for Nixon in
- (N.Y. Times 10/13/60) In addition to special opinion research
for business, ORC prepares and publishes a continuing Public Opinion
Index "designed to anticipate and examine broad problems of concerla to
management. " (1962 brochure) As early as 1958 ORC was reported to
be doing work in four of the states in which the "right-to-work" issue was
on the ballot. (5/14/59 memo from Reed Larson) In mid-1960, the
NRTWC board meeting included a presentation by Gerald Skibbins of ORC
reporting that their research showed that Americans "overwhelmingly
endorse" the principle of "voluntary unionism. " (Newsletter 6/22/60)
Two years later, NRTWC commissioned ORC to expand-their survey on
this issue and in June of that year the results were unveiled by Skibbins
at a special Congressional breakfast held by NRTWC. At the head table
were Senator Goldwater (R-Ariz.) and Representative Landrum (D-Ga.).
The results of the ORC study were the subject of a special Newsletter
and have been put into the form of a 30-minute colored slide-film kit for
presentation, together with tape-recorded narration. The slide-film kit
may be rented for $5 or purchased for $19. 50. (Newsletter 7/27/62 and
8/29/62 and 1962 listing of NRTWC materials) ORC also is scheduled to
do work for the NAM's new Center for the Study of Union Power. (Congressional
Record, 10/10/62. See below.)
Other Films - Another colored slide-film presentation available
from NRTWC is titled merely "Right to Work." It is 27-minutes in length
and also comes with tape-recorded narration. It constitutes the Committee's
Page 15
Sec 4 - SPECIAL #12
primary audiovisual item and is available in flipchart form for those not
having a slide projector and tape recorder. (Prices: Film-kit rents for
$5 or sell. for $19. 50; Flipchart sells for $35; script, only available for
$2. 50)
NRTWC also handles five 16-mm movies as listed below, in an excerpt
reproduced-from a 1962 brochure.
0
Motion Pictures For Television and Screen Showings-16mm
. ..AND WOMENMUOVT'WEEP ;' ' A minister's wife relates her personal account of a true story . . arguments for and against voluntary unionism. 14 minutes, sound
one of the most dramatic and tragic events ever to oc"ur in and color. e , America. The abuse of power and raw violence come into view Cost: $100. Rental $5.00.
as union officials attempt. to. compel union members to participate A QUESTION OF LW AND ORDER
in a wildcat strike. 24 minutes, sound and color. A
Cost: S125 per print. Rental S5.00 A dot umentalrv filnl dealing w ith oine of the most serious problems rcvealcd by the McClellan Committee-- the problem of violence
SHOWDOWN! during labor-management disputes. 28 minutes, black and white,
The late Hollywood showman Cecil B. DeMille presents a vital ound.
message to all Americans. "A personal experience with compul- Cost: $100. Rental $5.00.
tory unionism woke me uip with a terrible jolt to my responsibility THE ANGRY SILENCE
-and your resposibility-to work for legislation which well A British-Lion featire-lngth movie which has won 'critics' acclaim
protect men and women to whom the loss of a job might mean t -all ovreAniericlfiand Etiroewand yet has lwen seen by only a
disaster," says Mr. Delle11 in this Iou -movie. issr"ssM.e II minutes, eithoe., m comparatively few Americans. It is the story of a wildcat strike in sound and color.
Cost: $75 per print. Rental $5.00. an English factory town, fomented by a Communist, and of one worker's fight against the union officials who sought a closed hop.
YOU DECIDE! Richard Attenhorough and Pier Angeli are the stars I hour, 30
A union member discusses Right to Work with members of his minutes black and white, sound.
family. A fast-moving debate develops as they compare the Cost: $275 per print. Rental $20.
'. The first of these, " . . . And Women Must Weep, t deals with the same Ind-Diana
strike as the. 1957 pamphlet, "Anatomy of a Wildcat. "I (See above) It
led the International Association of Machinists to prepare a rebuttal film, reported
on in the following Press Associates Inc. release o& 10/8/62, reproduced
from Labor: '
The Machinists then produced
their own film "Anatomy of a'
Lie," which painstakingly dissects
the stark falsity of the antilabor
film, point by point, as,
follows:.
* The anti-labor film depicted
the president of the local as a
bullying. shouting. ignorant man i
who violated the union contract
and pushed the workers out, on
strike to protect his own job.
FACT: The actual.president
of the local was a lady-a
warm, grandmother-type who
pleaded with the workers not i
to strike for her, but only lit
the provocations for a strike
made suchaction a neessIty.I
I; 0 The anti-labor film showed
a small clique of 1t deciding to'
strike after being harangued by
the president.
FACT: There was a meeting
. of some 400 workers at the
Princeton armory and only
nine voted against the strike.
* The anti-labor film gave the
impression that outsiders took.
over the strike.
Other Distortions
FACT: The company hired
strikebreakers from outside
of Princeton and outside of
Indiana.
* The inference is given that'
union "goons" shot a baby.
FACT: The sheriff and the
father of the baby both agreed
there was nothing to Indicate
that the shooting was in any
way connected with the strike.
The crime was never solved.
0 The impression is given!
that the strikers were brutish
men.
I FACT: 80 per cent of the
.members of the union were
women.
!. Other distortions are exposed!
bby actual participants in the | ,strike and other citizens of the
,community. But the National
Right to-Work Committee is continuing to ciulate the film.
1,4..II. Page 16 -i
0
.j
.
Sec 4 - SPECIAL 012
Radio Programs, - In its .10/13/61 Newsletter and subsequently
in the brochure reproduced on the following page, NRTWC announced a
series of radio programs, "The Blessings of Liberty. " The series is
'>nade available to radio stations or sponsors without charge" and by the
end of August, 1956 was being utilized by 11 stations in 10 states (Arizona,
California, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Pennsylvania, South Carolina,
Texas, Virginia and Wyoming). Plans were reported "under way" to
secure broadcasts in 8 more states (Colorado, Kentucky, Massachusetts,
Montana, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio and Wisconsin). (Newsletter
8/31/62) In addition to the 13-week series, NRTWC has available a 30-
minute "radio condensation" of their 1961 seminar in Chicago. (Ibid.
5/31/62)
National Council for Labor's Rank and File
As indicated previously, the general reorganization of NRTWC in the period
1959-61 included formation of a subsidiary group aimed specifically at
employees -s "the millions of coerced union members and the 50, 000, 000
unorganized employees." The leadership of the "National Council for
Labor's Rank and File" is made up of the employee members of NRTWC's
Board of Directors, with L. A. Hooser as Chairman and A. B. Gibson as
Vice-Chairman. (The other 9 members of the Council would thus appear
to be John Alabaugh, William Barry, Howard Brown, S. D. Cadwallader,
Juanita Lamuel, Cecil Mitchell, Charles O'Brien, Oscar Romerill, and
John Wynn.) In addition to enrollment of workers in the "right-to-work"
movement, the Council publishes a newsletter every other month. Straight
Talk is billed as.a counter-force to the "one-sided reporting" of union publications,
and employers are urged to arrange for its receipt-at their
home address-mu by workers in their firms.
