tag:theconversation.com,2011:/global/topics/right-to-work-15880/articlesRight to work – The Conversation2021-12-10T13:38:27Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1729322021-12-10T13:38:27Z2021-12-10T13:38:27ZUnion battles at Amazon and Starbucks are hot news – which can only be good for the labor movement<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/436962/original/file-20211210-137612-4iivn6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=14%2C67%2C4980%2C3257&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Unions on the rise?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/PicturesoftheWeek-NorthAmerica-PhotoGallery/510fa3d724d146cd96488b910fe65c4f/photo?Query=starbucks&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=2554&currentItemNo=0">AP Photo/Joshua Bessex</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Union drives have <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/07/business/media/labor-unions-media-coverage.html">suddenly become hot news</a>.</p>
<p>In a closely watched Nov. 29, 2021, decision, the National Labor Relations Board <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/29/business/amazon-bessemer-alabama-election.html">ruled that Amazon had committed serious violations</a> of federal labor law during a union campaign at a warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama. In the decision, the NLRB <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/11/29/amazon-warehouse-union-revote/">attacked Amazon’s “flagrant disregard</a>” for election rules, saying it “essentially hijacked the process.” The online retail giant won the union vote, held earlier this year, by a 2-1 margin but will now be forced into a do-over election. </p>
<p>Meanwhile in Buffalo, New York, baristas at Starbucks <a href="https://apnews.com/article/starbucks-union-vote-buffalo-c7dc3c2ec8b838e9f4ed641f54fc9035">voted to unionize</a> on Dec. 9, making them the coffee chain’s only unionized workforce in the United States in what has <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/12/09/1062150045/starbucks-first-union-buffalo-new-york">been touted as a “watershed” moment</a>.</p>
<p>As a <a href="https://cob.sfsu.edu/directory/john-logan">labor scholar who has tracked unionization efforts</a> for 20 years, I believe we could be on the cusp of a new labor relations order, spurred in large part by increased media and public interest generated by these high-profile campaigns.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/02/02/amazon-union-warehouse-workers/">organizing drive</a> at an Amazon warehouse in Alabama by the Retail, Wholesale Department Store Union from January to March 2021 was one of the most closely watched union campaigns in decades. It generated media coverage of <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/16/technology/amazon-unions-virginia.html">Amazon’s anti-union behavior</a> and even arguably helped <a href="https://www.cjr.org/analysis/when_longtime_labor_reporter_steven.php">revive the so-called “labor beat</a>” in newsrooms after years of languishing.</p>
<p>The NLRB decision provided negative headlines for Amazon. “Amazon made ‘free and fair’ Bessemer union election ‘impossible,’ labor official rules,” <a href="https://www.al.com/news/2021/11/amazon-made-free-and-fair-bessemer-union-election-impossible-labor-official-rules.html">ran the headline of the Alabama</a> news site Al.com. The Jeff Bezos-owned Washington Post <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/11/29/amazon-warehouse-union-revote/">ran with</a>: “Labor board calls for revote at Amazon warehouse in Alabama in major victory for union.”</p>
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<img alt="A worker holds a pro-union sign outside an Amazon factory." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/436773/original/file-20211209-23-1wekdgy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=16%2C16%2C5478%2C3641&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/436773/original/file-20211209-23-1wekdgy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436773/original/file-20211209-23-1wekdgy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436773/original/file-20211209-23-1wekdgy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436773/original/file-20211209-23-1wekdgy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436773/original/file-20211209-23-1wekdgy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436773/original/file-20211209-23-1wekdgy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">A fork in the road for organized labor?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/union-supporter-stands-before-sunrise-outside-the-amazon-news-photo/1232002101?adppopup=true">Patrick Fallon/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>Even if it were to win the second ballot without violating the law, Amazon is <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-ceo-andy-jassy-reporters-politicians-all-hands-salacious-criticism-2021-11">highly sensitive about negative media</a>, and company officials will likely loathe any coverage of another high-profile union election.</p>
<h2>Labor rights go mainstream</h2>
<p>The NLRB order itself was arguably less interesting – despite its huge potential significance at Amazon – than the fact that it resulted in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/29/business/amazon-bessemer-alabama-election.html">lengthy articles</a> in <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/amazon-alabama-facility-ordered-re-run-union-election-us-labor-board-2021-11-29/">several major media outlets</a>.</p>
<p>Over the past year or so, organized labor has seemingly entered the mainstream again. It follows decades of apparent dwindling interest in union drives in the public sphere. A Google Ngram – which charts the use of terms in publications – shows a <a href="https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=Unionization%2Cunion+drive&year_start=1950&year_end=2019&corpus=26&smoothing=3">decline in the appearance of “unionization” and “union drive</a>” from the late 1970s to the late 2010s.</p>
<iframe name="ngram_chart" src="https://books.google.com/ngrams/interactive_chart?content=Unionization%2Cunion+drive&year_start=1950&year_end=2019&corpus=26&smoothing=3&direct_url=t1%3B%2CUnionization%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2Cunion+drive%3B%2Cc0" width="100%" height="200" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" hspace="0" vspace="0" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"></iframe>
<p><em>Labor organizing terms have dwindled in publications.</em></p>
<p>This decline correlates with the growing weakness of unions over that period: Unions represent <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/union2.nr0.htm">only 10.8% of American workers today</a>, down from 20% four decades ago. </p>
<p>Into this decline has come a recent wave of <a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/pkd538/unions-are-cool-now">positive press for unions</a>. It corresponds to almost record-high rates of public approval in unions. In fact, at 68%, support for unions is at its <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/354455/approval-labor-unions-highest-point-1965.aspx">highest level since 1965</a>. In addition, most Americans think union decline has <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/04/15/majorities-of-adults-see-decline-of-union-membership-as-bad-for-the-u-s-and-working-people/">hurt working people</a>. </p>
<p><iframe id="SeKfv" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/SeKfv/1/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<h2>Labor law reform</h2>
<p>The issue of labor rights has seemingly garnered the nation’s attention like nothing I have seen in my lifetime or even in the past half-century. And growing awareness of the issue could have an impact on efforts to improve the legislative environment for unionizing.</p>
<p>A <a href="https://www.filesforprogress.org/datasets/2021/6/dfp-vox-attitudes-towards-unions-toplines.pdf">recent poll found that 59% of respondents</a> supported strengthening labor laws through proposals such as penalizing companies that retaliate against workers trying to unionize and eliminating “right-to-work” laws that allow employees to benefit from union contracts without paying dues.</p>
<p>In the past, lack of public awareness has helped torpedo labor law reform campaigns. In 2009-2010, during the campaign for the Employee Free Choice Act, it was rare to encounter anyone without a professional labor interest who had ever heard of the legislation, which attracted only <a href="https://www.russellsage.org/research/reaching-for-new-deal-read-more">lackluster support from the Obama White House and died in the Senate</a>. </p>
<p>At present, the Biden-supported legislation aimed at strengthening the right to choose a union, the Protecting the Right to Organize Act, is firmly on the back burner despite <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/6/16/22535274/poll-pro-act-unionization-majority-bipartisan">support from a majority of voters</a>.</p>
<p>In the face of opposition from Republicans and three Democrats, the legislation is <a href="https://www.politico.com/newsletters/weekly-shift/2021/12/06/pro-act-allies-hit-the-road-799282">seen as a long shot in the Senate</a>, which historically has been the graveyard for labor reforms. The PRO Act might similarly die there, although pro-union advocates hope that meaningful financial penalties for employer violations will at least <a href="https://www.natlawreview.com/article/update-house-passes-build-back-better-bill-retaining-heavy-new-penalties-employer">make it into the $2 trillion Build Back Better bill</a>. </p>
<p>For the PRO Act to become a live proposition, it would likely need to convert its popular support into pressure on members of Congress.</p>
<p>This is the only way, in my view, to achieve meaningful change and make unionizing easier.</p>
<p>Headlines that focus on the coercive power that big corporations like Amazon exert over workers participating in elections could go some way to <a href="https://www.al.com/business/2021/04/most-americans-support-alabama-amazon-union-drive-poll-finds.html">bolster support for union drives</a>. </p>
<h2>Labor is hot</h2>
<p>Unions are set to continue to be a talking point in the national media with the Starbucks vote. </p>
<p>The coffee chain had been engaged in what was been described as “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/nov/23/starbucks-aggressive-anti-union-effort-new-york-stores-organize">aggressive” anti-union tactics</a> ahead of the vote, including forcing employees to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/nov/23/starbucks-aggressive-anti-union-effort-new-york-stores-organize">attend mandatory anti-union meetings</a>. Although it involves only a few dozen workers, the Workers United-SEIU union victory at Starbucks in Buffalo is seen as one of the most important labor organizing victories in several decades.</p>
