COLUMBIA -- Republican lawmakers vowed Tuesday to get even tougher on unions in a state where union bashing is a marketing tool, with moves that critics call needless appeals to GOP voters.
Gov. Nikki Haley said the state’s anti-union status is her best tool for recruiting businesses to South Carolina. The state ranks as seventh-least unionized, with membership accounting for 4.6 percent of workers, according to 2010 data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
“That is the one thing companies love – not only that we don’t have to fight the unions as much, but that there is a governor who is flat-out saying we don’t want you in our state,” said Haley.
The governor devoted much of her State of the State address last week to laying out the un-welcome mat to unions.
It’s a familiar line of attack in the state legislature. But Haley said the new measures are needed to keep unions out as the state works to attract more industry and bring down its chronically high unemployment rate, which improved to 9.5 percent in December.
Two things happened Tuesday: The governor, as she promised last week, signed an executive order to ensure that striking workers don’t get unemployment benefits. And the House GOP caucus introduced a bill strengthening the state’s already tough “right to work” law. The state’s right-to-work status means employees don’t have to join a labor union as a condition of their employment.
Critics contend it’s about inciting Republicans with red meat in the red-voting state, not fixing any problem.
“This is politics of distraction at its worst,” said Phil Bailey, spokesman for the Senate Democratic Caucus. Referring to Haley, he said, “It’s straw-man politics. She’s built up a dummy so she can knock it down.”
Rep. Gilda Cobb-Hunter called the measures overkill.
“I don’t understand the point. Most of what’s included in here is already in state law. How many times do we have to say we don’t want unions? I think that message is pretty clear,” said Cobb-Hunter, D-Orangeburg. “It’s all fluff and no substance.”
Haley acknowledged that state law already clearly disqualifies striking workers from collecting unemployment benefits. Her order basically requires two of her Cabinet agencies to communicate. It directs the state director of Labor, Licensing and Regulation to notify the head of the state’s unemployment agency about pending labor disputes.
The order’s meant to ensure the unemployment agency knows when workers are striking, so they deny an application up front, and prevent companies from having to fight a claim for benefits, she said.
LLR Director Catherine Templeton acknowledged strikes are rare in South Carolina, which has one of the nation’s lowest work-stoppage rates. Officials were unsure when workers last struck in the state. But Templeton recalled a case represented by her former law firm in Charleston in which the company ultimately prevailed through the hearing process, but after a hefty attorney bill.
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