A 1962 brochure distributed by the Council states that "more than 20, 000
employees are receiving Ir.aht Talk." Aso an example of character and
style of the bi-monthly newsletter, a recent issue front-paged an item
headed "Communist Party Praises UAW /TUnited Auto Workeris/ Resolutions"
implying that a number of resolutions on civil liberties issues gave
the union some sort of relationship to "the world-wide Communist apparatus.
" The Council operates out of the same office as NRTWC and while
no attempt is made by the Committee to disguise the fact that the Council
is its creature, conversely, the material published by the Council does
not always make clear that such a relationship exists. As a result, it is
likely that most employees who receive Straight Talk as a result of their
employers' requests, are completely unaware of the fact that it originates
with the National Right to Work Committee. (Sources for above: NRTWC
Newsletter .12/20/60, bight Talk July-August, 1962 and Council pamphlet,
"Workesso for Freedtm")
Page 17
Sec 4 - SPE:CIAL #1Z
v
AN EDUCATIONAL RADIO SERIES ON
AT LASI
RIGHTI TO WORK
12 131A..IMIITS. DDA(RAMS
DESIGNED FOR RADIO BROADCASTING IN YOUR COMMUNITY
_T. . . . . . __. . _ .
'Fne NaUona Hiignt to worli uommtiuee
announces
An Educational Radio Series entitled:
"THE BLESSINGS OF LIBERTY"
13 131'2-minute taped programs on Right to Work
"LAPS' HOOSER
In collaboration with experienced radio station managenment. professional writers
and producers, the National Right to Work ( onmittee has prroduced a powerful series
of radio programs designed to educate the public on all the facts about the Right to Work
principle and the political issue thal has emergcd out of the controversy surrounding it.
The series has been produced for tow as a sustaining feature. broadcast a.s a public service
educational series. or commermially sponsored by local individuals, companies or groups.
In onc of the I a progranms. Railroader l.afe Hooser. now a st.aff menmber of the
National Right to Work Committee. tells the gripping facts of his cperiences which led to the los of hi- job and his means of
livqlihood for exercising his freedom. Other such documented "case histories are draniatized.
Preview audiences have declared that after hearing the full series no American citizen could rcasonjblY support compulsor
unionism.
ARRANGE NOW WITH THE PROGRAM DIRECTOR OR MANAGER OF YOUR LOCAL
RADIO STATION TO BROADCAST THIS HIGHLY EFFECTIVE SERIES.
A 'PILOT PROGRAM ON TAPE WILL BE MAILED UPON REOUEST.
SERIES TITLE:
SERIES CONTENT:
THE BLESSINGS OF LIBERTKY
1.3 1 3,-minutc taped radio prograns. prepared with professional *oices and prolesmon-ii. ';odouued hy
Fotovox. Incorporated, with the follulsing titles:
THE POWLR TH4T COftRtrtsj
COMPUt.SOsN EXPOsi i)
YOUR RIG-HT AND NIINF
ThE POCKrTBOOK BEIYFEITS
THE N&; WCASTLt StORv
THE FRtt. Rt)mL
WOMEN !;ST4IEE iN Ri(muIr TO WoRK
8.
9.
10.
.
I _.
13.
FRI-DOM TO PAIN T
ARiuzoN k IIK(S FRLmEDOM
'.PIAORISNI VLRSUS AMI KIlANISM
INDIANA STORY
I.AsOR's RANK ANlD FiLE SPEAK
A 'IrltZt-N'S RLsrONSIBILITY
THE NATIONAL RIGHT TO WORK COMMITTEE Washington 6, .D. C.
Page 18
1.
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3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
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0
Sec 4 SPECIAL #12
NRTWC Operations: Direct Action
In mid-1961 NRTWC advised the National Better Business Bureau that it
"is not registered at the present time under the Federal Lobbying Act"
and also that it "does not, under any circumstances, attempt to directly
influence State legislation. " (8/23/61 report of National Better Business
Bureau, Inc. inserted in Congressional Record 2/7/62)
In a pamphlet NRTWC describes its operations as follows: "The National
Committee staff produces educational materials on Right to Work, maintains
a Speakers Corps and a field organization which assists state organizations
when invited to do so. " ("The Right to Work Fact Sheet") Its
reference manual states that the NRTWC was organized to: "1. Provide
assistance to local people in organizing state-wide citizen movements to
promote, enact and protect Right to Work laws in all states; 2. Spearhead
the mobilization of nation-wide support for retention of Section 14(b) of the
Taft-Hartley Act . . . ; and 3. Conduct a national education program designed
to bring about a better understanding of the Right To Work principle
and the desirability, ultimately, of Federal Right To Work protection."
(America's Choice)
Thus, while admitting that its goals involve legislative action at both the
state and federal level, NRTWC claims that it is not a lobbying organization
at least not yet. It claims that "Each state organization is entirely
independent" and that NRTWC itself need register under Federal law only
when and if "active consideration of repeal of section 14(b) of Taft-Hartley
begins. " ("Fact Sheet" and Better Business Bureau report)
The Committee would appear to be relying on extremely narrow defini.