<p>Corporate America has employed <a href="https://www.doi.org/10.1057/9781137319067_2">brutal anti-union campaigns for decades</a>. What has changed, from my perspective, is that such activities are now seen as newsworthy – at least when the companies involved are household names.</p>
<p>This coverage provides a stark contrast with past media coverage, which <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/british-journal-of-political-science/article/abs/organized-labor-as-the-new-undeserving-rich-mass-media-classbased-antiunion-rhetoric-and-public-support-for-unions-in-the-united-states/6CF19F2860C07ABAF0B7C787D8731A0C">often depicted unionized workers</a> as “overpaid, greedy and undeserving of their wealth.”</p>
<p>In the words of a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/07/business/media/labor-unions-media-coverage.html">New York Times article</a> on Nov. 7, 2021, the “media loves labor now.”</p>
<p>[<em>The Conversation’s Politics + Society editors pick need-to-know stories.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/politics-weekly-74/?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=politics-need-to-know">Sign up for Politics Weekly</a>.]</p>
<h2>Talking union</h2>
<p>In addition to Amazon and Starbucks, in recent months an expanding number and variety of employees have been talking about forming unions at their own workplaces. In the past few months alone <a href="https://hbr.org/2019/01/the-tactics-media-unions-are-using-to-build-membership">we have seen media</a>, <a href="https://www.kqed.org/news/11874325/tech-worker-organizing-is-nothing-new-but-actually-forming-unions-is">tech</a> and <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-10-04/museum-workers-embrace-unions-after-pandemic-job-cuts">museum workers</a> form unions and either stage or threaten strikes. </p>
<p>Coverage of the union campaign at Amazon is one reason talk of unionizing is seemingly spreading. But there are other factors, including the COVID-19 pandemic, which has spurred numerous labor fights – big and small – and safety struggles by <a href="https://time.com/5928528/frontline-workers-strikes-labor/">Amazon warehouse workers and Amazon-owned Whole Foods workers</a>. Meanwhile, the advent of social media has made it easier to create buzz around pro-union campaigns, such as the <a href="https://www.everydaysociologyblog.com/2021/11/striketober.html">recent “#Striketober” hashtag campaign</a>.</p>
<p>Organizing, it appears, can be contagious – under the right conditions. </p>
<h2>Seizing the moment?</h2>
<p>It’s not yet clear that unions and their allies can capitalize on this apparent newfound public attention and convert it into increased membership levels or changes in legislation.</p>
<p>But I believe we are at a unique moment in U.S. labor history. The question is, will unions take advantage of the increased media attention – and the negative headlines for high-profile companies attempting to quash workers’ rights – and spur a new era of labor activism?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/172932/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Logan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Union membership has dwindled over the past five decades. But could a flurry of positive headlines over union drives help reverse this trend?John Logan, Professor and Director of Labor and Employment Studies, San Francisco State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1196662019-07-05T05:13:02Z2019-07-05T05:13:02ZThe right to work can empower refugees in Malaysia<p>Malaysia hosts more than <a href="https://www.unhcr.org/en-au/figures-at-a-glance-in-malaysia.html">170,000</a> refugees – <a href="https://www.unhcr.org/id/">significantly higher than neighbouring Indonesia that hosts a little more than 14,000</a>. The new Malaysian government, elected in May 2018, has pledged to <a href="https://www.malaysiakini.com/letters/42649">ratify the international refugee convention</a> and <a href="https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2019/07/01/wan-azizah-job-opportunities-for-refugees-will-not-be-made-at-expense-of-malaysians/">allow refugees to work</a> in the country. But it has yet to do so.</p>
<p>Ratifying the refugee convention can be extremely difficult, if not impossible, in a country such as Malaysia. The new <a href="https://thediplomat.com/2019/06/will-refugees-be-allowed-to-work-in-new-malaysia/">government faced political backlash</a> by opposition forces when it moved to ratify the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination last year.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, giving refugees the right to work could <a href="https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2019/07/01/wan-azizah-job-opportunities-for-refugees-will-not-be-made-at-expense-of-malaysians">be beneficial</a> for all parties. In the policy the government is considering, the right to work does not translate into permanent residency, let alone citizenship.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.unhcr.org/en-au/labour-mobility-for-refugees.html">UN refugee agency</a> (UNHCR) has proposed the right to work complement three durable solutions for refugees: voluntary repatriation (go back to their home country if the circumstances allow), local integration and resettlement.</p>
<p>The legal right to work would enable refugees to accumulate social and capital resources, which could help them find a solution appropriate for their unique circumstances. </p>
<h2>Refugee context in Malaysia</h2>
<p>Malaysia is yet to sign up to the United Nations <a href="https://www.unhcr.org/en-au/1951-refugee-convention.html">1951 Refugee Convention</a> and its 1967 protocol, and it has no legal or administrative framework for dealing with refugees. The state has been hosting refugees based on humanitarianism on a case by case basis. </p>
<p>According to the <a href="https://www.unhcr.org/en-au/figures-at-a-glance-in-malaysia.html">UNHCR</a>, by the end of May 2019, there were 173,730 registered refugees and asylum-seekers from various countries in Malaysia. Of these, 68% were men and 32% women. There were also 44,130 children under the age of 18. </p>
<p>With no legal status, refugees are <a href="https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/opinion/2019/02/25/time-for-a-comprehensive-policy-for-refugees/">not allowed to work</a>, or access education and affordable healthcare.</p>
<p>Historically, Malaysia has issued temporary work permits (known as IMM13). These are permitted under Section 55(1) of the <a href="http://www.agc.gov.my/agcportal/uploads/files/Publications/LOM/EN/Act%20155.pdf">Immigration Act 1959/1963 (Act 155)</a>, which gives discretionary power to the home affairs minister to exempt a group of people from being subjected to the law.</p>
<p>These <a href="https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/opinion/2019/02/25/time-for-a-comprehensive-policy-for-refugees/">permits were issued</a> to some of Moro from the Philippines, Acehnese from Indonesia, and recently Syrian refugees, for humanitarian reasons, as well as to fill the labour gap.</p>
<h2>Benefits of the right to work</h2>
<p>The right to work provides a layer of protection for refugees, who become “workers”. Having a legal status is the gateway to decent work. This is in line with the Sustainable Development Goals agenda, as there are grieving mechanisms such as access to justice and relevant support if labour rights are violated. </p>
<p>Like everyone else, refugees need to earn a living to support their livelihoods, especially given they have lost most, if not all, of their productive assets after fleeing their home countries. </p>
<p>If they earn enough, parents can send their children to <a href="https://www.unhcr.org/en-au/education-in-malaysia.html">community-based learning centres</a>. Currently, only around 30% of child refugees attend these under-resourced schools. These schools charge from 30-150 ringgit per month, according to activists working on the ground.</p>
<p>With access to education, children are protected from being forced to work as undocumented labourers. This is also in line with the spirit of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, already <a href="https://treaties.un.org/Pages/ViewDetails.aspx?src=IND&mtdsg_no=IV-11&chapter=4&clang=_en#EndDec">ratified</a> by Malaysia. </p>
<p>Employment will also help refugees attain dignity. It provides agency to refugees. They can contribute to the host community instead of being passive victims dependent on assistance and charity. And it will help correct the false narrative of refugees being a burden on the host country.</p>
<p>If the government grants refugees the right to work, they might contribute more than 3 billion ringgit (around US$724 million) to Malaysia’s GDP by 2024 with more than 50 million ringgit in tax revenue increase each year by expanding the tax base, according to a recent <a href="http://www.ideas.org.my/policy-paper-no-60-economic-impact-of-granting-refugees-in-malaysia-the-right-to-work/">report by IDEAS</a>. Employing refugees could complement local workers instead of substituting them and would create up to 4,300 jobs for Malaysians. </p>
<p>Malaysia can also reduce the costs of law enforcement, associated with arrest and detention of refugees who work illegally. Legal work rights could help eliminate forced labour and debt bondage, which affect the refugee community. This can improve <a href="https://www.state.gov/reports/2019-trafficking-in-persons-report-2/malaysia/">Malaysia’s Trafficking in Persons Report (TIP) record</a>, which remains a Tier 2 country on the US state department’s watch list in 2019. </p>
<p>This will ensure transparent business practices, including preventing tax revenue loss in the informal economy, improving Malaysia’s standing as an investment-friendly country. </p>
<h2>Essential caveats</h2>
<p>Georgina Ramsay, an anthropology expert from the University of Delaware, US, has <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0308275X19840417">warned against seeing refugees as productive economic units</a> that could undermine the protection accorded to them under the global humanitarian framework. It could lead to host states shunning their responsibility to provide support and care for refugees. </p>
<p>Despite this concern, I argue the right to work is important for refugees in Malaysia due to the state’s complete inaction in the issue. </p>
<p>To make this policy work, I propose there should be caveats. First, refugees must not be categorised as “migrant workers”. Second, there should be no rivalry between pursuing refugees’ and migrants’ needs in the labour market. </p>
<p>These conditions are to ensure economic incentives do not overshadow humanitarian interest. They will also help prevent additional xenophobia and racism that may emerge. </p>
