At RealClearPolicy Christos Makridis articulates the case for “right to work” laws:
I found that adoption of adoption of right to work laws is associated with increases in both life satisfaction and economic sentiment. In fact, the increase in life satisfaction is 14.2 percent of that experienced with the attainment of a college degree — remarkable given that college attainment is associated with a wide array of other benefits, like higher earnings potential.
Playing devil’s advocate, isn’t it possible that union dues prevent things from getting worse for unionized workers? Or that there are other unrelated factors that produce the “increases in both life satisfaction and economic sentiment”?
At any rate I think that evidence and reasoned consideration are preferable to threats of violence so you might want to take a look at the piece. I should add that I wish that unions would focus more on working conditions than on wages.
This is drawing me out and I have to explain to you that unions are not entirely about wages. In fact, in the last ten years we’ve been losing ground there. Also losing ground on benefits.
Where the dues I pay to the Teamsters have helped me is contract enforcement. When the company cheats me on pay, without the union contract, I can only accept it or Quit.
As a commissioned wholesale dairy driver and salesman, I work on commission. There are only two levels, Drop shipment and full service, where I anticipate the need, fill the order, check the codes, fill the shelves, often clean the product so as to be salable. .
For 3 years, the company “accidentally” paid me drop pay on a full service account, when I discovered this, I documented it and went to the union, was reimbursed over $4,000.00. Our “country routes” those with over 150 miles driving time per day, were to receive $50.00/mo. for that driving time. Payroll dropped the ball on that, “accidentally” for over two years before anyone noticed it. When we went to the union, I was reimbursed over $2500.00.
Look, no accident here, if I steal a gallon of milk, I’m terminated. If payroll, at managements behest, shaves my pay, the worst that can happen to them is that they pay what they were contractually obligated to pay anyway.
Without the Teamsters, I get what management decides to pay, and their promises mean nothing nor do contracts since there is no penalty for breach. It’ always “A Mistake”
And also, I don’t know about other industries, but wholesale commissioned drivers work long hours, start early, I get up at 2:00 AM. And work hard, harder than you would believe, hurrying to get to the next store before delivery hours end or other drivers get the only dock door.
If you think my kind are lazy, drawing unearned pay for no work due to unions unethical practices,I can only say you are ignorant at best, Elitist at worst.
Companies management hates unions and by extension, those who work there, always looking to cheat us of our sold lives, knowing no penalty is ever levied.
All we can do is agree together to withhold our labor until companies negotiate living compensation. As to the threat of violence, I’ve never seen that, and I believe It is isolated and rare, caused by workers who are in fear of losing everything their families depend upon.
Well, naturally there are pros and cons to unions and right to work. So much hinges upon whether the principals are bad actors, or not.
I can only relay the environments where I have experience. And those would be operations unionized by the United Steel Workers and the United Auto Workers. It’s dangerous to generalize to all union members, but in total these unions are not populated by sensible people, in particular the leadership. Was there a time when management was the culprit, and abusive? You bet. But the unions seem to be stuck in the 30s to 50s mindset. Consider today, where minimills are almost exclusively non-union, and management/employee relations are as good as one could expect in a large industrial operation.
That all said, there is no crime in workers’ bargaining as a group. Empirically, though, you find business migrating to the south and southeast because they find unions cumbersome. Some will say that’s to line their pockets. I’d take a more considered view. It’s a reaction to competitive pressures, and wages are a second order effect. Work rules (read: flexibility) are really the issue.