Rantz: Labor front group trying to shut critics up

A labor union front group is upset restaurants are calling out the policies unions helped pass. What’s worse, a union organizer is threatening a boycott of businesses that are already struggling due to union-backed policies.

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Working Washington, which goes to great lengths to keep their backers a secret, recently blasted a number of Washington restaurants for charging extra fees to consumers, due to the increased cost of doing business in a city that frequently succumbs to union pressure.

On Twitter, the group goes after Buckley’s on Queen Anne for adding a Seattle Fair Wage Act fee. Working Washington complains that the act doesn’t exist and says the “made-up charge is certainly not a tax.” They made similar criticisms of restaurants in Issaquah and Spokane.

Working Washington is now calling on the Washington Department of Labor and Industries to compel these restaurants to eliminate the language surrounding these surcharges. This move should alarm you. It’s a clear affront to speech.

The restaurants are either aiming to inform customers about the burdensome costs associated with doing business in Seattle and/or it’s political speech aiming to purposefully call out policies that make businesses more and more difficult to operate. They should have that right even if labor unions don’t like the speech.

Indeed, so enraged by the surcharges, one union organizer is calling on a boycott of restaurants that engage in this practice. This is, of course, a move that would hurt the workers the unions pretend to serve.

I understand that Working Washington isn’t moved by the concern of businesses; after all, these labor unions take workers hard earned salaries to do their anti-business bidding. It’s much easier to operate off of someone else’s money rather than anything you’ve earned yourself through hard work. But let’s be clear: Working Washington doesn’t like that the impact of their policies are being called out and they’re trying to silence their critics. If their critics win, policies that lead to more money being funnelled into the coffers of labor unions will suffer. And they can’t have that.

How about this: let the speech exist and the consumers will decide if they are okay with the surcharge. If these businesses continue to operate and folks continue to pay, without complaint, it’s actually serving Working Washington — it’s a reminder that customers can afford a few extra dollars (or cents) in order to pay a higher wage to employees. The fear, however, is that we’re unwilling to pay which calls into questions union claims that these increased charges won’t hurt businesses.

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