<p>Granting the right to work is not the ultimate solution to challenges faced by refugees. </p>
<p>However, it is the first crucial step, that can be done immediately, even before Malaysia signs the refugee convention. The legal right to work could empower refugees to thrive, not just survive, which benefits Malaysia in the short and long terms.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/119666/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Aslam Abd Jalil tidak bekerja, menjadi konsultan, memiliki saham, atau menerima dana dari perusahaan atau organisasi mana pun yang akan mengambil untung dari artikel ini, dan telah mengungkapkan bahwa ia tidak memiliki afiliasi selain yang telah disebut di atas.</span></em></p>Granting refugees in Malaysia the legal right to work will empower them, give them the chance to accumulate social and capital resources, and benefit them and the country.Aslam Abd Jalil, PhD candidate, The University of QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/990672018-06-28T10:40:25Z2018-06-28T10:40:25ZNevada’s unions show how organized labor can flourish even after an adverse Supreme Court ruling<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/225247/original/file-20180628-112628-co3lba.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Nevada unions have been successful in part because of their political engagement.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Isaac Brekken</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>American labor unions <a href="https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2018/02/26/public-sector-unions-brace-for-damaging-blow-from-supreme-court/gVMaUs9Gu6RcprdPtQLekI/story.html">have long been bracing</a> for a “post-Janus” future in which collecting dues would be harder than ever. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/janus-v-american-federation-state-county-municipal-employees-council-31/">Janus case</a> has been moving through the courts for two years and addresses the question of whether a public employee can be forced to pay dues to a union that represents him or her. </p>
<p>On June 27, the Supreme Court <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/27/us/politics/supreme-court-unions-organized-labor.html">said</a> no, which means the much-feared poorer future is now upon organized labor. While some pundits argue that this <a href="https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/the-state-worker/article201986374.html">may “cripple”</a> certain unions across the country, <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=Q0iWni4AAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">my research</a> in Nevada suggests it doesn’t have to be that way.</p>
<p>Nevada unions have been operating under this very constraint for 65 years and yet have managed to thrive. As such, I believe they offer three important lessons for labor unions in other states as they grapple with an indisputably bleak legal environment. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/225246/original/file-20180628-112623-nowt9z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/225246/original/file-20180628-112623-nowt9z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225246/original/file-20180628-112623-nowt9z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225246/original/file-20180628-112623-nowt9z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225246/original/file-20180628-112623-nowt9z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225246/original/file-20180628-112623-nowt9z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225246/original/file-20180628-112623-nowt9z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Supporters of Illinois government employee Mark Janus cheer as he walks to thank them outside.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Janus and right to work</h2>
<p>The Supreme Court ruled in Janus v. State, County and Municipal Employees that employees who receive the benefits of union representation are not required to pay any fees for those services because that would be “compelled speech” in <a href="https://theconversation.com/janus-decision-extends-first-amendment-right-of-silence-99066">violation</a> of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. </p>
<p>Governments in every state are now constitutionally prevented from entering into agreements with their workers requiring the employees to pay for union expenses, such as collective bargaining and handling grievances. This creates the risk that more and more employees will become “free riders,” getting the benefits of union representation but bearing none of the costs. </p>
<p>Janus is the latest success of the <a href="http://www.nrtw.org/right-to-work-frequently-asked-questions/">right-to-work movement</a>, which has <a href="http://wuwm.com/post/history-right-work-legislation-its-impact-unions#stream/0">been involved in litigation</a>, legislation and public advocacy against what it calls “forced unionism” since the first federal collective bargaining laws were enacted in the 1930s.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/collective_bargaining">Those laws</a> were modeled on the principle that larger units of workers have greater bargaining power than smaller, segmented ones. In addition, the idea was that employees should be required to pay for union representation to maintain collective strength. And that the union in return would owe those who disagreed with it a duty of fair treatment.</p>
<p>In 1947, <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/29/164">federal law</a> was changed to allow states to adopt so called right-to-work laws, which, like the Janus ruling, forbid compulsory payment of union dues by workers who are covered under a collective bargaining agreement. Currently, 28 states have right-to-work laws.</p>
<p>Nevada, the state where I live, adopted its right-to-work law in <a href="https://ballotpedia.org/Nevada_Right-to-Work_Law,_Question_1_(1952)">1952</a>. </p>
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<h2>The Nevada paradox</h2>
<p>While union membership has <a href="https://ler.illinois.edu/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/RTW-in-the-Midwest-2010-2016.pdf">declined</a> in many states with right-to-work laws, Nevada is among a few where the labor movement has remained fairly robust. Its union membership rate of 12.7 percent in 2017 was the <a href="https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2018/new-york-again-had-highest-union-membership-rate-south-carolina-the-lowest-in-2017.htm">second-highest</a> among right-to-work states.</p>
<p>That’s one reason Nevada’s unions offer important lessons for the rest of the labor movement on how to succeed in today’s more legally adverse environment. </p>
<p>My <a href="http://scholars.law.unlv.edu/facpub/1101/">research</a> has focused on private sector labor like the Culinary Workers and Bartenders Unions in Las Vegas, which are separate entities but bargain as one. Known as “the Culinary,” together they are the largest union in Nevada, representing nearly 57,000 workers in Southern Nevada and some properties in the Reno area.</p>
<p>Although the Las Vegas hospitality industry is unique in its scale and need for trained workers, the Culinary has thrived for more than 80 years by balancing on three poles: an immigrant-focused organizing ethic, political engagement and delivering services to members both in the workplace and in the community.</p>
<p>Many of the strategies employed to successfully organize the Culinary workers, then, will be key to the survival and success of organized labor across the country in the post-Janus world.</p>
<h2>Shoe-leather organizing</h2>
<p>Most unions around the country are familiar with the kind of shoe-leather organizing that the Culinary has utilized over its lifetime, such as house visits, worker-to-worker contact and, increasingly, social media strategies. This has led to a nearly 90 percent unionization <a href="http://www.culinaryunion226.org/news/clips/unions-brace-for-supreme-court-janus-decision">rate</a> on the famous Las Vegas Strip. </p>
<p>But the Culinary stands out for the success of its efforts, which has included working hard to recruit immigrants and women. For example, it <a href="http://www.culinaryunion226.org/union/history">proudly calls</a> itself Nevada’s largest immigrant organization, with members from 173 countries, more than half of them Latino. </p>
<p>In addition, about 55 percent of its members are women, which is higher than the <a href="https://iwpr.org/issue/democracy-and-society/women-in-unions/">national average</a> of about 46 percent. </p>
<p>In a right-to-work world, this kind of contact and engagement with workers – especially those who have not traditionally courted by unions – are essential for the survival of the labor movement. </p>
<h2>Political engagement</h2>
<p>The political engagement of the union has enhanced its importance among the state’s politicians because it supports their candidacies through get-out-the vote campaigns, election monitoring and social media outreach. </p>
<p>The Culinary’s <a href="https://twitter.com/Culinary226/status/1006715698352218114">endorsement</a> is coveted, and the get-out-the-vote campaigns they engage in have been successful in electing many of their preferred candidates and preventing the rise of some of the conservative candidates that have appeared in other states.</p>
<p>This political engagement can have an impact at the bargaining table, leading to community support for their recently successful efforts to organize new casinos outside of the Las Vegas Strip. This suggests that after Janus, public sector unions will have to get more political, rather than less.</p>
<h2>Delivering for the rank and file</h2>
<p>Finally, the success of two depend on and contribute to the third lesson: The Culinary is able to deliver the kinds of extra services and benefits for its members that ensure they keep paying their dues. </p>
<p>Others include efforts to help its many immigrant members, such as the <a href="http://www.culinaryunion226.org/affiliates/citizenship">Citizenship Project</a>, which has aided in the naturalization of nearly 20,000 Nevadans since its inception in 2001. Another member benefit is the Housing Partnership <a href="http://www.culinaryunion226.org/affiliates/housing-partnership">Program</a>, which the union won from employers to help workers buy their first homes. And the Culinary Training <a href="http://www.theculinaryacademy.org">Academy</a>, a nationally recognized joint labor management training program, showcases the union’s role in training the workforce to the benefit of workers and the hospitality industry. </p>
<p>These are all examples of labor-community partnerships that show the importance of unions not just to their own members but to others as well.</p>
