Mark Wilson: When unions hurt seniors, it’s time for a change

If you’re on Medicare, or if you sometimes help someone who is, it’s likely you’ve called 1-800- Medicare.

This free call is often answered by someone at a privately-run call center in Tampa, Riverdale, or the Lynn Haven areas in Florida. More than 95% of the folks who call to get help with understanding their Medicare options and coverage are satisfied with this experience, earning the highest rating for any federal call center experience. It’s a great example of a public/private partnership using our tax dollars to work for us and it’s a great example of the skills of Florida’s workforce.

Why can’t a good thing be left alone?

Despite an existing contract and satisfied customers, the White House and their pro-union appointees unilaterally decided these jobs should be union jobs. It doesn’t matter to them that these employees consistently turned down the opportunity to organize. It doesn’t matter to them that these employees have consistently expressed that they are happy with their jobs — earning average wages of nearly $19 an hour, with job security, a career path, no-premium health benefits, paid leave, safe and secure working conditions and for many, the ability to work from home. It doesn’t matter to them that Florida is a right-to-work state. It doesn’t matter to them that they just awarded a nine-year option contract to a firm that achieved these great service scores only two years ago. Instead, they are prematurely recompeting the contract for the sole purpose of creating a glide path to government-imposed unionization. The administration claims they need a union to avoid service disruption to Medicare patients. Yet, these call centers have performed through the pandemic and natural disasters with no disruptions or work stoppages whatsoever.

It comes as no surprise.

The administration repeatedly puts union bosses’ interests above ordinary Americans’ needs. To achieve their goal of making President Biden “the most pro-union President leading the most pro-union administration in American history,” they are making a decision that has no identifiable cost benefit to the American taxpayers, or performance improvement for the tens of millions of Americans on Medicare (of which roughly 5 million reside in Florida).

The administration is setting aside a contract procured at great taxpayer expense over a three-year period to insert a government trick called a “labor harmony agreement” — a mandate that the contractor pre-negotiate an agreement with unions regardless of whether employees have asked or tried to unionize.

It’s partisan, illogical and anti-competitive.

It’s not just my opinion; it’s the opinion of 17 state Attorneys General, including Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody. Here’s what they said in their July 31^st letter to the Secretary of Health and Human Services:

“It’s the job of Congress to set federal labor policy, and these actions of the Biden-Harris Administration contravene federal labor law as established by Congress. Congress struck a balance of protection, prohibition and laissez-faire in respect to union organization, collective bargaining and labor disputes. Because Congress set federal labor policy, the administration and federal agencies under its direction may only direct that a congressional policy be executed in a manner prescribed by the Congress. A President may not direct that a policy be executed in a manner prescribed by the President.”

The Biden-Harris administration is violating both the labor policies set by Congress and Florida’s right-to-work law. And worse yet, it sets a dangerous precedent for American business.

The National Labor Relations Act allows employees to decide whether they want to be represented. Yet, the labor harmony agreement requires the contractor to accept the union’s demands to maintain contract compliance, ignoring the rights of employees not to join a union.

We all know the truth; unions call a strike or otherwise disrupt the workplace when they don’t get what they want. So here we go again. Unions are threatening to disrupt the lives of our seniors and coerce their political cronies in the administration to flip a working contract to their favor.

And here’s the kicker: the administration readily admits these actions will cost taxpayers more money without improving service.

They win political favor, and we all lose our tax dollars.

Americans require smooth and efficient health care services. American workers deserve to have their government enforce all their labor rights—to join or not join unions. American businesses deserve good-faith contract negotiations that are not revoked midstream due to side political dealings that don’t benefit the public.

As former Associate Justice of the Supreme Court Louis Brandeis said, “Sunlight is the best disinfectant” in protecting individual liberties.

Florida is the freest state in America and these big government policies have a chilling effect on free enterprise, competition and our seniors. The White House should let the marketplace decide and honor contracts and seniors, not power and end-runs.

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Mark Wilson is president and CEO of the Florida Chamber of Commerce.