Senate Kills "Union-Busting" Amendment

When it looked pretty clear the U.S. Senate was moving toward the passage of the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, Senator DeMint (R-South Carolina)(pictured) tried to drop a poison pill into the bill in an effort to defeat it. DeMint proposed an amendment that would force a so-called "right-to-work" law on all states.

This is really a misnomer. Instead of "right-to-work", this should really be called "right-to-bust-a-union". This is a law that says each worker has a right to not join a union, even if he hires into a union-shop job. Cloaked as a worker right, this is an old tactic used to divide and weaken unions.

Had this amendment passed, Senators would have been forced to vote to bust unions, or vote to kill the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. Fortunately, the senators didn't fall for DeMint's ridiculous amendment. Most Democrats (and several Republicans) voted to table (kill) the amendment in a 67-30 vote.

This was nothing more than continued Republican obstructionism.