Gov. Nikki Haley and House Republicans are joining forces to close loopholes that, they say, unions could use to set up shop and expand in South Carolina.
“Unions are not needed, wanted or welcome in South Carolina,” Haley said during a Tuesday press conference where she and Rep. Bill Sandifer, R-Oconee, announced a new bill filed in the House that would:
• Require S.C. employers to display a poster in the workplace, alerting workers that they do not have to be union members in order to work. State law already gives workers the right to turn down union membership.
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• Increases civil penalties for those who violate the state’s right to work laws.
• Allow union workers to resign membership and stop paying dues at any time. Currently, union members have to wait one year.
• Require unions to file financial information with the state. Unions already must file some of the information with the federal government.
Democrats say the bill changes very little. They point out that less than five percent of the state’s workers are unionized, the seventh lowest rate of unionization in the country.
“We already have some of the toughest anti-union laws in the state,” said Rep. Gilda Cobb-Hunter, D-Orangeburg. “Can you say overkill? Our time would be better spent trying to improve the conditions for working people instead of attacking working people.”
Haley said the changes are needed because Boeing was threatened with a National Labors Relations Board lawsuit after locating a new plant in North Charleston where few workers are union members. Ultimately, the lawsuit was dropped.
“I saw (the lawsuit) as a warning shot,” Haley said. “We’re going to make sure that something like this never happens again.”
“The more I bring companies in (to South Carolina,) the more concerns there are about unions,” Haley added.
Questions remain on the bill’s impact.
Haley signed an executive order Tuesday, prohibiting striking workers from receiving unemployment benefits.
That is already state law, said Catherine Templeton, director of the S.C. Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation.
But, Templeton added, she has been involved in cases where unions ignore the law or appeal the process, costing S.C. companies time and money.
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