tions in taking this position since its admitted activities extend at the state
level to the initiation and organization of the so-called "independent"
organizations, as well as their continuing supervision, and at the Federal
level to such things as Congressional breakfasts and letters to Members
aid staff offering "our help when-ever you want information about Right To
Work." (4/19/61 letter to staff assistants in Conaress)
The part played by NRTWC in the formation of state "right-to-work"
organizations can be illustrated by examples from several states:
Oklahoma: Oklahomans for the Right to Work was incorporated in
August, 1960. One of the incorporators was NRTWC Board member
Walter O'Bannon and the man appointed as executive director of the group
was Raymond Armstrong, who had been Reed Larson's assistant in Kansans
for the Right to Work. (NRTWC Newsletter 8/25/60)
Page 1 9
Sec 4 - SPECIAL #12
Maine: In Maine, the case is even clearer, with the local press reporting
flatly that "a national representative of the National Right to Work Committee
arrived in Augusta, set up an office in a motel, hired a typist
and helped to form a state committee to work for passage of la "right-towork"/
bill" and with the head of the statewide committee admitting that
"Reed Larson, director of the national committee, and his assistant, Bud
Green, have been in Maine several times, most recently when the state
committee was fcrmed. " (Portland Telegram 3/9/61 and 4/19/61) These
activities led to a bi-partisan request by members of the legislature for
an investigation to determine whether or not Larson and Green had violated
the state's law requiring registration by lobbyists. (See Kennebec Journal
5/2/61)
Pennsylvania: In Pennsylvania the case is also clear. The Wall Street
Journal of 4/19/61 reports that "Mr. Larson staged a sortie into the industrial
state of Pennsylvania, meeting quietly with businessmen to launch
a right-to-work campaign in that union stronghold, "
Wyoming: In Wyoming as in Oklahoma, it is noteworthy that one of the
founders of the state organization was an NRTWC Board member, State
Farm Bureau President Herbert Livingston. (Newsletter 2/26/62)
Michigan: Even more recently, in July of this year NRTWC's State
Activities Director, Charles Bailey, went to Flint, Michigan to address
the Genessee County Conservative Club, whose President informed a
newspaper reporter immediately thereafter: "A Michigan Right to Work
Committee will be started in Genesee County and an attempt will be made
to expand it throughout the state." (Ibid. 7/27/62)
Delaware: Finally, that direct lobbying itself may be included in NRTWCts
activities is indicated by a 1959 news report from Wilmington, Delaware,
which listed Larson and the Executive Secretary of a group called the
Small Business Council as "lobbying for a right-to-work bill and /having/
contacted nearly a dozen legislators and distributed copies of a proposed
right-to-work bill. " The report of lobbying was denied and it was contended
that Larson "had come to Dover simply to look at our beautiful
Legislature hall." (Wilmington Journal 9/28/59)
In any event, NRTWC makes no secret of, the close and continuing cooperation
with state right-to-work groups of the National Committee. Thus
to use Maine as an example again, Glenn Green was reported in April, 1961
to be "standing by for a probable call to return to Maine, where the bitter
legislative battle has prompted frequent missions to advise and encourage
local right-to-work forces. " (Wall Street Journal 4/19/61) Similar examples
can be cited from myriad issues of NRTWCts Newsletter reporting
Page 20
Sec 4 - SPECIAL #12
field work by NRTWC personnel assisting and advising local and state
groups and individuals. (Cf£8/25/60, 3/16/61, 8/18/619 9/22/61, 12/21/61,
1/31/62" 2/26/62, 3/16/629 5/23/62, 7/27/62 and 10/31/62)
The recent battle in the aerospace industry furnishes a further example
of NRTWC direct action tactics. When Douglas Aircraft agreed to an
agency shop contract it was immediately challenged in the courts by a
group set up by NRTWC: "As soon as the contract was announced, Cecil
C. Mitchell, a Lockheed employee . . . who is also a director of the
National Right to Work Committee, began organizing the Aerospace
Workers for Freedom. . . / L. A. / Hooser and S. D. Cadwallader,
president of the National Right to Work Committee, have taken rooms at
the Pacific Sands Hotel . . . in order to be close to the scene of the agency
shop fight. " (Santa Monica Evening Outlook 8/21 /62)
In Oklahoma the story was similar: "Non-union hourly employees at
Tulsa's division of Douglas Aircraft Co. have formed a new organization
to support an open shop at the facilities. , . . S. D. Cadwallader, Washington,
president of the National Right to Work Committee, met with the
Tulsa Douglas personnel and assured them of continued support from
national organizations." (Tulsa World 9/13/62) This cooperation was to
continue through the elections held at the recommendation of the Presidential
fact-finding board on the issue of union shop contracts. (See NRTWC
Newsletter 8/31/62, 9/29/62, 10/31/62 and 11/26/62) In short, direct
action has become an increasingly important part of the open shop campaign
of NRTWC.
Size and Finances
Membership and financial figures are scarce for the National Right to
Work Committee. Membership is extended to both firms and individuals
and there are two general classes of membership: business and professional,
which accounts for nearly three-fourths of the total, and worker,
which makes up the remainder. In April of 1961, NRTWC was claiming
18, 000 total membership, "highest in the committee's six-year history."
(Wall Street Journal 4/19/61) However, the report of the Better Business
Bureau filed in August, 1961 listed only 15, 000 (11, 000 business
and professional and 4, 000 worker) and a recent NRTWC pamphlet gives
the same total figure for 1962. ("Fact Sheet") A 1960 pamphlet indicates
that membership has levelled off in recent years, since it claimed 14, 000
at the end of 1959. ("Progress Memo 1959") The 1959 figure was said
to be a 40%o increase over the prior year, presumably indicating a 10, 000
member level in 1958. A 1961 pamphlet claimed that NRTWC began with
only 35 members in 1955.
Page 21
Sec 4 - SPECIAL #12
NRTWC has a sliding scale for membership dues: "$1 and up for individuals;
$25 to $50 for small business firms; $50 to $100 for averagesize
concerns; and $100 and up for large companies.." (Report of Better
Business Bureau, op. cit.) NRTWC claims that annual dues average
"only $28 from members in the business community, Only three or four
dues payers are in the $1, 000-plus bracket and there's only one truly
large contributor, Mr. Larson says. Members' names are never divulged."
(Wall Street Journal 4/19/61)
While in 1961 it was reported that "actual figures Ion income/are secret"
(Ibid.), they are available from a 1960 NRTWC pamphlet and the Better
Business Bureau report for 1959 and 1960:
1959 1960
Income $ 4629 375 $ 425, 256
Disbur sements
Educational materials 396, 729 237, 716
Meetings and travel expenses 21, 105 22,409
Office and equipment 169436 141,355
Salaries and payroll taxes 103,457 106,902
Other operating expenses 31, 684 16, 081
Total disbursements $ 479, 412 $ 397,463
NRTWC's fund solicitation is handled by the public relations firm of
Wilson E. Hamilton and Associates. As noted earlier, the head of this
firm was a director of NRTWC prior to his retirement and now Theodore
Hamilton handles the NRTWC account, Their contract provides the
Hamilton firm "a fee of $3, 000 per month, plus a commission of 33 1/3
per cent of the net income on all membership dues and contributions
received through their efforts... The Committee also advised National
Better Business Bureau that the total fundraising expense for 1960 . .
amounted to 42, 2 per cent of income and that the comparable figure for
the first 6 months of 1961 was 31. 6 per cent. "I (Report of Better Business
Bureau, op. cit.)
A standard technique which appears to be utilized in this costly campaign
for contributions is the fund-raising letter from NRTWC to local businessmen
with a follow-up in the form of a reminder from a fellow-businessman,,
(See, The Machinist 3/27/58 and 12/1/60 and AFL-CIO News
7/30/60) One of those who has urged fellow-businessmen to contribute
to NRTWC is the textile manufacturer, Roger Milliken, who is an endorser
of the John Birch Society and active in various other rightist
groups. (Ibid. and 1962 JBS brochure)
Page 22
Sec 4 - SPECIAL #12
At least until late 1961, NRTWC was advising contributors "thpt contributions
to this organization may be classed as a business expense, but we
can give no assurance that this will not be challenged by the Internal
Revenue. " (Better Business Bureau report, op. cit.) In December,
1961, in a case involving the Coca-Cola Bottling Co. of Indianapolis, IRS
ruled that contributions to "right-to-work" organizations do constitute
lobbying expenses and thus are not deductible as a "business expense.