<p>Unions across the country will struggle somewhat in the short term to do these kinds of projects due to their diminished resources, but these are the kinds of priorities that will build the labor movement over the long haul.</p>
<h2>The road forward</h2>
<p>Now that the Janus decision is almost certain to cut into how much money unions can collect from the workers they represent, their survival will depend on how well they can learn from places like Nevada and do more in these three areas. </p>
<p>An unfortunate side effect of the Supreme Court ruling, however, is that “labor peace” – a good working relationship between a union and management, one of the main goals of any union when it makes a contract with a company – will be more elusive than ever. Instead core members are likely to become more energized, as we’ve seen in mass demonstrations by teachers in Arizona, Oklahoma, West Virginia and Arizona – all right-to-work states, in fact. </p>
<p>Without a doubt, Janus marks a milestone in the history of labor unions in the U.S. But to its right-to-work supporters’ chagrin, it might not be the future they wanted.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/99067/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ruben J. Garcia does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>While the Supreme Court’s Janus ruling dealt a blow to organized labor, three lessons from Nevada’s unions suggest things aren’t as bleak as they appear.Ruben J. Garcia, Professor of Law, Co-Director of UNLV Workplace Law Program, University of Nevada, Las VegasLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/923892018-03-01T11:39:30Z2018-03-01T11:39:30ZCollective action is unions’ last line of defense - and Supreme Court is on verge of destroying it<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/208339/original/file-20180228-36706-1u33pag.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A ruling in the Janus case could devastate unions.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Supreme Court on Feb. 26 <a href="http://www.sj-r.com/news/20180226/gorsuch-silent-as-us-supreme-court-spars-over-janus-case">heard arguments</a> in a case that could deliver a devastating blow to organized labor.</p>
<p>The case concerns whether employees can be required to pay dues to a union even if they don’t belong to it, a debate that is similar to battles over so-called right-to-work laws that have swept the country. </p>
<p>As <a href="https://searchworks.stanford.edu/view/10765299">I’ve learned</a> in <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=sWr6QNwAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">my research</a> on such laws, the significance of the debate is much deeper. </p>
<p>This is another skirmish in the culture wars that pit individual rights against collective ones. If groups such as unions lose the ability to raise the funds necessary for collective action, I believe workers will be worse off, and inequality will rise. </p>
<h2>A right to work</h2>
<p>The <a href="http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=12675">Taft-Hartley Act</a>, passed in 1947 over President Harry Truman’s veto, paved the way for the case currently before the court by allowing states to prohibit compulsory union dues through so-called <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/right-to-work-15880">“right-to-work” laws</a>. </p>
<p>Presently a total of <a href="http://www.ncsl.org/research/labor-and-employment/right-to-work-laws-and-bills.aspx">28 states</a> have done so, leading to a <a href="https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/could-the-supreme-court-really-bust-public-sector-unions/">substantial drop</a> in union membership in those states. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/janus-v-american-federation-state-county-municipal-employees-council-31/">Janus v. American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees</a> case, which is backed by the <a href="http://www.nrtw.org/janus/">National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation</a>, could impose these right-to-work rules on public unions throughout the nation. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/208338/original/file-20180228-36696-1ya51d8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/208338/original/file-20180228-36696-1ya51d8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/208338/original/file-20180228-36696-1ya51d8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/208338/original/file-20180228-36696-1ya51d8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/208338/original/file-20180228-36696-1ya51d8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/208338/original/file-20180228-36696-1ya51d8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/208338/original/file-20180228-36696-1ya51d8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Mark Janus, center, thanks supporters outside the Supreme Court.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>At Janus’ core</h2>
<p>Many labor experts believe that the court will rule in <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-court-unions/conservative-supreme-court-justices-take-aim-at-union-fees-idUSKCN1GA1VB">favor</a> of plaintiff Mark Janus, an Illinois state employee who sued the union in 2015 because he had to pay a fee even though he never joined it. </p>
<p>He <a href="https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/feb/19/mark-janus-mandatory-union-dues-lawsuit-headed-sup/">argued that such a fee violated</a> his First Amendment rights by requiring him to subsidize political views he doesn’t support. </p>
<p>This is the core of Janus: the proposition that individual liberties cannot be subordinated to political coercion that conflicts with a person’s fundamental values. It follows from this line of thinking that we should be able to “opt out” of such collectivist demands as taxes and other laws, even when they support the common good. </p>
<p>The same principle is at stake in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/05/us/politics/supreme-court-same-sex-marriage-cake.html">Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission</a>, which also awaits a Supreme Court ruling. That case involves a Colorado baker who refused to bake a wedding cake for a gay couple, arguing it would violate his First Amendment right of religious freedom. </p>
<p>Together, cases like Janus and Masterpiece Cakeshop would establish a constitutional principle giving citizens the choice to “opt in” to collective action rather than being forced to “opt out.” </p>
<p>In both instances, the law will attempt to resolve the <a href="http://duncankennedy.net/documents/Photo%20articles/The%20Structure%20of%20Blackstones%20Commentaries.pdf">fundamental conflict</a> between personal values and social demands. The court’s opinion has important consequences for workers and their ability to work collectively to negotiate for better pay or working conditions.</p>
<h2>Assault on collective action</h2>
<p>This assault on collective action in the U.S. isn’t new and goes back to at least the early 19th century in fights over <a href="http://heinonline.org/HOL/Page?handle=hein.journals/dlr91&div=25&g_sent=1&casa_token=&collection=journals">shoemaker guilds</a>, which obligated all tradesmen to support the organizations.</p>
<p>More recently, in 2012, the <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/2011/10-1121">Supreme Court heard</a> a case similar to Janus involving California state employees, who are required to pay a fee to the Service Employees International Union as part of its representation of them in collective bargaining negotiations. The union sought to collect a special assessment to finance a political fund, and some employees who weren’t members sued demanding a right to opt out of paying the fee. The court agreed and ruled that employees must be asked to specifically opt in instead. </p>
<p>The majority opinion, written by Justice Samuel Alito, ran contrary to decades of <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/1976/75-1153">court precedent</a> on union security, as Justices <a href="https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/567/298/concur4.html">Sonia Sotomayor</a>, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, <a href="https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/567/298/dissent5.html">Stephen Breyer</a> and Elena Kagan explained in separate opinions. </p>
<p>Their criticisms of the opt-in idea show how disingenuous it is. That’s because it worsens the “free rider” problem, in which people can attain all the benefits of group efforts without bearing any of the costs. The kind of cooperation that is essential to a free society can’t happen without collective action, as economist Mancur Olson showed in his <a href="http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674537514">classic study</a> of public goods and organizational behavior.</p>
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<h2>Unions and inequality</h2>
<p>If the Supreme Court’s ruling on Janus adopts Alito’s view that workers must always opt in to the costs of collective bargaining agreements, it will inflict severe damage on labor organizations and, as a result, on workers and many others. </p>
<p>Researchers such as economist Thomas Piketty provide <a href="http://equitablegrowth.org/research-analysis/economic-growth-in-the-united-states-a-tale-of-two-countries/">convincing evidence</a> that declines in union power are correlated with increases in economic inequality.</p>
<p>Today in the U.S., only about 6.5 percent of private workers <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/union2.nr0.htm">belong to a union</a>, which is about the lowest in decades. That figure is higher in the public sector, at 34 percent, but if Janus topples a central pillar of union support by undercutting the vital revenue stream of dues, those organizations will begin to atrophy like private unions. And mark my words, the American working class will suffer.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/92389/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Raymond Hogler does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Supreme Court could kill collective bargaining throughout the country, making workers worse off and exacerbating inequality.Raymond Hogler, Professor of Management, Colorado State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/695752016-11-30T03:03:28Z2016-11-30T03:03:28ZWhy America’s labor unions are about to die<p>I’ve <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-labors-decline-opened-door-to-billionaire-trump-as-savior-of-american-workers-60689">written before</a> on how the decline of <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/labor-power-15530">organized labor</a> beginning in the late 1970s gave birth to the backlash that fueled Donald Trump’s election. </p>
