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What is Right to Work?
) Right now, many successful companies negotiate multi-year agreements with their employees through a representative of the employee’s choosing. These agreements protect companies from frivolous lawsuits and give corporations predictable labor costs so they can hire more workers. These multi-year agreements give employees the job security they need to buy a new car or send their children to college without fear of being fired. That strengthens our economy and helps everyone do better. Some politicians want to make it a crime for corporations to sign agreements with their employees. Instead of government overreaching into the private sector, companies, workers and their unions should work together to create good paying jobs and safe workplaces. With millions of Americans still unemployed, Right to Work is a divisive partisan political issue meant to punish workers and the labor unions who represent them. Instead, our elected officials should be coming together to work on important issues like balancing the budget, creating jobs, and improving schools and not engaging in political paybacks against unions.
RTW creates a loophole in our labor laws that allow workers who decide not to be a part of a union to receive all the advantages of union representation without having to pay for it. A union contract guarantees the wages, benefits, training, safety and protection from unfair discipline of all workers.
Unions are required by federal law to represent all workers and bargain a contract that benefits all workers, whether or not he/she actually become members of the union. That means that if a worker who is represented by a union but doesn’t pay dues is fired illegally, the union must use its time and resources to defend the worker the same as if he/she was a member, even if that requires going through a costly, time-consuming lawsuit.
A RTW law would allow the government to interfere unfairly in the freedoms of private businesses and employees and restrict the right of businesses to negotiate with their employees. Employers should be free to negotiate contracts without government intrusion. Employers and employees should be working together to create good jobs and safe work places instead of the government trying to tell them what to do.
According to data from the U.S. Department of Labor and the U.S. Census Bureau, RTW states have lower wages, higher poverty, less access to health care and poorer education for children.
Our state legislature should focus on balancing the budget, creating jobs and improving schools not engaging in political paybacks against workers.
Industries locate in a state for many reasons, but RTW laws are not among them. Factors like workforce productivity, availability of skilled workers, transportation, closeness to markets and materials, quality of life and proximity to research universities are the keys to economic growth.
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that no one can be forced to join a union or to pay fees not directly related to the cost of representing them. Federal law also requires unions to fairly represent all workers covered by a contract. RTW would allow workers who choose not to join a union to still benefit from all the benefits of union representation without paying anything at all. That’s not fair to their co-workers who play by the rules and pay their fair share.