Despite this, however, as recently as November, 1962, the Florida
Right to Work Committee, Inc. was flatly referring to "Your tax deductible
donation or membership fee" in a fund-raising letter to prospective
contributors! (Letter of 11/12/62)
Ties to Other Groups: Employer
Because of their own importance on the open-shop scene, NRTWC's ties
to three employer groups require mention: the United States Chamber
of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers, and the American
Farm Bureau Federation. Affiliates of these organizations cooperate
closely with affiliates of NRTWC at the state and local level. In addition,
some degree of overlap and interlock is readily apparent.
Chamber of Commerce's Special Committee on Voluntary Unionism -
U. S. Chamber of Commerce participation in the openshop movement
dates back to the early 1920's. About three months after the formation of
NRTWC, the Chamber, afterx hoeaing a speech on the subject by Fred
Gurley, head of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, adopted a
resolution sopporting the campaign for "right-to-work" laws. (N. Y.
Times 5/4/55 and 5/5/55) In September, 1961 it set up a Special Committee
on Voluntary Unionism "to spearhead and stimulate a drive for
an end to compulsory unionism wherever and in whatever form it may
exist. " (C of C release 9/18/61)
The Treasurer of the Chamber, Wofford B. Camp, a wealthy Bakersfield,
California cotton, alfalfa and potato grower, was named to head the committee.
Camp is a former director of the California Farm Bureau Federation.
He is also a member of the Committee on Electoral College Reform
of the American Good Government Society. (3/9/62 letterhead) Other
members of the Committee on Voluntary Unionism are: (From 9/18/61
release)
Frank Ault (Orlando, Fla.) - roofing contractor; President of the
Florida Right to Work Committee (NRTWC Newsletter 2/26/62)
Alpheus H. Borden (Elizabeth, N. J.) - head of Borden Metal
Products Co., a "non-union employer", (AFL-CIO News 9/23/61); endorser,
Manion Forum (4/2/62 list)
Page 23
Sec 4 - SPECIAL #12
E. M. Brabant (Milwaukee, Wisc.) - Assistant to the President,
Applied Power Industries, Inc.
C. Douglas Cairns (Burlington, Vt.) - President, Champlain Oil
Co.; -Chairman, Vermont Freedom of Association, Inc. (NRTWC Newsletter
11/18/60)
Cully A. Cobb (Atlanta, Ga.) - editor, President, Ruralist Press,
Inc.
Fred C. Edwards (Lancaster, Penna.) - General Manager for Industrial
Relations, Armstrong Cork Co.
George T. Fox (Springfield, 0.) - President, Reynolds Manufacturing
Co.
Jonathan C. Gibson (Chicago, Ill.) - Vice-President and General
Counsel, Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway; author of The Challenge
to Compulsory UuWia. Membership, published by the Chamber of Commerce,
and The Legal and Moral Basis of Right to Work Laws, published
by NRTWC; participant in the NRTWC seminar in Kansas City, 1959
(N.Y. Times 6/9/59)
L. E. Haight (Boise, Idaho) - General Counsel, J. R. Simplot Co.
Robert V. Hansberger (Boise, Idaho) - President, Boise-Cascade
Corp.; also Chairman, Fairway Products Corp. and Sportsman's Golf
Corp., and Director, Idaho Power Co. and Voi-Shan Industries, Inc.
Parker Holt (Stockton, Calif.) - President, Holt Brothers, a farm
equipment distributing firm.
J. E. Holtzinger (Altoona, Penna.) - President, Mirror Printing
Co., Altoona Engraving Co. and Holtzinger Farms, Inc., and Director,
Altoona Central Bank and Trust Co., Altoona Printing and Supply Co.,
and Columbia Savings and Loan A s sociation.
Howard F. Jensen (Dallas, Tex.) - Vice-President and General
Counsel, Lone Star Steel Co. (headed by NRTWC Director Eugene B.
Germany)
John R. Jury (Wichita, Kansas) - Personnel Manager, Sodt hwest
Grease and Oil Co.; an admitted member of the John Birch Society (Washington
Post 4/2/61)
William B. Prosser (Hagerstown, Ind.) - President, Perfect
Circle Corp.
Page 24
Sec 4 - SPECIAL #12
John Ben Shepperd (Odessa, Tex.) - former Attorney General of
Texas, now lawyer for the Rodman-Nodl oil interests; an endorser of the
Manion Forum (4/2/62 listing)
Robert H. Spahn (Oklahoma City, Okla.) - Productioa Manager of
Oklahoma Publishing Co. (headed by E. K. Gaylord, who has been in'¶-;
the open shop movement for decades - see Shott, op. cit., pp. 12-13 and
16-17 on his role in early 1942); member of the board of Oklahomans for
Right-to-Work (AFL-CIO News 9/23/61)
Paul W. Stephanz (Burlington, ,N. C.) - a Senior Vice-President,
Wachovia Bank and Trust Co.
Earl C. Swanson (Bayport, Minn. ) - President, Andersen Corp.,
a manufacturer of wood window units.
William B. Sweetland (Klamath Falls, Ore.) - Publisher,
Klamath Falls Herald and News.
Lloyd W. Taggert (Cody, Wyoming) - President, Taggert Construction
Co.; President, Wyoming Citizens for Right to Work (NRTWC Newsletter
2/26/62).
In the fifteen months of its existence, the Special Committee on Voluntary
Unionism, among other things has published two booklets: The Right of
the Right to Work and Why Distinguished Educators Favor Voluntary Unionism.
The first is a collection of statements by "clergymen and church
leaders" and the second by "educators" in support of the open shop principle.
Among those whose contributions are included are:
Dr. James 0. Baird (Oklahoma City, Okla.) - President of Oklahoma
Christian College (the'Chancellor of which is George S. Benson of
Harding College, Searcy, Ark.); President, Oklahomans for Right to Work
(NRTWC Newsletter 3/16/61)
Dr. L. Nelson Bell (Asheville, N. C.) - father-in-law of evangelist
Billy Graham and Executive Edfitor of Christianity Today; speaker at 1960
NRTWC Board meeting (Ibid. 6/2Z/60)
Ezra Taft Benson (Salt Lake City, Utah) - former Secretary of
Agriculture; now Chairman of We, The People! an important'right-wing
group in which Rev. Billy James Hargis plays a key role.
Philip D. Bradley (Washington, D.' C.) - attorney, author of
Involuntary Participation in Unions, published by American Enterprise
Association in 1956.
Page 25
Sec 4 - SPECIAL #12
Goetz A. Briefs (Washington, D. C.) - professor at Georgetown
University, author of Unionism Reappraised, published by American Enterprise
Association in 1960 with portions reprinted as a pamphlet by NRTWC.
Fr. John E. Coogan, S. J. (West Baden Springs, Ind.) - a member
of NRTWC Board of Directors (see above).
