The right to work?

While campaigning for the Presidency Senator Barak Obama promised organized labor he would make enacting the Employee Free Choice Act (card-check) legislation, which would eliminate the secret ballot to unionize a work place, one of his priorities if he was elected. After more than one year in office the President has not acted upon his promise. Leaders of organized labor are becoming concerned about the lack of progress and union members are beginning to voice their disapproval.

Many people feel the card-check legislation would undermine legislation passed in right-to-work states. Many Americans live in states that are known as forced union states where there are no right to work laws and therefore they are required to join a union if they land a job at a unionized work site. Most people feel forcing someone to join a union as a condition of employment is un-American. Currently there are only 22 states that have right-to-work laws and most of these states are in the south.

Organized labor opposes right-to-work laws because they say workers can be “free riders” by choosing not to join a union thereby denying the union the fees that members pay. The reality is that three out of every four employees covered by union contracts opt to join the union and pay dues (1). Union officials argue that wages and benefits are higher in unionized states and that fewer occupational injuries occur in unionized settings. The truth is that in almost every measurable category statistics show citizens that reside in states with a right-to-work law fare better economically than citizens in states that have no right-to-work legislation.

During what President Obama calls the worst economic crisis of our time, right-to-work states had job growth at .1% while forced union states lost .3% of their jobs (2). A telling statistic concerns construction job growth; in the last five years of available data construction jobs in right-to -work states have grown at a rate of 10.6% compared to 1.8% in forced union states (3).

Union officials claim that wages are 6.5% lower in right-to-work states than forced union states (4) but that difference disappears when local cost of living is accounted for (5). Workers in right-to-work states enjoy a faster growth rate in real disposable income, 15.8% versus 9.1%, than workers in forced union states and they have a higher disposable income at $34,878 versus $32,811 (6). There are only seven residents per 1,000 that receive welfare in right-to-work states as opposed to forced union states where the rate is more than doubled at 16 in every 1,000 (7).

While it is true the rate of fatal injuries is higher in right-to-work states as a group, three of the four states with the highest rate of fatal injuries are forced union states, with Wyoming being the exception (8).

The Employee Free Choice Act is being debated in both houses of Congress and enjoys broad support among Democrats but is opposed by conservative Republicans. Contrary to the statements made by union supporters, enacting “card-check” will undermine right-to-work laws. It is a fact enacting “card-check” will lower the standard of living for every one in all right to work states.

Carl Goodson is the author of “Letters to the editor; What is your government doing to you?”

(1) www.mackinac.org/9180
(2) www.mackinac.org/10515
(3) Ibid.
(4) www.wslc.org/legis/ri-work.htm
(5)www.mackinac.org/9180
(6) www.nilrr.org/files/NILRR%20FACT%20SHEET%20RTW%20States%20Benefit%202009.pdf
(7) Ibid.
(8) www.mackinac.org/9180