Right to Work States

Freedom Pays Off

Patrick Semmens — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 14:34:35 -0400

Supporting free choice for employees would be the right thing to do, even if it didn't have economic benefits, but fortunately there are significant economic advantages to Right to Work.

The chart below is from the cover story of the latest National Right to Work Committee newsletter, and shows that Right to Work states create new jobs more than twice as fast as forced-union-dues states.

Video: Nevada Nurses Decry Unaccountable SEIU Union Hierarchy

Justin Hakes — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 11:17:42 -0400

Following up on the recent upheaval within the SEIU union, a group of nurses from Nevada have recently put out a video decrying the disconnect between rank-and-file nurses and the union hierarchy.

R.I.P. Charlton Heston, Supporter of the Right to Work

Patrick Semmens — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 16:10:31 -0400

This weekend legendary actor Charlton Heston passed away.

Heston, former president of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) union, was a rare union official who supported the Right to Work.

As recounted in this article, Heston also led a group of actors who started a campaign in the early 1980's to inform their fellow actors of the right to refrain from formal union membership as won in the National Right to Work Foundation's Abood case:

Mr. Heston also aroused the ire of union leaders in Hollywood when he and a group of conservative SAG actors -- who called themselves Actors Working for an Actors Guild -- led a movement to educate Hollywood union members to the fact that they had the right -- as upheld by the Supreme Court -- to opt out of their unions by declaring "financial core" status. In non-right-to-work states such as California, declaring financial core status gives workers in unionized industries the right to opt out of their union's politics while still requiring them to pay that portion of union dues that go directly towards collective bargaining, contract enforcement and contract administration.

Later, Heston himself resigned his formal SAG union membership in protest of a racist stance by SAG union brass:

Mr. Heston put his principles into action in 1991 when he declared financial core status in Actors Equity to protest the union's refusal to allow a white actor -- Jonathan Pryce -- to play the role of a Eurasian in "Miss Saigon" on Broadway. Mr. Heston, who had marched with Dr. Martin Luther King, called the union's action "obscenely racist." He even flew to London to support an actor's right to play any role without regard to race.

Charlton Heston was a champion of freedom who will be missed.

UPDATE: Here is video of Heston talking about the Right to Work principle from the Right to Work YouTube channel.

Misconceptions About Right to Work Laws and Unionization Rates

Patrick Semmens — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 15:25:47 -0400

The Rocky Mountain News had an article this weekend on various proposed ballot initiatives in Colorado. The otherwise informative article concluded with this strange (and unsupported) sentence:

For the most part, states without right-to-work laws have higher levels of union participation, a statistic that some observers attribute to the popularity of unions rather than right-to-work laws.

The idea that the "popularity of unions" accounts for lower rates of union participation in Right to Work states, gets it entirely backwards and fails to understand just what a Right to Work law does.

Right to work laws do nothing to change the process through which a workplace becomes a union shop: a place where union officials have the power to forcibly represent every employee in the bargaining unit). Rather, they simply ensure that once a union is installed, no worker is forced to pay union dues as a condition of keeping or getting a job.

There are at least two ways that these Right to Work protections affect "union participation" rates:

Voluntary Participation. The most obvious reason is that in Right to Work states unions can't force employees to pay dues or be fired. This lets employees decide for themselves if they think the union is worth the dues they are being charged. So it should come as no surprise that when employees are actually given a choice, it drives down union participation.
Big Labor's Bottom Line. A second way in which Right to Work laws lower participation in unions is that they discourage (though not completely) Top Down union organizing. More and more drives for unionization are instigated by outside professional union organizers, as opposed to employee-led demands for unionization. But like the companies they try to organize, union officials are very aware of the bottom line, and they are always looking to maximize their revenue. Since for union bosses revenue means union dues, they realize that by targeting employers in states without Right to Work laws, they can maximize their haul because every worker - not just those who support the union - will be forced to pay up.

So contrary to what "some observers" say, there are at least two ways that protecting employees' freedom to choose impacts union participation rates.

"The Only Good Scab is a Dead Scab"

Justin Hakes — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 14:30:44 -0400

That's what one person commented on YouTube about our latest video. Though sad, the sentiment is indicative of the mind set that led to such hostility against the employees in the video that simply exercised their Right to Work.

Unfortunately, history shows that it gets even worse.

WSJ: Repeal of Right to Work Laws High on Union Officials' 2008 Agenda

Justin Hakes — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 13:00:09 -0400

Today's Wall Street Journal points out that union officials are pouring upwards of a billion dollars, much of it in compulsory dues, into the 2008 election cycle. The goal? A sea change of American labor law.

"This is an all-in bet for them in 2008," says Mark Mix, president of the National Right to Work Committee, a group that fights down in the trenches against coercive union power. "As market cycles go, they're in their peak, we're in our trough, and they're looking for a clear two-year run" in an all-Democrat Washington.

Then there's the crown jewel:

Tucked into the 1947 Taft-Hartley Act is a provision called 14(b), which allows for "right to work" states. Big Labor last took a run at deleting this section, and forcing more unionization, in the Johnson administration.

Aside from abolishing employees' free choice of whether or not to join or pay dues to a union, wiping the current 22 state Right to Work laws off the map would deal a crushing blow to the American economy.

According to a recent study by the National Institute for Labor Relations Research, forced unionism cost the American economy upwards of $436 billion in GDP between 2000-2006 alone.

The yoke of compulsory unionism already takes a severe toll on states without Right to Work laws, the last thing America needs is to expand its reach.

Video: Employees Suffer Broken Windows, Slashed Tires, and Stalking for Refusing to Strike

Justin Hakes — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 17:13:56 -0400

View a new video by the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation about the often brutal intimidation that employees face for exercising their Right to Work.

Sadly, while these employees suffered greatly, others often face far worse retaliation for refusing to walk off the job during a strike.

Photos Show Nails in Employee's Driveway, Tobacco Juice on Windshield (Warning: Graphic)

Justin Hakes — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 14:36:24 -0400

Additional photos documenting earlier reported incidents of retaliation against employees of Volvo who kept working during a recent UAW union strike have surfaced.

Here, an employee finally gained the ability to press charges against a union operative for spitting tobacco juice all over her windshield after contacting the National Right to Work Foundation.

And here are just a couple of several hundred nails the very same employee found in her driveway before heading out to work one morning.

Photo Surfaces: Volvo Employee's Smashed Out Car Window...More to Come...

Justin Hakes — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 13:33:26 -0400

One Volvo employee's car windows were smashed out in the dead of night, even though he parked his car near his home under a spotlight because he feared retaliation for refusing to strike. Many such photos have surfaced, and we plan to have them online as soon as possible. The National Right to Work Foundation is continuing to act on behalf of employees during the fallout from this strike.

read more

Volvo Employee to Press Charges Against Picketer

Justin Hakes — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 12:37:41 -0400

Though it's pretty PG-rated compared to what else has gone on around the UAW strike in Virginia, a local employee called in to say that she has been allowed to press charges against a UAW picketer for spitting tobacco onto her car windshield and obstructing her view.