V. Raymond Edman (Wheaton, Ill.) - President of Wheaton
College; member National Advisory Board, Young Americans for Freedom
(24/6/62 letterhead)
Fr. Ferdinand C. Falque (Staples, Minn.) - pastor of Sacred
Heart Church; endorser of John Birch Society (1962 JBS brochure)
Rev. James W. Fifield, Jr. (Los Angeles, Calif.) - head of
Spiritual Mobilization, Inc. and active right-wing figure.
Rev. Edward Greenfield (Buena Park, Calif.) - author of Anatomy
of a WildEat published by NRTWC (see above); speaker at 1959 NRTWC
seminar in Kansas City (N.Y. Times 6/9/59)
Perry E. Gres ham (Bethany, W. Va.) - President of Bethany
College; Trustee, Foundation for Economic Educatinn (1960-61 listing)
Carl F. Henry (Washington, D. C.) - Editor, Christianity Today
and critic of "leftist thinking" nitthe National Council of Churches (Time
7/13/62).
Dr. Russell J. Humbert (Greencastle, Ind.) - member of NRTWC
Board of Directors (see above).
Fr. Edward A. Keller (Notre Dame, Ind.) - former Director of
NRTWC (see above).
Reginald D. Lang (Northfield, Minn.) - professor at Carleton
College; member National Advisory Board, Young Americans for Freedom
(2/16/62 letterhead)
L. McClure Lanning (Pittsburgh, Penna.) - headmaster of University
School; Treasurer of Pennsylvania for the Right to Work (NRTWC Newsletter
4/19/62)
Albert J. Lindsey (Tacoma, Wash.) - pastor, First Presbyterian
Church; Director, Christian Freedom Fo undation (Christian Economics
11/27/62)
Page 26
Sec 4 - SPECIAL #12
N. Burnett Magruder (Louisville, Ky.) - Executive Director of
Louisville Area Council of Churchps; member John Birch Society (1961
JBS White Book)
Rev. Howard E. Mather (Amenia, N. Y. ) - member NRTWC
Executive Committee (see above).
Dr. Abner V. McCall (Waco, Texas) - President, Baylor University;
former FBI agent; member Committee on Electoral College
Reform of the American Good Government Society (3/9/62 letterhead)
Nicholas Nyaradi (Peoria, Ill.) - a Hungarian refugee, now a
professor at Bradley University and frequent speaker at right-wing meetings.
Sylvester Petro (New Yok, N.Y.) - professor at New York
University; member of State Committee of New York's Conservative
Party (5/15/62 letterhead); author of several anti-union books, including
The Kohler Strike: Union Violence and Administrative Law (Regnery,
1961)
Charles E. Rice (New York, N. Y. ) professor at Fordham
University; member of State Committee of New York's Conservative
Party (5/15/62 letterhead); sponsor of Fred Schwarz's Anti-Communism
School and Rally in New York (N.Y. Times 6/27/6Z)
E. Merrill Root (Thompson, Conn.) - endorser of the John Birch
Society (1962 JBS brochure) and active right-winger.
In short, nearly one-fourth of the members of the Chamber's Special Committee
are connected with NRTWC, either at the national or the state level,
and no less than 9 of the contributors to the Chamber's two booklets are
likewise connected with NRTWC. The other right-wing ties speak for themselves
in illustrating the overlap between the open shop movement and the
general ultra-conservative forces of the country.
National Association of Manufacturers' Center for the Study of Union Power -
It would be expected that the NAM would play an important tole in the open
shop campaign. It has done so atleast since 1903 when it declared against
"discrimination" on the basis of membership or non-membership in a labor
organization. As was noted earlier, the NAM was an early user of the term
"right-to-work. " It is perhaps significant that the presidency of the NAM
for two successive years early in the existence of the NRTWC was held by
men who were later to be top officers in the John Birch Society (Cola G.
Parker, NAM President in 1956, andErnest Swigert, NAM President in
1957, both serving as members of the National Council of the John Birch
Society) Both also were particularly outspoken on the open shop issue.
Pm-age 27
Sec 4 - SPECIAL #12
(CLN. Y. Times 1/20/56 and 4/9/57) A previous (1952) NAM President,
William Grede, has also been both strongly anti-union shop and a Birch
Society member. (see below)
At the state level, NAM affiliates have generally been in the forefront
of the "right-to-work" fight. For example, Shott indicates the role played
in Florida by the Associated Industries of Florida. (Op. cit., passim.)
Similarly we find that a leader of the fight in Indiana, former State Senator
Crawford Parker, is now a lobbyist for Associated Industries of Indiana.
Most recently, the NAM has organized a new Center for the Study of
Union Power, headed by its own Vice-President in Charge of Industrial
Relations, Charles A. Kothe. "The first meeting of this center was held
on November 21, 1961, " according to an NAM document inserted in the
Congressional Record (1,/10/62). Its establishment appears to represent
a continuation of work started in 1956 with the organization by NAM of a
Study Group on Monopoly Power Exercised by Labor Unions.
As noted earlier, this group was chaired by former NRTWC Board member
Leo Wolman. (See above) Of the other 1 1 members of the "Study Group, "
two -William J. Grede of Milwaukee, Wisc. and Robert W. Stoddard of
Worcester, Mass. have since been members of the John Birch Society's
Executive Committee (3/20/61 letterhead); two others Stephen F. Dunn
of Grand Rapids, Michigan and Thomas 0. Moore of Winston-Salem, N. C.
-&rereeidorsers- of the Manion Forum (4/2/62 listing); and a fifth - Lemuel
R. Boulware of New York City - has been a major contributor to Americans
for Constitutional Action, a Trustee of the Intercollegiate Society of Individualists,
and a sponsor of Young Americans fctFreedom. (See reports
filed with Clerk, U. S. House of Represeztatives; Campus Reports, May,
1962; and New Guard' March, 1962)
Attending as members at the first meeting of the NAM's new Center were
15 lawyers, 6 professors 4 employers, an industrial relations counselor,
and the general counsels of the NAM and the U. S. Chamber of Commeree.
Included were the following: (Irom Congressional Record 10/10/62)
Graham A. Barden - former Congressman from North Carolina and
Chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee.
Jim Clay - Legislative Assistant to Senator John Tower (R-Tex.)
Theodore R. Iserman - New York attorney who had served on the
earlier NAM committee chaired by Prof. Wolman; author of Taft-Hartley
law study published by American Enterprise Association.
Kenneth C. Kellar - Chairman of NRTWC's Executive Committee
(see above).
Page 28
Sec 4 - SPECIAL #12
John L. Kilcullen - Washington Attorney for NRTWC (see above).
William H. Peterson - professor at New York University; author
of right-wing book on agriculture, The Great Farm Problem (Regnery,
1959); member of Nixon research staff in 1960 campaign.
