Home » Opinion » Foreign Views
‘Right to work’ leaves people without rights
Print Edition
As Wisconsin pauses to remember the legacy of Martin Luther King, some of those claiming to honor him are simultaneously preparing to dismantle the very institution in which he believed to be the most crucial ally of civil rights: labor unions.
Far-right extremists in the legislature and powerful corporate forces are now using the “right-to-work” guise to create corporate supremacy in Wisconsin.
King would have recognized this “right-to-work” legislation as an effort to transform Wisconsin into a low-wage state where democracy is hollowed out, leaving African-Americans and other working people without any collective voice to seek better lives.
Corporate top-down control
When unions lose the right to collect fees for benefits that are costly for them to win, the result has been predictable in “right-to-work” states. Management gains a strong incentive to discourage the payment of dues or fees. This inevitably results in a severe erosion of the union voice, their eventual collapse, and a return to total top-down control by corporate CEOs.
The new Wisconsin campaign to virtually exterminate unions would not surprise King. As he told the United Auto Workers in 1961, “In the thirties, when industrial unionism sought recognition as a form of industrial democracy there were powerful forces which said to you the same words we as Negroes hear now: ‘Never... You are not ready... You are trouble makers... You are interfering with our property rights.’”
Part of the new drive for a “right-to-work” law is economic, feeding an upward re-distribution of wealth to the top 1 percent. The Congressional Research Service concluded from 2011 figures that states permitting union-security provisions showed higher wages: US$50,867 compared to US$43,641 for right-to-work states — a difference of 16.6 percent.
“Right-to-work” laws also translate into a new political order: uncontested corporate power and distorted public policy. “Right-to-work” states generally have lower levels of educational attainment, public health, and other indicators of social health, like an infant mortality rate 15 percent higher than the national average.
Roger Bybee is a Milwaukee-based advocate for social justice and writer whose work has been published in numerous Wisconsin and national publications. He also teaches in the Global Labor and Employment Relations program at the University of Illinois. Shanghai Daily condensed the article. Copyright: American Forum.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