<p>Labor’s deterioration weakened worker protections, <a href="https://theconversation.com/america-doesnt-just-need-a-raise-we-need-a-new-national-norm-for-wage-growth-46831">kept wages stagnant</a> and caused <a href="http://www.epi.org/publication/unions-decline-and-the-rise-of-the-top-10-percents-share-of-income/">income inequality</a> to soar to the <a href="https://eml.berkeley.edu/%7Esaez/saez-zucmanNBER14wealth.pdf">highest levels in over eight decades</a>. It also made workers feel they needed a savior like Trump. </p>
<p>In other words, his unlikely victory follows a straight line from the defeat of the <a href="http://www.d.umn.edu/%7Eepeters5/MAPL5112/5112%20Articles/Fink-Labor%20Law%20Revisions%20and%20the%20End%20of%20Postwar%20Labor%20Accord.pdf">Labor Reform Act of 1978</a> to the election of 2016. That bill would have modernized and empowered unions through more effective recognition procedures accompanied by enhanced power in negotiations. Instead, its death by filibuster became the beginning of their end. </p>
<p>It’s a sad twist of irony that Trump’s election and Republican dominance across the country may finally destroy once and for all the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-rise-and-fall-of-us-labor-unions-and-why-they-still-matter-38263">institution most responsible</a> for working- and middle-class prosperity. It will likely be a three-punch fight, ending with a fatal blow: the expansion of right-to-work laws across the country that would permanently empty the pockets of labor unions, eroding them of virtually all their collective solidarity. </p>
<h2>How we got here</h2>
<p>In 1980, union membership density stood at 23 percent of the work force; some 40 years later, just over 11 percent of American workers <a href="http://www.unionstats.com/">belong to unions</a>. During the same period, wealth inequality in the U.S. continued to accelerate largely on a <a href="http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1086/684273">social class basis</a>. </p>
<p>White males without college degrees reacted to their ongoing misery in 2016 with a political transformation unrivaled since <a href="http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2008/09/10/the-most-consequential-elections-in-history-franklin-delano-roosevelt-and-the-election-of-1932">Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s electoral victory in 1932</a>. The election’s <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2016/11/10/politics/why-donald-trump-won/">postmortem pundits</a> offered differing explanations for Trump’s victory, including racism, sexism and the ennui of Hillary Clinton supporters.</p>
<p>A popular narrative argues that deteriorating economic conditions provided the fuel for the Trump conflagration as it swept through the former union strongholds of Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin and Ohio. </p>
<h2>Three blows for labor</h2>
<p>Despite the enthusiasm of his working-class supporters, Trump’s economic policies would bring them a raw deal, not a New Deal. Three key areas will play a crucial role in union diminution and workers’ bargaining power during Trump’s administration, with further declines in real hourly earnings.</p>
<p>The first is regulatory. On his inauguration, Trump has the opportunity to appoint two new members to the National Labor Relations Board now controlled by Obama appointees with administrative discretion to <a href="https://www.littler.com/publication-press/publication/nlrb-issues-numerous-decisions-against-employers-hirozawas-term">implement pro-labor decisions</a>. With their new majority, Republican appointees <a href="https://www.nlrb.gov/reports-guidance/rules-regulations">will have a smorgasbord of past cases and regulations</a> to repeal and replace. Trump’s future replacements undoubtedly will promote a business-friendly agenda, and the board’s shift in emphasis will be immediately apparent. </p>
<p>The second is the Supreme Court. If Trump fills the vacant seat with someone in the mold of the late Antonin Scalia, the new court will likely uphold what in my view is the <a href="http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/labor/256728-supreme-court-justices-at-work-bashing-unions">rickety constitutional theory</a> of union dues put forth by Samuel Alito in Knox v. SEIU. Alito’s rule holds that public sector union members have a constitutional right to decline dues payments unless they consent to do so. Or, in Alito’s words, dues payers will be deemed to “opt out” of dues unless they “opt in.” </p>
<p>In early 2016, the <a href="http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/labor/269488-right-to-work-takes-a-time-out-in-the-supreme-court">Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association case</a>, which would have mandated a constitutional right-to-work rule, stalled out with Scalia’s demise, but <a href="http://www.nrtw.org/blog/janus-v-afscme-update11212016/">a similar case is moving through</a> the lower federal court system that raises the matter once more. The litigation will eventually work its way back to the Supreme Court, and the new Trump justice can affirm the undoing of public sector union dues. </p>
<p>The third and most lethal blow against unions, along with board and court hostility, is the expansion of <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-misleading-arguments-propelling-right-to-work-laws-38265">right-to-work laws</a> as a by-product of Trump’s victory. </p>
<p>Trump ran on a platform of making America great again by <a href="http://www.npr.org/2016/08/08/488816816/donald-trump-looks-to-turn-the-page-on-bad-week-with-economic-speech">restoring incomes through innovation and deregulation</a>.</p>
<h2>The road ahead for right to work</h2>
<p>Trump’s plan meshes perfectly with the ideology of right to work, which promotes itself as a tool of development and economic advancement, even though <a href="http://econweb.umd.edu/%7Edavis/eventpapers/ozbeklikright.pdf">recent evidence shows</a> the claim is dubious. </p>
<p>Twenty-six states have now enacted right-to-work laws, which forbid compulsory payment of union dues by workers who are covered under a collective bargaining agreement. Among other adverse consequences, the laws create a <a href="https://theconversation.com/right-to-works-rapid-spread-is-creating-more-union-free-riders-38805">free-rider problem</a> because under the exclusive representation doctrine, employees who do not pay dues must still receive the same wages, benefits and protections as those who do. </p>
<p>Republicans in the past election won a <a href="https://ballotpedia.org/State_government_trifectas">legislative trifecta</a> in the states of Missouri, Kentucky, Ohio and New Hampshire. Those states are presently not right-to-work, but such conditions will not long stand.</p>
<p>In Missouri, <a href="http://www.joplinglobe.com/news/local_news/right-to-work-likely-coming-to-missouri/article_d20b0ad2-97af-5c6a-a6a4-c9bca440d3dc.html">Republicans legislators said</a> they expect to pass a right-to-work law that bars mandatory union fees early in 2017, and the incoming GOP governor says he will sign it. </p>
<p>Legislators in Kentucky followed a slightly different route by focusing on county rather than statewide legislation. Their gambit paid off in November when a federal appeals court <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/appeals-court-upholds-local-work-law-kentucky-43646335">upheld the validity</a> of a county right-to-work law. Expect the entire state to adopt the policy soon.</p>
<p>New Hampshire has traditionally followed the principle of collective security and defeated right-to-work initiatives in 2011 and 2015. But with the election of a Republican governor and legislature, the issue could prevail, which would make the Granite State the <a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/442125/2016-election-results-right-work-wins">first in New England</a> to institute right to work.</p>
<p>And in Ohio, a Republican legislator introduced a bill in April to ban compulsory dues payments, <a href="http://www.cincinnati.com/story/opinion/contributors/2016/04/13/brinkman-unions-ultimate-zombies/82807378/">declaring</a>: “Over the past three-quarters of a century, unions have become the ultimate zombies.” While Governor John Kasich is not enthusiastic about right to work, he could yield to political reality if the bill passes.</p>
<p>Clearly, right-to-work supporters have seized the initiative and are marching on the offensive. With enough political momentum, the battle for right to work could soon migrate to the federal level, where a <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/house-bill/612">national right-to-work bill</a> is pending in Congress. Republicans have the votes to pass it in the House. In theory, it could face a filibuster in the Senate, but as a practical matter, the legislative dumpster fire during Trump’s first year will burn so hot and bright that right to work may become an early casualty in the battle for Democrats’ political survival.</p>
<h2>How will it all end?</h2>
<p>Since the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947, class forces in this country have fought for supremacy over the political and economic machinery as Republicans attempted to roll back the consequences of the New Deal legislative revolution. Right to work figures importantly in the struggle between labor and capital. </p>
<p>As <a href="http://www.abc-clio.com/ABC-CLIOCorporate/product.aspx?pc=A4410C">I show in my book</a> on the subject, right-to-work laws are statistically correlated with lower rates of union membership, lower levels of human development, lower per capita incomes, lower levels of trust and less progressive tax schemes. In short, the empire of right to work leans toward further entrenching the power of corporations, not the economic emancipation of American wage earners.</p>
<p>The voters who brought Trump to the big dance would be the ones who suffer when he leaves with his wealthy and glamorous friends. As an <a href="http://fortune.com/2016/11/09/trump-economy-taxes-immigration/">article in Fortune</a> suggests, Trump’s plan for deportations and broken trade agreements will inflict serious injury on the economy in general and in particular on those industrial sectors that elected him. The rest of us will be collateral damage.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/69575/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Raymond Hogler does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Labor’s decline has steadily eroded the prospects of working-class Americans, fueling the backlash that propelled Trump. His election, however, will likely deliver unions a knockout punch, hurting his supporters most.Raymond Hogler, Professor of Management, Colorado State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/606892016-08-08T00:11:34Z2016-08-08T00:11:34ZHow labor’s decline opened door to billionaire Trump as ‘savior’ of American workers<p>Out of the economic maelstrom of the last decade, Donald Trump has emerged as the improbable, and self-proclaimed, champion of American workers. </p>
