Right to Work

       

Michigan became the 24^th state to pass Right to Work legislation last week.  Just what does Right to Work mean?  It basically means that if someone has a job where there is a union, the individual employee has the right to choose if he or she wants to join the union and pay dues.  Without Right to Work everyone must pay dues if they want the job.  The unions are strongly opposed to this legislation. 

Unions and people opposed to Right To Work claim it is a way of eliminating or reducing the power of unions.  I do not think this is a primary objective, but it does have the potential to reduce dues collected and revenues for the union. 

The opposition also claims it reduces salaries of all workers in the state.  This does not seem to be supported by the facts if cost of living is factored into the figures.  There just does not seem to be reliable figures showing higher or lower wages. 

Another argument by the opposition is that it is immoral for non-dues paying workers to benefit from the union.  Maybe, or does it take away personal freedom by forcing them to pay dues?

Proponents of Right to Work argue that it stimulates the economy and reduces unemployment.  The figures do support this assumption, but personally I think there are other factors causing this and not necessarily Right to Work legislation.  One major factor is most states with Right to Work do not have the major cities that are in urban decay.  It will be interesting to see what happens in Detroit.  

Proponents claim that companies will not consider building new plants in Right to Work states.  I am not sure this is justified, but I know it is true in some cases.  Detroit was the world leader in automobile production.  That is no longer true.  There is no question the union had some role in that decline.  How much is certainly up for debate. 

Several new automobile plants have been built in this country, but not in Detroit.  It would seem Detroit had a lot to offer.  Detroit had a trained labor force, parts suppliers, transportation, and facilities available.   Why were none of these plants started in Detroit?  How big a factor was Right to Work and the United Auto Workers?

There seem to be a lot of opinions and not a lot of clear answers.  Personally, I think it comes down to this.  If a person wants to work where there is a union, should they be forced to pay union dues, or should the union have the responsibility of showing the workers the value of paying dues?  Of course there will always be some people that want something for free without working or paying for it, but that is normal and seems to be a bigger and bigger part of our country.