Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Kimberley Strassel sounds the alarm about Big Labor’s agenda and what they are willing to spend on politics to see that it becomes a reality.  A good friend of Freedom’s Watch, the National Right to Work Committee’s Mark Mix, says that for the union bosses 2008 represents an “all-in” bet.  And Big Labor’s stack of chips is substantial.

The AFL-CIO has approved a record political budget of $53 million to help fund 200,000 union workers on the street. Its affiliated national and international unions have pledged another $200 million. The National Education Association will throw $40 million to $50 million at races. The Service Employees International Union has marked off $100 million for politics, and intends to pay 2,000 union members the equivalent of their salaries to work on Democratic campaigns. Add in union money for federal or state political action committees, for 527s, and for local and state races, and some astute members of the business community – those who have seen this coming "tsunami" (as one puts it) – estimate union political spending may top $1 billion in 2008.

A recent post on our blog outlined Big Labor’s long-term plans to increase union membership through passage of “card check” legislation, and thereby increase their political power.  Enacting card check would be a colossal achievement for Big Labor (albeit a horrible one for the country), but Strassel says they have no intention of stopping there.

Then there's the biggie – so big that most officials don't talk about it publicly. Tucked into the 1947 Taft-Hartley Act is a provision called 14(b), which allows for "right to work" states. Big Labor last took a run at deleting this section, and forcing more unionization, in the Johnson administration. With a filibuster-proof Senate, they'd have a far better shot.

If Big Labor gets its way, more and more Americans will be forced into unions and paying dues against their will.  The unions and their liberal allies in Congress believe that’s a good thing.  It is hard to believe a majority of Americans would agree.