<p>And that’s despite the fact that Trump has failed to articulate substantive policy positions regarding <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/labor-power">labor issues</a>, other than generic railing against foreign competition and bad trade deals. AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, for one, <a href="http://www.aflcio.org/Blog/Political-Action-Legislation/Just-Remember-How-Donald-Trump-Treats-Working-People">has attacked him</a> by tweeting a number of examples in which Trump’s past behavior shows that he is no friend to working people. </p>
<p></p><blockquote><p>Everything Trump says shows he is desperate to be working ppl’s friend but everything he does proves he is our enemy <a href="https://t.co/3AXVBV3jpm">https://t.co/3AXVBV3jpm</a></p>— Richard L. Trumka (@RichardTrumka) <a href="https://twitter.com/RichardTrumka/status/755486423743078400">19 July 2016</a></blockquote> <p></p>
<p>The important question is how has Trump – a wealthy real estate mogul and reality TV star – managed to <a href="http://europe.newsweek.com/new-data-why-white-working-class-voters-back-trump-475447">attract substantial support</a> among white men without college degrees, a demographic that makes up the base of industrial unionism? </p>
<p>The answer is an interlocking set of changing economic and cultural conditions in the U.S. that has undermined middle-class incomes and values. And it starts with the steady erosion of the American labor movement. </p>
<p>In my <a href="http://www.abc-clio.com/ABC-CLIOCorporate/product.aspx?pc=A4410C">recent book</a> on labor decline, I explored the historical evolution of the movement and concluded that state right-to-work laws are instrumental in breaking down working-class solidarity. Paradoxically, it is in these states that Trump’s support is strongest. </p>
<h2>The decline of unionism</h2>
<p>In 1950, Walter Reuther and the United Auto Workers <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/10/08/business/uaw-auto-union-timeline.html">negotiated</a> a landmark labor contract with General Motors known as the “Treaty of Detroit,” which set the terms for working-class prosperity over the next three decades. According to a <a href="http://ssrn.com/abstract=984330">study</a> by economists Frank Levy and Peter Temin, the golden age of the American working class depended on a set of institutional supports that included collective bargaining and union power. </p>
<p>Deteriorating economic conditions and <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-rise-and-fall-of-us-labor-unions-and-why-they-still-matter-38263">membership declines</a> in the late ‘70’s led organized labor to mount a pivotal effort for labor law reform to reinvigorate the movement, but a proposed bill <a href="http://library.cqpress.com/cqalmanac/document.php?id=cqal78-1238478">was defeated</a> by a Republican filibuster in 1978. Subsequently, union membership fell at a faster rate than at any time since the 1920s and <a href="http://www.bls.gov/news.release/union2.nr0.htm">presently stands</a> at 11.1 percent of workers. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/inequality-can-be-addressed-only-if-we-start-talking-about-the-working-class-44442">effect of union deterioration</a> on income inequality <a href="http://www.epi.org/publication/unions-decline-and-the-rise-of-the-top-10-percents-share-of-income/">is nicely illustrated</a> by the relationship between membership and the income share of the top 10 percent. In 1956, membership in unions was 33.2 percent, which was slightly higher than the share of national income taken in by top earners. In 2013, the figures were 11.2 percent and 47 percent, respectively. </p>
<h2>The role of culture</h2>
<p>Coupled with stagnant wages, changing social conditions have inflamed the cultural divide among identity groups. A psychological theory known as “<a href="http://www.culturalcognition.net/">cultural cognition</a>” argues that Americans fall primarily into two ideological camps that shape their responses to such divisive issues as guns, race, gender and public toilets. </p>
<p>“Hierarchical individualists” adhere to traditional social roles, such as marriage between a man and a woman, freedom from government interference with personal liberties belonging to citizens of our nation, and regard for institutions such as the church and the military. This type of person holds deep religious views and respects authority arising from legitimate sources. Trump identifies himself as a billionaire who succeeded through his own talent and who states his views without regard for “political correctness.” </p>
<p>The contrasting cultural position is “collective egalitarianism,” which values group action to achieve equality of opportunity, opposes race and gender discrimination, and rejects the dead weight of the historical past. This person advocates economic policies to reduce inequality, such as by increasing the minimum wage and eliminating unfair labor practices. <a href="https://berniesanders.com/issues/income-and-wealth-inequality/">Bernie Sanders’ economic platform</a> embodies these ideals.</p>
<p>The key point of the theory is that culture takes precedence over rational thought. One study, for example, shows that white males perceive risk much differently than other groups when it challenges their cultural identities and orientation. The <a href="http://www.culturalcognition.net/browse-papers/culture-and-identity-protective-cognition-explaining-the-whi.html">authors conclude</a> that “the white male effect might derive from a congeniality between hierarchical and individualistic worldviews, on the one hand, and a posture of extreme risk skepticism, on the other.” </p>
<p>Consequently, Trump’s base has less apprehension about the risks of his presidency, such as his lack of experience in foreign affairs and his <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/aug/07/humayun-khan-donald-trump-military-arlington-national-cemetery">disastrous imbroglio with the Khan family</a>, than do other social groups; and they remain positive about his candidacy because of who they are, not who he is. </p>
<h2>Trump’s heartland</h2>
<p>The two largest cohorts of union membership are aged 45 to 54 and 55 to 64. </p>
<p>Overall, there are 6.3 million white male union members compared with slightly more than one million black male members. <a href="http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/290395-trumps-path-to-victory-depends-on-surge-of-white-men">Analysts predict</a> that Trump will need to win around 67 percent of the white vote to prevail in the election. </p>
<p>What political strategy would enable Trump to capture key industrial states like Pennsylvania and Ohio? Charles Blow, a New York Times columnist, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/04/opinion/trump-reflects-white-male-fragility.html?action=click&contentCollection=Opinion&module=Trending&version=Full&region=Marginalia&pgtype=article">argues</a> that Trump’s appeal is based on racism, writing that “Trump is an unfiltered primal scream of the fragility and fear consuming white male America.” From this perspective, Trump’s best campaign strategy is further attacks on such groups as Muslims and Mexicans. </p>
<p>Thomas Frank, another well-known political commentator, disagrees. He quotes a labor union official in Indiana who points out that working-class Americans are probably no more racist that any other group. Rather, Trump’s appeal to the white male without a college degree is better understood by simple economics. As Frank <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/mar/07/donald-trump-why-americans-support">explains</a>: “Ill-considered trade deals and generous bank bailouts and guaranteed profits for insurance companies but no recovery for average people, ever – these policies have taken their toll.” </p>
<p>In the end, both approaches are needed to grasp the Trump phenomenon and the possibility that he might become president because his political rise is a conflation of historical circumstance and cultural gridlock.</p>
<p>In other words, Trump achieved a Republican primary victory at the moment when unions no longer could offer economic security for middle-class workers and when dominance based on race and gender was rapidly disappearing. </p>
<h2>Back to the future</h2>
<p>Trump’s promise to “Make America Great Again” appears to offer a restoration of power to his supporters, but that restoration will not be achieved through positive labor law policies and union growth as took place during the New Deal.</p>
<p>For unions, it is unlikely that Trump would promote statutory changes to make organizing easier and more efficient because <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-misleading-arguments-propelling-right-to-work-laws-38265">Republicans have systematically sought to destroy</a> unions by adopting right to work legislation in states like Indiana, Michigan and West Virginia, and repealing state laws that protect public sector labor organizing. </p>
<p>Realistically, <a href="https://www.donaldjtrump.com/positions">Trump’s campaign is devoid</a> of any substantive policy proposals to improve wages and benefits for American workers. Trump succeeds not as a legitimate political candidate but as a “cultural symbolist” who relies on emotionally charged tropes to attract followers, such as walling off our border with Mexico and banning Muslims from entering the country. </p>
<p>His approach for the most part has been successful and may be so in the future. A New York Times <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/05/opinion/the-perils-of-writing-off-mr-trump.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=opinion-c-col-left-region&region=opinion-c-col-left-region&WT.nav=opinion-c-col-left-region">editorial warned</a> against dismissing Trump with the comment, “He is speaking to people who disbelieve conventional politicians, who detest a Washington they think has betrayed them. He promises nothing of substance to ease their pain, but he gives voice to their rage.” </p>
<p>Responding to the “voices of rage” is hardly a worthwhile agenda for national prosperity or security, but it could be enough to win an election.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/60689/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Raymond Hogler does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Donald Trump has emerged as a self-proclaimed hero of the working class, yet his policies and pedigree suggest he’s anything but.Raymond Hogler, Professor of Management, Colorado State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/382652015-05-01T10:02:19Z2015-05-01T10:02:19ZThe misleading arguments propelling right-to-work laws<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/79179/original/image-20150423-25581-bxeei7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A child with an abacus does better math than the proponents of right-to-work laws. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Child abacus via www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>A bevy of “right-to-work” laws has been introduced in state legislatures across the United States this year. The legislation has generated intense debate and contention, making headlines across the country. What was most alarming about the parade of bills introduced this year, however, was how their proponents manipulated facts in order to propel them through state legislatures.</p>