Godfrey P. Schmidt - attorney and former court-appointed monitor
of Teamsters Union; former President, Aware, Inc.; endorser, Manion
Forum and member of the Committee for Equal Anti-Trust Law Protection
(4/2/62 listing); organizing member of New York's Conservative Party
(New Guard March, 1962 and N. Y. Times 5/15/62).
David McCord Wright - professor, McGill University; author of
study of recovery in Britain and West Germany published by American Free
Enterprise Association; member, National Advisory Board, Young Americans
for Freedom (2/16/62 letterhead).
For further information on the plans and objectives of the NAM Center,
see the text of the planning document for the Center inserted in the Congressional
Recorl. 10/10/62 by Congressman Libonati.
American Farm Bureau Federation - One of the most important national
organizations on the open shop scene is clearly the Americbn Farm
Bureau Federation and its state and local affiliates. In Florida, the first
state to pass a "right-to-work" law, the state Farm Bureau Federation is
credited with securing the rural majorities that enacted the constitutional
amendment. (See Shott, op. cit., passim., particularly pp. 25-30)
The State Farm Bureau units have continued to play a leading role in
"right-to-work" campaigns and it is doubtful that such a campaign has
operated in any state without the Farm Bureau unit of the state bebing
an active participant. (Cf.N. Y. Times 12/3/55, NRTWC Newsletter March,
1956 and 5/28/60, and Chamber of Commerce pamphlet, "An American
Farmer Discusses Freedom to Work") Three recently-formed state
"rigjt-to-work" units illustrate the pattern.
In Oklahoma, Farm Bureau leaders made up 11 of the 40 incorporators
of Oklahomans for the Right to Work, Inc. and two of these were made
trustees of the organization. (Oklahoma Farm Bureau Farmer 8/5 /60)
In Wyoming, the President of the state Farm Bureau was made VicePresident
ofiWyoming Citizens for Right to Work, the two groups have
the same Vice-President and the Farm Bureau unit's Executive Secretary
was made Secretary. (NRTWC Newsletter 2/26/62Fan47/27/62) In
Maine it is also an executive secretary of the state Farm Bureau who
appears as a top officer of Maine Citizens for Right to Work, Inc. (Ibid.
6/20/62) The participation by the top staff of the state Farm Bureau
units may be regarded as particularly significant.
Page 2.9
Sec 4 - SPECIAL #10
Cooperation at the national level is also to be noted. Official endorsement
of the "right-to-work" principle by the American Farm Bureau
Federation dates back to 1953 and extends not only to ~state legislation
but to support for a national right-to-work law, also one of the longrun
goals of the NRTWC. (various issues, AFBF Newsletter) This endorsement
of the open shop principle continues to date. (See resolutions
adopted at 1962 AFBF convention,.)
AFBF President, Charles B. Shuman is one of those quoted and pictured
in NRTWC's reference manual. Two top staff people from the AFBF,
Secretary-Treasurer Roger Fleming and Assistant Legislative Director
Matt Triggs, were featured speakers at NRTWC's "first National Right to
Work Seminar"last year. (AFBF Newsletter 10/31/61 and NRTWC Newsletter
11/3/61) As noted previously, two of NRTWC's Directors are Farm
Bureau presidents in their own states: Herbert Livingston of Wyoming and
Louis Rozzoni of California.
In view of the key role played bythe Farm Bureau in the open shop movement
it is of particular interest that one of the recent developments has
been the proposal to extend Kansas' "right-to-work" law to a farm group.
President Louis E. Weiss, of Kansans for the Right to Work, who is
also on NRTWC's Executive Committee, has stated that membership in
the National Farm Organization, which had launched a campaign to raise
livestock prices by having its members "hold back" their stock from
market temporarily, involved farmers "in illegal maintenance of membership"
under the state's "right-to-work" law. The implied threat of
the Weiss statement has brought expressions of concern in other states,
such as Indiana and Vermont. (Kansas City Star 9/25/62 and Labor 10/6/62)
Ties to other groups: right-wing political
Suspicion and distrust of labor unions, and particularly industrial unions,
is a general characteristic of the right-wing in the United States. This
attitude varies in its intensity up to and including the conviction that union
leaders are, by definition, racketeers and/or liberal-Marxist-socialistCommunists.
For example, while he denies that he is anti-union, Dr.
Fred Schwarz, one of the most successful and well-known of the current
anti-Communist crusaders, reflects such a point of view in the following
statement in his book, You Can Trust the Communists: (p. 83)
The mechanism outlined by the Communists is still in operation.
It is not completely out of date. Though it has not as yet fully
succeeded in taking over a country, any person of intelligence
has great reason for concern when workers can be compelled
to join organizations, contribute their money, and obey the
leadership imposed by a small group. When that money can
Page 30
Sec 4 - SPECIAL #12
be used for political purposes by a constant propaganda
campaign by press, radio and- television so that the public
may be influenced to elect legislators under obligation to
the union leadership, the very foundation of republican,
democratic government is in danger. When government
becomes irreversible, dictatorship is at the door.
Ellsworth and Harris indulge, if anything, in understatement in listing
navsi a general goal of the American right: "They desire to
outlaw full employment in industry, collective bargaining, the
closed shop, and political education for union members. " (Ralph
Ellsworth and Sarah Harris, The American Right Wing, Public Affairs
Press, 1962, pp. 41-42; see also pp. 13-14 and note 38) This being
the case, a listing of the right-wing groups and organizations which
support the open shop campaign would approximate a complete census
of ultra-conservative groups. What follows will be a relatively brief
treatment of only those groups which have readily apparent, direct ties
to the National Right to Work Committee and its affiliates.
John Birch Society - From NRTWC's first Chairman, Edwin Dillard,
to its present Vice-President and Director of Information, Glenn Green,
JBS memberq have always been prominent in the open shop movement
in general and the NRTWC in particular. This is most evident at the
state level - which is, after all, where support counts - and the pattern
in Kansas is particularly significant since the leading figure in the
National Committee, Reed Larson, is a "graduate" of the Kansas state
organization.
A Washington Post reporter who studied opemation of the John Birch
Society in Wichita ("under open colors") wrote that "The leadership of
the Birch Society overlaps heavily with the leadership of, the organizations
that successfully campaigned in 1958 for a right-to-work amendment to
the State Constitution. " (Washington Post 4/2/61) Two of these leaders,
Coleman Company attorney Leonard Banowetz and box manufacturer
Robert Love, were principal speakers at NRTWC's National Seminar
in Chicago last year. (NRTWC Newsletter 11/3/61)
In terms of the interties with employer groups at the local level it is
also significant that Banowetz, a JBS field coordinator (ADL Facts Nov. -
Dec., 1961), is chairman of the Kansas State Chamber of Commerce's
Labor Relations Committee and Love, a member of the JBS National
Council (1962 brochure), was for five years a Director of the National
Association of Manufacturers. Others in the Wichita Birch Society who
were active in the open shop fight in Kansas were Rock Island Oil and
Refining Co. President Fred Koch, lawyers Kenneth Myers and Thomas
Woods, and personnel executive John Jury who, as previously noted, is
a member of the Chamber of Commerce's Special Committee on Voluntary
Unionism. (See Washington Post, op?. .cit.)
