Unions vs. Right To Work Laws

Unions have fallen into ill repute and decreased in number over several years now. I don’t believe this is good for the nation.

Trade unions are groups of individuals who come together for common causes such as pay, working conditions, professionalism, and the like. These folk band together to negotiate contracts with their employees. They cover all walks of life from truckers to doctors. They came with the industrial revolution and the often-inhumane conditions of working in those early plants where workers were mistreated.

Below is a chart of membership in unions from 1930 to 2010:

And here the public support for unions:

Next a chart on income concentration since 1920

And another chart on recent changes

I don’t think it takes a genius to understand that middle class folk, especially those involved in unions did much better when labor unions were strong and worse when they declined. It is also true for the overall economy. Middle class folk stimulate the economy more than any other group, thus it is better for the economy to have the wealth centered there. It is also fair.

I find the recent rhetoric on the “Right to Work” laws bizarre. It is another one of the oddly labeled issues, where “right to work” means you cannot be forced to join a union even though it is in the best interests of those in those trades. Twenty-four states have passed such laws, which have been led and supported by the wealthy. It works for the wealthy but not for the rest of us.

The National Labors Relations act made it possible for unions to have “closed shops” you had to belong to the union. Then in 1947 the Taft-Hartley Act passed over Truman’s veto outlawed the closed shop.

This may sound like the individual rights of freedom what happens is that those who benefit from union work no longer have to support those unions with union dues. Millions of dollars have been given by foundations controlled by the U.S. industrialists to the National Right to Work Committee; guess why? I don’t think it is because of the altruism.

The upshot of this is that wages in “right to work” states are lower than those that don’t have it. That is also true for health insurance and pensions.

Here are the “right to work” states:

Have unions overstepped their bounds from time to time, of course. But compare those miss uses of power to the current abuse of workers by Wall Street, Bankers, and Corporations today.

It is a complicated issue but hopefully this information helps shed some light on the subject. Here the "right of the few" dominate.