<p>As a sociologist who studies unions and someone who relies on good quantitative data, I am bothered most by how the mathematics used to justify these arguments is so deeply flawed – mistakes that any student of statistics could easily spot. Lately I’ve been focusing on the battle over right-to-work legislation in New Mexico, where a bill was dealt a death blow in the state Senate at the final hour.</p>
<p>But workers in other states such as Wisconsin have not fared as well. In March, the Midwestern state became the 25th in the US to <a href="https://theconversation.com/right-to-works-rapid-spread-is-creating-more-union-free-riders-38805">prohibit</a> unions from negotiating contracts that require union and nonunion employees to pay their share of costs for all the benefits the union provides. </p>
<p>The results of this war on workers may vary from state to state, but the genesis of these salvos and the misleading arguments used to muscle them through legislatures are the same. A careful analysis reveals their scientific and intellectual flaws.</p>
<h2>Boiler-plate blueprint</h2>
<p>The <a href="http://www.nmlegis.gov/Sessions/15%20Regular/bills/house/HB0075.pdf">legislation</a> that failed to pass in New Mexico was eerily similar to <a href="http://www.alec.org/model-legislation/right-to-work-act/">boiler-plate language</a> that conservative organizations such as the National Right to Work Committee and the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) have been <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/19/us/politics/foes-of-unions-try-their-luck-in-county-laws.html?_r=1">circulating</a> through regional lobbying organizations that are typically part of the conservative <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/State_Policy_Network">State Policy Network</a>. </p>
<p>In New Mexico, that <a href="https://progressnownm.wordpress.com/2015/01/28/emails-show-rio-grande-foundation-seeking-to-fund-fake-report-to-conclude-republican-agenda-is-right/">organization</a> is the <a href="http://www.riograndefoundation.org">Rio Grande Foundation</a>. Its president, Paul Gessing, <a href="http://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/legislature/right-to-work-clears-first-hurdle-in-new-mexico-house/article_ea790f3b-de0d-5cca-a3e3-ad65f7a4e556.html">has argued</a> in various news outlets and in <a href="http://www.riograndefoundation.org/content/gessing-provides-expert-testimony-right-work-bill-passes-first-house-committee-bi-partisan-v">testimony</a> to legislators that right-to-work laws increase economic growth, jobs and personal income. </p>
<p>The problem? As I’ve noted elsewhere when challenging Gessing’s arguments, he and others <a href="http://www.bizjournals.com/albuquerque/news/2015/02/20/viewpoint-theres-no-relationship-between-right-to.html?page=all">have based</a> these assertions not on scientific evidence but on the faulty math of failing to control for the multitude of factors that contribute to economic growth. </p>
<p>The problem with the misuse of math is illustrated plainly by the well-worn storks and babies example. Numerous studies <a href="http://web.stanford.edu/class/hrp259/2007/regression/storke.pdf">have found</a> a correlation between an increase in the stork population and a rise in human birth rates. Of course, we know storks don’t deliver babies, and once we control for other factors that create this seemingly causal relationship it disappears entirely – as is the case with the false relationship between right-to-work laws and economic and job growth. </p>
<h2>Lower wages</h2>
<p>In fact, the scientific research actually shows the opposite of what right-to-work proponents have claimed. </p>
<p>The most rigorous <a href="http://www.epi.org/publication/bp299/">research study</a> available – published in 2011 by the nonpartisan Economic Policy Institute and conducted by Heidi Shierholz (now the chief economist of the US Department of Labor) and Elise Gould – controlled for 42 variables. It found that right-to-work laws result in lower wages and a lower likelihood of health care and pensions for union and non-union workers. It also shows right-to-work laws have no impact on economic growth. </p>
<p>Right-to-work proponents, however, have used “research” reports that control for few if any variables, to suggest that right-to-work states have done better on a variety of growth measures, predicting that their state would similarly benefit by passing a bill. </p>
<p>For example, the Wisconsin Public Research Institute, a member of the free-market-oriented State Policy Network, <a href="http://www.wpri.org/WPRI-Files/Special-Reports/Reports-Documents/rtw225.pdf">published</a> such a report before the state passed its law that claimed that adopting right-to-work could increase per-capita income by 6 percentage points. But the study only controlled for eight variables, which isn’t nearly enough to control for all the different factors that affect changes in income. </p>
<p>In other words, the conclusions are meaningless. In the world of medical research, this would be like testing a cancer drug without using a control group that was not given the drug, ensuring that its pure effect could be isolated. </p>
<p>Another problem with right-to-work proponents’ math is that making predictive arguments using simple averages of other states’ growth rates makes no sense statistically. </p>
<p>It’s comparable to the argument that on average people with larger shoe sizes are more likely to have heart attacks. Does this mean shoe size predicts heart attacks? No, there are other variables that are having effects such as age – since children are much less likely to have heart attacks. </p>
<p>Only regression analysis allows us to isolate the effects of a key variable (storks, shoe size, right-to-work laws) on a given outcome and eliminate the effects of others. The problem with making predictions based on simple averages is easy to see when we examine right-to-work proponents’ favorite case – Oklahoma.</p>
<h2>Misusing anecdotal evidence</h2>
<p>Gessing told New Mexico lawmakers that Oklahoma’s economic growth is the result of its 2001 right-to-work law. But he <a href="http://www.occeweb.com/og/2010%20Annual%20Report.pdf">failed</a> to mention that over the same period Oklahoma’s economy was benefiting from rising prices for oil and natural gas - and more recently from higher levels of production – factors that would make a significant contribution to growth. </p>
<p>Gessing also <a href="http://www.riograndefoundation.org/content/gessing-provides-expert-testimony-right-work-bill-passes-first-house-committee-bi-partisan-v">argues</a> that there are “reams of data” showing right-to-work states create more jobs, which is not true. He didn’t note, for example, that manufacturing employment in Oklahoma <a href="http://data.bls.gov/pdq/SurveyOutputServlet">fell</a> sharply in the first three years after the state passed its law in 2001 and is currently down about 22% since then. </p>
<p>So in the case of Oklahoma, what was likely actually happening? Oil and natural gas made rich people richer through their investments, lifting per-capita personal income but not average worker wages. </p>
<p>It is unlikely that right-to-work laws had any impact on Oklahoma’s economic growth. Nor is there convincing evidence that they had an impact on job growth in Michigan and Indiana, as proponents similarly <a href="http://www.isthmus.com/news/news/michigan-union-members-warn-wisconsin-about-life-under-right-to-work/">have tried to argue</a> using averages, falling into the shoe size-heart attack trap. </p>
<h2>RTW laws fail to lure business</h2>
<p>Across the country proponents have also argued that right-to-work laws would put their states into consideration for more private sector jobs, a claim for which I cannot find any scientific evidence at all in any state. Instead, they rely on anecdotal examples to make their case. </p>
<p>And ultimately, stories about what employers may or may not do in the future if a state were to pass a right-to-work law does not constitute scientific data; there are so many other factors that affect business decisions about where to open a factory or office. Scientific <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-9787.1992.tb00197.x/abstract">research</a> on the location decisions of US and foreign corporations suggests that among the most important variables are: market size, local taxes, wage rates and transportation infrastructure – but not right-to-work laws.</p>
<p>In the 2014 <a href="http://www.itif.org/publications/2014-state-new-economy-index">State New Economy Index</a>, which compares states every year for their attractiveness to high-tech, high-wage manufacturers, none of the top five states were right-to-work states, and only two of the top 15 were. What were the companies surveyed looking for? Perhaps surprisingly, they were not looking for cheap labor but rather for states with good education systems, good research universities and skilled workers who would stay for a long time. </p>
<h2>What really drives an economy</h2>
<p>The debate about right-to-work laws across the country this legislative session has misdirected our collective focus and energy away from what <a href="http://www.epi.org/publication/states-education-productivity-growth-foundations/">solid evidence</a> suggests will improve states’ economic futures: creating a solid infrastructure, equipping our schools and teachers with resources and seeking out emerging and innovative industries that offer better and more permanent jobs.</p>
<p>Scientific research also <a href="http://asr.sagepub.com/content/76/4/513.abstract">suggests</a> that improving wages and reducing inequality across the US depends on the existence of strong unions. </p>
<p>Although right-to-work laws are proffered as part of a state’s economic development strategy, their real goal is to undermine workers’ collective voice and power.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/38265/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tamara Kay has received funding for her work from the National Science Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Harvard Medical School, the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies (Harvard), and the Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies.
