The Las Vegas Sun reports that internal disputes and struggles for power within some of the nation’s top union monopolies have played a role in Big Labor’s inability to force the Card Check Forced Unionism Bill through Congress.

This is largely untrue.  While internal union disputes may be playing a small role, the real story is that the National Right to Work Committee has led mobilized grassroots America to lobby against this toxic union boss power grab.  Of course, this bill would eliminate the secret ballot in union certification elections and empower federal bureaucrats to write and impose contracts on small businesses and workers.

But the current power struggle among UNITE HERE union chiefs is incredibly revealing:

Exhibit A: Unite Here General President Bruce Raynor resigned last week from the apparel and hotel workers union after six months of legal and verbal jousting with co-president John Wilhelm over union resources and the direction of Unite Here.

He said he decided to quit after Wilhelm’s allies, accompanied by nearly a dozen security guards, broke into his New York union office and stole personal files related to mediation sessions aimed at reconciling the two leaders’ differences. Raynor likened the incident to something one would see on the HBO mob series “The Sopranos.”

A bit of a thug himself, Raynor would know.  Sadly, union violence and intimidation is nothing new and it is usually committed against independent-minded American workers.  The Card Check Forced Unionism Bill would only increase union harassment of American workers.

Indeed, even comparing union operations to "The Sopranos" is common.  And it’s no laughing matter, as we show in this Right to Work video report about an indictment of twelve Operating Engineers Local 17 union officials.