Why is it that overly-unionized state economies like Michigan's stagger, whereas states like Florida that are freer from Big Labor's stifling hand flourish? 

Why do heavily-unionized companies like the Big Three automakers decay, while less-stifled companies prosper?  Similarly, why do students who are free to leave failing schools succeed more, whereas students in jurisdictions constrained by powerful teachers unions languish? 

It's not mere coincidence. 

Quite the contrary.  These are straightforward questions, with a similar answer:  excessively-powerful labor organizations. 

These questions are important ones, because individual states and industries serve as laboratories to determine which policies create prosperity and growth, and which policies lead to stagnation and lost jobs. 

The questions are also important because as Election Day approaches, Big Labor is the special interest that is salivating more than any other.  If its preferred candidates win the White House, a filibuster-proof 60-seat Senate majority, a greater majority in the House of Representatives, and state legislatures, federal and state government will suddenly serve as rubber-stamps for its agenda. 

And what is that agenda? 

Very simply, the very agenda whose short-sighted policies have rotted the economies of states like Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania, not to mention our public school systems.  So be forewarned. 

The most visible and potentially-destructive item on that agenda is commonly referred to as card-check legislation.  Under this law, which is absurdly entitled the "Employee Free Choice Act," the secret ballot that constitutes the centerpiece of our democratic system would literally be eliminated during union election campaigns.  In its place, union heavies armed with the home addresses and telephone numbers of reluctant employees would ominously approach them face-to-face, and attempt to bully them into signing cards advocating unionization.  If they succeeded in coercing a mere majority of workers into signing these cards, the unions would achieve power.  As part of this proposed process, each employee's vote would necessarily be made public to both the union and the employer, grossly destroying any element of employee privacy.  Anyone already familiar with the thuggery in which unions engage should dread such a frightening scenario. 

This act would also create a new, draconian power for indifferent arbitrators to impose union contract terms upon employers.  Under current law, employers and unions must bargain in good faith toward a mutually-agreeable contract, but neither side is empowered to unilaterally impose its terms upon the other.  If Big Labor gets its way, however, this will no longer be the case, and bureaucratic arbitrators will suddenly exercise unprecedented command over the labor market. 

Under Nancy Pelosi, the House has already passed this card-check legislation, but it was fortunately blocked by a veto threat and lack of 60-seat Senate majority.  Should that balance change after Election Day, however, the single most grave threat to America's job climate will likely become law.  The toxic potential of this proposed legislation can scarcely be overstated. 

A less-known item on Big Labor's agenda is state-by-state legislation that would eliminate employers' First Amendment right to discuss with employees many matters relating to their bottom lines, such as free trade, lower taxes or less bureaucracy.  Across the nation, union leaders are already pressing state legislatures to enact laws eliminating employers' free speech right to hold conversations with their workers about economic matters so critical to their mutual prosperity.  Hypocritically, of course, unions would remain free to discuss these same matters with employees.  Under these laws, employers would also be liable for treble damages and attorneys' fees for merely engaging in anything that could be construed by slick trial lawyers as "any communications" regarding "political matters."  One can only imagine the harm to American workers and employers resulting from this vague and ambiguous tort lawyers' make-work legislation. 

Another destructive item on Big Labor's post-election agenda targets free trade.  History proves time after time that protectionism only exacerbates economic downturns and diminishes prosperity, whereas even Bill Clinton and Al Gore believed that free trade accelerates prosperity for all parties.  For example, the Smoot-Hawley tariffs turned a market downturn in 1929 into what we now know as the Great Depression.  Despite this, Big Labor is pouring hundreds of millions of dollars toward electing liberal candidates who support this toxic agenda. 

A fourth item on Big Labor's agenda relates to America's schools.  Currently, the school choice movement has successfully brought greater freedom for parents to remove their children from failing public schools, in favor of schools that more successfully educate them, keep them safe and prepare them for college.  Across America, however, teachers unions employ every possible tactic of deception and intimidation to defeat it.  They blatantly misrepresent educational statistics, and bully politicians into advancing their anti-choice agenda. 

Naturally, union bosses attempt to portray themselves as defenders of the "little guy," and this might have been true at one time.  But today, unions advance their own self-interest at the expense of the workers they purport to represent, as well as the businesses that employ those workers. 

Naturally, Big Labor is stealthily attempting to keep this agenda under the radar until after the election, because scientific polls repeatedly demonstrate that overwhelming majorities rightfully find it utterly objectionable. 

But beware.  In a few short days, Big Labor will accelerate its effort to do to the entire American economy what it has done to the Big Three American automakers, Rust Belt economies and the public school system.