Poll: Healthy Majority Back Paycheck Protection

Pennsylvanians oppose requiring union members to contribute to political causes antithetical to their beliefs, according to Harper Polling’s year end survey conducted last month.

The polling firm asked 604 likely voters, “Do you believe workers who belong to a union should have a right to not have their union dues spent on political activities with which they disagree?” A large majority of voters (66%) answered yes. Seventeen percent of respondents said no, and another seventeen percent said they were unsure.

In another poll commissioned by the Commonwealth Foundation, nearly 80 percent of voters said taxpayer resources should not be used to collect any union dues. Pennsylvanians understand that the unique political privilege enjoyed by unions is inherently unfair, and they want reform. 

The current system encourages unions to be unaccountable to their members, forces both union members and taxpayers to subsidize politics, and makes it easier for government unions to stop common sense policies that benefit taxpayers like pension reform or privatizing the state’s liquor system.

A healthy majority of Pennsylvania voters understand that government should not confer benefits on special interests at the expense of the rest of us. To restore fairness to the political process, Pennsylvania lawmakers should have us join the other states that have already passed some form of paycheck protection.

Taxpayers and workers who are being forced to support political causes they do not believe in deserve nothing less.