Page 31
Sec 4 - SPECIAL #12
Still another John Birch Society member who appeared on the platform
at NRTWC's 1961 seminar was S. Rayburn Watkins, managing
director of the NAM affiliate in Kentucky, Associated Industries of Kentucky.
(NRTWC Newsletter 11/31/61 and JBS White Book, 1961)
Similarly, for the-principal speaker at its 1960 Board meeting, NRTWC
chose Congressman Wint Smith (R-Kansas), a 1961 endorser of the John
Birch Society. (NRTWC Newsletter 6/22/60 and Congressional Record
3/16/61)
Previously mentioned have been the open shop-JBS-NAM ties represented
by William Grede, Cola Parker, Ernest Swigert and Robert
Stoddard (see above) and the appearance in the Chamber of Commerce's
pro-open shop booklets of Fr. Falque, Dr. Magruder and Professor
Root (see above). Other leaders of the ultrarright who have also been
active in state "right-to-work" movements include F. Gano Chance of
Missouri (a JBS Council member), James L. Doenges of Indiana (a JBS
endorser), and Louis Ruthenberg of Indiana (a JBS Council member).
Ruthenberg is also bn the Board of Advisors of Maurice Franks' National
Labor-Management Foundation. (Partners, July-August, 1962)
There are almost certainly other overlaps with the John Birch Society,
especially at the level of state "right-to-work" campaigns, but the
above cover known public identifications.
Other Right-Wing Groups - Illustrative of the NRTWC's relations with
other conservative and rightist groups are the following examples:
1) American Enterprise Association: Organized in 1943 by a group of
"industrial leaders" as a "nonpartisan research organization which examines
the implications of current and prospective legislative proposals."
States as its goal "to preserve the American principles of competitive
enterprise and constitutional government. " (1954 AEA brochure) Labor
relations and unions are consistently a subject of AEA attention with a study
in the field published at a rate of about one each year. Since 1955 these
have included: Three Taft-Hartley Issues by Theodore Iserman, a
member of the NAM Center for the Study of Union Power (see above);
Involuntary Participation- in Unions by Philip Bradley, a contributor
to one of the Chamber of Commerce booklets on "right-to-work" (see
above); Legal Immunities of Labor Unions by Roscoe Pound, who was
formerly affiliated with the Committee of Endorsers and its successor
group, the Citizends Foreign Relations Committee (N. Y. Tizres.2/28/55
and letterhead of 2/11/57); Economic Analysis of Lahor Unionr Power by
Edward Chamberlin, which concludes that "union power should be restricted"
(N. Y. Times 1/27/58); Labor Unions and the Concept of Public
Service by Roscoe Pound; and Unionism Reappraised by Goetz Briefs. As
noted above, NRTWC reprinted excerpts from the last in pamphlet :fortn.
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Sec 4 - SPECIAL #12
In addition to Iserman, four of the six "professor" members of the NAM's
new Center for the Study of Union Power - Gottfried Haberler, James
McKie, William Peterson and David McCord Wright - have all written
at least one study for the American Enterprise Association.
2) Arkansas Free Enterprise Association: Reference to the role of this
group in Arkansas has been noted (see above). The January, 1959
issue of its publication, The Free Enterpriser, carried an article by
Reed Larson titled "Right to Work: How It Won in Kansas." (Note
that NRTWC published a pamphlet by the same name.)
3) Christian Crusade: Rev. Billy James Hargis has expressed himself
clearly on the open shop issue: "The question involved in 'Right to Work
Laws' is very simple and bk-si It is the question as to whether or not
an American citizen has a right to work at a job upon which he and his
employer agree without being forced to join a union and pay tribute to
union bosses to whom he is morally opposed. " (Communism and American
Labor, p. 11) As noted previously, NRTWC Board member Frederick
C. Fowler has been a featured member of the Hargis faculty on at beast
two occasions this year. In addition, Hargis's National Advisory Committee
includes F. Gano Chance, Fred Koch and former Congressman
Wint Smith, all mentioned earlier in connection with NRTWC's ties to
the John Birch Society. Finally, Hargis himself told the press that
NRTWC was one of the organizations represented at the meeting he
called to set up the Anti-Communist Liaison - Committee of Correspondence.
(Washington Post 3/2Z/62)
4) Christian Freedom Foundation: Howard Kershner's organization,
which publishes Christian Economics, counts two current NRTWC Board
members and one former Board member among its Directors. (Christian
Economics 11/27/62- see above) At least two more of Christian Freedom
Foundation's Directors are affiliated with state right-to-work organizations:
Rev. Vernelle Dyer of Maine Citizens for Right to Work, Inc.
and Rev. William S. Wise of Pennsylvanians for the Right to Work. (Ibid.
and NRTWC Newsletter 6/20/62 and 4/19/62) The names of these and
others who have contributed to the Chamber of Commerce booklet, The
Right of the Right to Work, have already been noted. Still another personnel
footnote connecting the Christian Freedom Fmundation and the open shop
movement is the identification by Ralph Lord Roy of the Foundation's thencotisulting
economist, Percy L. Greaves, as a former personal researcher
for Fred A. Hartley. (Roy, op. cit., p. 295) Finally, in addition to the
indicated overlap, NRTWC personnel have been utilized in at least one
Christian Freedom Foundation Co4ference. (Christian Economics 10/1 8/%2)
5) Christianity Today: Note has already been taken of ties between Executive
Editor L. Nelson Bell and NRTWC, as well as contribution of Editor
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Sec 4 - SPECIAL #12
Carl Henry to Chamber of Commerce booklet. (See above)
6) Committee for Constitutional Government: A 1961 issue of CCG's
Spo-light carried an article by Reed Larson urging support of Section
14(b) of the Taft-Hartley Act. Earlier, the Committee had carried out
a mass-distribution program for NRTWC Director Donald Richberg's
book, Labor Union Monopoly. (Letter of 5/1/50) Spotlight has also
distr ibuted at least one article by Maurice Franks,
'7) Council for Individual Freedom: This is the membership organization
of the late Sherwood Ide's Independence Foundation, Portland,
Indiana. The organization, which publishes a monthly right-wing newspaper,
Dawn, utilizes Tyre Taylor of the Southern States Industrial
Council as its Washington representative and has a general right-wing
character, including opposition to the income tax. (See Dawn, various
issues.) Former NRTWC President William T. Harrison was once
listed as an Associate Editor of Dawn, later schedi4led to become ExecuVice-President
of the Council. (See above) Another of NRTWC's incorporators,
Robert B. Byrnes, was reported by Dawn as the Council's
"correspondent on labor relations affairs" in Washington. Finally, as
noted previously, at least three former NRTWC directors were listed
as members of the Council's Advisory Board. (fSee above and Dawn,
1961 Special Supplement)
8) Kent and Phoebe Courtney: The Courtneys, who publish The Independent
American and run the Conservative Society of America, have
featured NRTWC leadership at their national meeting in both 1959
(President William T. Harrison) and 1961 (Vice-President L. A. Hooser).
