The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) is starting to get coverage for the thuggish methods they use to attack Texas business owners who refuse to comply with their unreasonable demands.

The Houston Chronicle recently reported on the SEIU’s ongoing harassment of a commercial cleaning company in the Houston area. The D.C.-based union, has resorted to tactics such as parading a 20-foot inflatable rat in front of the company’s customers’ buildings, and distributing slanderous flyers to customers. The Democrat-bankrolling union has also been known to target uncooperative executives by picketing their homes and children’s schools.

This kind of behavior does not belong in Texas, nor do employers in a right-to-work state deserve to be targeted for not caving in to union demands. Unfortunately, a bill that would have curbed union power was killed by two top Texas republicans, Speaker Joe Straus and State Rep. Byron Cook (R-Corsicana).

Straus enables these union backed attacks on Texans by appointing members of his coalition government to committees where they can kill anti-union, pro-business bills. Had Cook not killed the Paycheck Protection bill presented in his committee last session, union power in Texas would have been drastically reduced by breaking the cycle of government resources being used to facilitate the collection of union dues.

It’s obvious why unions don’t want this protection to pass—they know that if given the option, employees would choose to keep their dues rather then pay in to the union. Considering that Straus is one of the largest Republican beneficiaries of union cash nationwide, little can be expected to change while he and his coalition government of Democrats and liberal Republicans run the lower chamber.

Charles Blain

Charles Blain is the president of Urban Reform and Urban Reform Institute. A native of New Jersey, he is based in Houston and writes on municipal finance and other urban issues.

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