UNIONS CAN’T COMPETE WITH CORPORATE TREASURIES
Abolishing corporate personhood would empower Congress and the states to regulate spending from the treasury of corporations, unions and other non-profits, and all other artificial entities established by law or recognized as being regulated under the National Labor Relations Act or under state law.
Abolishing money as speech would empower Congress and the states to regulate the amount of spending on electioneering and advocacy communications for everyone: corporations, incorporated unions and other non-profits, unincorporated associations and individuals.
Unions can never compete against corporate treasuries like the Koch Brothers or Fortune 500 companies that bankroll elections to attack working families, legislation aimed at protecting collective bargaining rights, or raising wages.
Reduced pressure to compete in the political spending war will free up union resources to organize more shops and better represent members.
HARMFUL CORPORATIONS CAN BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE
If corporations cannot claim Constitutional rights it will allow Congress and the states to discern between different kinds of corporations based on previous actions (like labor violations), size, structure, or ownership. Currently corporations can use the 14th Amendment to shield themselves from being treated differently under the law, even if their impact on a community is wholly different from locally-owned businesses or businesses that follow the law.
Corporations use corporate personhood to shield themselves from labor and environmental regulations. This includes existing regulations like the Occupational Safety and Health Act and the Environmental Protection Act, as well as local regulations aimed at protecting workers and the environment.
States and local communities will be free to pass legislation that treats unionized businesses differently than non-unionizes businesses.
UNIONS DON’T BENEFIT FROM CORPORATE PERSONHOOD LIKE CORPORATIONS DO
Courts already treat unions and corporations differently already, and have ruled many times that unions don’t have personhood the same way that corporations do.
UNIONS WILL BE IN A BETTER POSITION TO PROTECT THEIR MEMBERS
If corporate personhood is abolished, unions will be in a better position to assert worker’s rights due to case law already established that unions are an extension of their workers as opposed to a separate entity with its own rights.
Abolishing corporate constitutional rights would not empower Congress to prevent unions from asserting the individual rights of its members in collective bargaining, litigation or any other action that is brought to secure the constitutional rights of union members.
Many unions have already endorsed Move to Amend and our call for the We the People Amendment. To add your union or Labor Council to the list, go here: www.MoveToAmend.org/organizations.