At the 1959 meeting, Kent Courtney presided over a panel discussion made
up of Harrison, J. C. Laney, Wells T. Lovett Ond Robert Love, all
representing NRTWC. The tape recording ran to 2 hours in length and
was offered for sale by The Independent American for $14. (Indep. Amer.
Nov., 1959, NRTWC Newsletter 3/16/61 and Wall Street Journal 4/19/61)
David Molthrop, who has been extremely active in the open shop mowement
at the state level, has been a regular feature of Courtney meetings
and other right-wing assemblies. He is also an active opponent of cooperatives.
9) DeMille Foundation for Political Freedom: Operations- of this organization
in "support of state right-to-work campaigns" have been referred to
by NRTW C's former President Harrison in his book. (See above)
10) Heritage Foundation: In addition to publishing The Case for Rightto-Work
Laws, by former NRTWC Board member Fr. Keller, Heritage
Foundation in Chicago has published three pamphlets by Birch Society
endorser Fr. Falque, one titled "The True Purpose of Right-to-Work
Laws. " The Heritage Foundation is now located in Independence Hall
Page 34
Sec 4 - SPECIAL #12
of Chicago, the office building of Cook County Federal Savings, the
President of which, Sidney L. DeLove, is author of The Quiet Betrayal,
an attack on our schools as having "forced Americanism out of the classroom
to make way for temporary trivialities" and having accepted "the
pagan philosophy of an all-powerful State whose citizens . * are mere
chattels . . .
11) Human Events: NRTWC Board member Fr. Coogan is a frequent
contributor t Human Events, including a full-page article in their
recent Special Is sue on "The Labor Monopoly. " The same Special
Issue also includes a condensation of one chapter from the Jameson
Cmpaigne book, Check-Off, referred to previously. Another NRTWC
staff member who has written for Human Events is former.-Associate
Counsel Warren Richardson. (H4iman Events 9/1/61) President
Cadwallader and Executive Vice-President Larson of NRTWC were
both "early registrants" for this year's Human Events Political Action
Conference.
1 2) Labor Policy Association: Organized in 1957 to "make and to encourage
researc s pertaining to government policies affecting
labor and labor relations." Labor Policy Association is headed by
William Ingles, who was previously associated with the Organization for
the Repeal of Federal Income Taxes. The Labor Policy Association
published (1958) Ingles' book, The Right-to-Work Handbook, which cites
various N#ATWC publications with approval. The Association has also
published pamphlets by Sylvester Petro, mentioned previously. (See
above on Chamber of Commerce Special Committee on Voluntary
Unionism)
13) Manion Forum: While NRTWC and Manion Forum are to some extent
"competitors" in the open shop movement - each seeking financial
support to carry on the battle - they sometimes cooperate. NRTWC
figures who have appeared on the Manion Forum broadcast include Donald
R. Richberg (1957), Rev. Edward Greenfield (1958), Edwin S. Dillard
(1959) andReed Larson (1962). Other "right-to-work" figures who have
appeared include former Senator William F. Knowland, former Indiana
Governor Harold W. Handley, Wisconsin manufacturer Herbert Kohler
and Fr. Ferdinand Falque. (1959 Manion Forum Brochure and NRTWC
Newsletter 11/25/59 and 3/16/62) As indicated earlier, two NRTWC
Directors _ Edwin Dillard and Eugene Germany - are also endorsers
of the Manidii Forum.
14) National Labor-Management Foundation: As noted above, Maurice
Franks is a former Director of NRTWC. In addition, eight other Directors
or former Directors of NRTWC have been affiliated with the Franks
organization, including former President William T. Harrison. (See above)
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Sec 4 - SPECIAL #12
15) National Right-.to-Work Federation: Organized in 1946 by a group
which included Florida Attorney-General Tom Watson (see Shott, op.
cit. and above) and Norman Zolezzi of Indianapolis, Indiana, editor and
publisher since 1927 of a monthly called Labor Digest. After Watson's
death, national headquarters of the Federation was moved to Indianapolis
and Labor Digest became its official publication. After Norman Zolezzi's
death in February, 1959, editorship of Labor Digest was taken over by
the former Associate Editor, Allston Calhoun. In addition to the monthly
newspaper, a radio program titled "Ameiicaiiism Preferred" features
Mr. Calhoun and is evidently carried primarily in southern states. Despite
the close similarity in names there is no readily apparent connection
between NRTWC and the Federation. However, a recent issue of Labor
Digest does carry two items w- one on the survey by Opinion Research
Corx for NRTWC and one on the activities of Pennsylvaniani for the right
to Work - which are taken verbatim from the NRTWC Newsletter (but
without credit). (Labor Digest February, 1959 and October, 1962;
NRTWC Newsletter 7/27/62 and 8/29/62)
16) Young Americans for Freedom: In addition to former NRTWC Board
member Fr. Keller, YAF, the Goldwater "student" group organized by
William Buckley and Marvin Liebman, has on its National Advisory
Board such "right-to-work" proponents as V. Raymond Edman, Herbert
V. Kohler, Reginald Lang, and E. Merrill Root (all mentioned previously).
It is also noteworthy that an article in YAF's magazine, New Guard, by its
Managing Editor, Carol Bauman, utilized information provided by NRTWC.
("Compulsory Unionism: Threat to the Workingman" New Guard, May,
1962; see also NRTWC Newsletter 5/31/62)
A Final Note
The foregoing report should not be regarded as a comprehensive treatment
of the "right-to-work" movement. It has focused primarily on
the National Right to Work Committee and, important as NRTWC is, it
does not constitute the whole story. This would require greater treatment
of the open shop campaign in the individual states, investigation of
which would almost certainly reveal further ties to NRTWC and to the
right-wing in general. Unfortunately, aside from the Shott case study
of Florida's "right-to-work" fight in the mid-1940's material on the election
campaigns in the various states is not readily available. Similarly,
as was emphasized, only those rightist groups and individuals with readily
apparent connections with NRTWC and/or its affiliates have been mentioned.
This ignores numerous others such as, for example, Tom Anderson, publisher
of Farm and Ranch, frequent speaker before right-wing pblitical
groups and ardent foe of labor unions in general and the union shop in
particular. Those involved directly in the battle over the "right-to--
work" issue could doubtless add many other names.
Group Research,_:'nc., 328 Pennsylvania Ave., S. E., Wash. 3, D. C.
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