The National Right to Work Committee (NRTW) says that labor unions are “outdated and no longer beneficial to their members, American workers as a whole, or the larger society”. They go on to encourage union members to drop their memberships, and for members (and agency fee payers) to cancel their dues payments. Of course, the NRTW’s rhetoric ignores the fact that union members earn significantly more than their non-union counterparts (BLS, p. 2; Yates, p. 40), are protected by collective bargaining agreements with their employers, and belong to organizations that “compel employers to listen to their employees and to respect them as human beings. Employers know these things, and this is why they fight our collective efforts so viciously and spread lies about them” (Yates, p. 46). The NRTW is just another employer-sponsored attack dog set loose to attack unions, collective bargaining, and worker organization.
Since the passage of the National Labor Relations Act in 1935, the U.S. economy and job market has seen major changes. For example, forces such as deregulation, …show more content…
But “Right to Work” is all about one thing: destroying unions. Their method is to starve unions out of existence, by cutting off their revenue stream: union dues. These laws would “prohibit contracts that require all workers who benefit from union representation to help pay for these benefits” (EPI, p. 21). By making dues or fee-payment voluntary, rather than compulsory, unions would struggle to pay their bills, and be forced to reduce their services (representation, staff, member benefits) and/or go bankrupt. It’s clear to see why employers and their lobbyists would want these sorts of union-busting laws to flourish. So it’s extremely important for all workers, both union and non-union, to see why anti-union legislation must be defeated. According to the Economic Policy Institute (p. 6-17),
Since the passage of the National Labor Relations Act in 1935, the U.S. economy and job market has seen major changes. For example, forces such as deregulation, …show more content…
But “Right to Work” is all about one thing: destroying unions. Their method is to starve unions out of existence, by cutting off their revenue stream: union dues. These laws would “prohibit contracts that require all workers who benefit from union representation to help pay for these benefits” (EPI, p. 21). By making dues or fee-payment voluntary, rather than compulsory, unions would struggle to pay their bills, and be forced to reduce their services (representation, staff, member benefits) and/or go bankrupt. It’s clear to see why employers and their lobbyists would want these sorts of union-busting laws to flourish. So it’s extremely important for all workers, both union and non-union, to see why anti-union legislation must be defeated. According to the Economic Policy Institute (p. 6-17),