Tamara Kay has had affiliations with the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies, the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs (Harvard), the Hauser Institute for Civil Society at the Harvard Kennedy School (formerly the the Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations), the Transnational Studies Initiative (Harvard), the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Center for Health Policy (UNM), the Latin American & Iberian Institute (UNM), and the Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies at the University of California, San Diego.</span></em></p>The arguments behind right-to-work legislation rely on a lot of flawed math that any statistician would frown upon.Tamara Kay, Associate Professor of Sociology, University of New MexicoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/388052015-04-03T10:12:45Z2015-04-03T10:12:45ZRight-to-work’s rapid spread is creating more union free riders<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/76970/original/image-20150402-9348-bqle8p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Too many free riders, and the system of organized labor collapses. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Turtle and hamster from www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>An effort to weaken organized labor is sweeping the Midwest, a region with a rich history of union activism. </p>
<p>The strategy takes advantage of a curious provision of <a href="http://www.nlrb.gov/resources/national-labor-relations-act">US labor law</a>, section 14 (b). It allows states to pass laws that prohibit unions from negotiating the collection of union dues with employers and, more specifically, from compelling workers covered by the bargaining agreement to pay them as a condition of employment. </p>
<p>Under labor law, employees that do not pay dues enjoy the same wages, benefits and protections as those who do. A labor union that discriminates against someone covered by the contract (and who doesn’t pay dues) is liable to a duty of fair representation lawsuit. </p>
<p>Corporations call these laws “right-to-work” (RTW). Unions prefer the term “right-to-freeload” (RTF). </p>
<p>Wisconsin last month <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/markhendrickson/2015/03/13/wisconsins-right-to-work-law-and-the-fatal-flaws-of-unionism/">became the latest</a> (and 25th) state to pass legislation that allows union-covered workers to refrain from paying dues. Legislators in Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky and New Mexico are agitating to following suit. </p>
<p>What do these laws mean for organized labor? </p>
<h2>What RTW isn’t about</h2>
<p>First, let us begin by anticipating and then dismissing several pretexts. RTW is not about granting workers the freedom to associate, as supporters argue. If that were the case, then RTW advocates would approach the minority union concept, keenly argued by Charles Morris in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Blue_Eagle_at_Work">The Blue Eagle at Work: Reclaiming Democratic Rights in the American Workplace</a>, with equal zeal. </p>
<p>Morris explains that the intent of the original labor law was to promote collective bargaining by compelling employers to negotiate with groups of workers on behalf of members only, even if they did not constitute at least 50% of employees. Silence on this issue from right-to-work supporters undermines the credibility of the “freedom to associate” motive. </p>
<p>RTW is also not about making labor unions more responsive to workers by allowing them to withhold dues payments. The very same objective could be achieved by allowing union objectors to remit the equivalent of union dues to an agreed-upon charity, enabling workers to register dissatisfaction with a union without giving them a financial incentive to do so. Hence, the objection would genuinely reflect ideology or religious concerns, and not free-rider opportunism. </p>
<p>However, the American Legislative Council (ALEC)-sponsored legislation sweeping the nation expressly prohibits any requirement to “pay to any charity or other third party, in lieu of such payments, any amount equivalent to or a pro-rata portion of dues, fees, assessments, or other charges regularly required of members of a labor organization.” </p>
<p>ALEC is a group of conservative state legislators that crafts “model” legislation and lobbies like-minded politicians to pass the bills, as <a href="http://alecexposed.org/w/images/c/c8/1R10-Right_to_Work_Act_Exposed.pdf">has been the case</a> with right-to-work. </p>
<h2>What RTW does</h2>
<p>One way to understand the real intent of RTW is to imagine what would happen to the public services in one’s town, city or state if the payment of taxes were voluntary. How long would our public schools, libraries, sanitation systems, water facilities, parks and so forth function if taxes were optional? </p>
<p>Charging fees would be impermissible, because persons that refuse to pay tax would have an equal right to the schools, libraries, garbage collection, water, etc, as those that do pay. Just like RTW, the services would have to remain equally accessible to tax payers as well as tax deadbeats. Public services as we know them would collapse.</p>
<p>All collective endeavors require resources to achieve their goals. Labor unions represent working persons at their place of employment through collective bargaining. Organized labor also has an admirable history of fighting on behalf of non-union workers through political advocacy on issues such as workplace safety, minimum wage and public health insurance. The obvious intent of the ALEC-funded RTW effort is to burden the union movement’s pursuit of these goals by making it difficult to acquire financial resources. </p>
<h2>Labor free riders</h2>
<p>Evidence of a RTW burden is beginning to appear in state-level statistics. </p>
<p>The graph below provides trends lines for the union free rider percentages in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Wisconsin. The free rider percentage is the percent of persons in the state that are covered by a collective bargaining agreement but are not union members. The <a href="http://www.bls.gov/news.release/union2.toc.htm">estimates</a> are from the Current Population Survey administered by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/76929/original/image-20150402-9328-1te5fbp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/76929/original/image-20150402-9328-1te5fbp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/76929/original/image-20150402-9328-1te5fbp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/76929/original/image-20150402-9328-1te5fbp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/76929/original/image-20150402-9328-1te5fbp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/76929/original/image-20150402-9328-1te5fbp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=531&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/76929/original/image-20150402-9328-1te5fbp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=531&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/76929/original/image-20150402-9328-1te5fbp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=531&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Share of labor union free riders has generally gone up since passage of a right-to-work law.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Bureau of Labor Statistics</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The top line is Indiana, which passed RTW in 2012. The dashed line at the bottom is Michigan, which passed RTW in late 2012, effective 2013. Both states show a gain in the percentages of free riders following the passage of RTW laws. </p>
<p>The growth in free riders for Michigan would have been even more dramatic had RTW applied immediately to all collective bargaining agreements. Prior to the law, many unions across the state signed binding letters of intent with their employers to extend union security provisions. As these letters expire, the RTW burden will predictably increase. </p>
<p>Wisconsin (dotted line) displays an upward trend in free ridership, although quite gradual by comparison with Indiana and Michigan. The trend in Wisconsin might be attributable to the evisceration of collective bargaining rights for public employees in 2011. The Midwest state that has experienced little change in bargaining law, Illinois (solid line), has a free rider rate from 4% to 6%, and no discernible trend over the period.</p>
<h2>Elite arrogance back in vogue?</h2>
<p>It is important to not only acknowledge these trends but to understand the context that gives rise to RTW, or any other anti-worker policy. What does RTW symbolize? </p>
<p>On a political level, the expansion of RTW is symptomatic of the resurgent influence of corporate control over political affairs. Advocates for RTW, as agents of the corporate class, evidently have enough resources to convince persons to vote to undermine one of the few social institutions that advance the interests of working persons. </p>
<p>Observing these events brings to mind the <a href="http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/33148.html">quip</a> attributed to the 19th-century railroad baron, Jay Gould, during an earlier era of great inequality: “I can hire one half of the working class to kill the other half.” Elite arrogance is back in vogue.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/38805/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Roland Zullo is an academic that maintains regular communications with labor activists in Michigan. This essay solely reflects his analysis on the topic. He is a member of Working America.</span></em></p>Labor unions dub the laws allowing unionized workers to avoid paying dues “right-to-freeload.”Roland Zullo, Research Scientist at the Institute for Research on Labor, Employment and the Economy, University of MichiganLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.