Media Attention for Paycheck Protection

Our new paycheck protection survey released this week has Pennsylvania talking. Why? The results show union members overwhelmingly agree that taxpayer resources shouldn’t be used for their unions’ politics. 

The survey found 80 percent of union households do not believe taxpayer resources should be used to collect campaign contributions. 67 percent of union households believe taxpayer resources should not be used to collect union dues, and 58 percent favor paycheck protection legislation to end government unions’ unfair political privilege. These results has received coverage from a number of media outlets:

• David Madeira spoke about the survey results on his show, highlighting the fact that union bosses are at odds with their members on paycheck protection.
• President and CEO of CF, Matt Brouillette, was invited to talk about the survey results on The Dom Giordano Show in the Philadelphia area.
• Brittany Foster, Managing Editor of PoliticsPA, covered the results, as did MediaTrackers and the PA Independent, which labeled the findings a “twist.”
• Chris Moore, of Pittsburgh Now, invited me on his call-in show to talk about the survey’s findings.

Our survey has also received attention from elected officials like Senator Eichelberger who wrote, “The results may seem startling to many, but to those of us who deal with unions regularly, it’s no surprise that the rank and file have the opposite position of the highly-paid union bosses you see quoted in the media.”

Senator Eichelberger is exactly right. While union bosses oppose paycheck protection, the average union member supports ending the practice of using taxpayer resources to collect unions’ political money. This disconnect should not come as a surprise given that members rarely hear from their state and national union officials.