Right to Work and the Plight of Unions

Michigan seems prepared to become the 24th state in the United States to pass a “Right to Work” law, which gives workers the right to work without union membership. Of course, with that phrasing, the law sounds pretty good. People are getting more rights. People’s freedoms are being extended. With this perspective, we’ll have more liberty, more justice, more progress, right?

Maybe not. Labor (and its leadership) have battled against these laws mainly because they weaken the collective power of the union. This is especially the concern of union leadership, who must perceive any threat to unions as a threat to their prestige (and their paychecks). Of course the laws do strive to weaken unions, which must make certain companies, CEOs and Robber Barons salivate with anticipation.

Regardless of the selfish interests either side has, I think it’s hard to objectively argue that all unions are inherently evil. The benefits of union lobbying are felt by all workers across all sectors of the labor force. A vast, vast majority of the country’s workforce currently enjoys every one of their weekends off, in addition to several national holidays, something which would not have been possible without various labor movements from a century ago.

Countless benefits – workman’s compensation, disability – were nonexistent before the 1900s, but have now become workplace standards because of union campaigns. Something like the national minimum wage, which obviously protects the earning power of the lowest, least skilled workers, benefits most, if not all. The college graduate software engineer isn’t going to settle for, nor will she be given, a paycheck similar to a McDonald’s hamburger-flipper.

And think of the children! Millions have been sent to school instead of to factories, protecting their livelihood and strengthening the intellectual foundation of the nation, because of the labor fights during the turn of the 20^th century.

But then unions got a little too powerful. They demanded too much during the 1970s and 1980s, and they could demand too much, because they had so much power. The threat of an auto workers strike during the 1970s not only would have crippled GM or Ford, it would have thrown the entire U.S. economy into a horrible, screeching tailspin. So, of course, give them what they want. Insurance guarantees, pensions, health benefits and job protection. Who cares if it might, for example, bankrupt the company in 20 years? Well…

There must be a fair amount of people who look at the position of that vague entity called “Labor” and consider it to be pretty good, otherwise half the country wouldn’t be passing “anit-union” legislation. They have insurance; they have workman’s comp; they have their 40 hour work week and their minimum wage. And goddammit every time I pass a construction site, there are four guys drinking coffee, two guys picking their nose and one guy holding up a “Caution: Men at Work” sign.

In response, like Mohammad Morsi, the unions cry out that the gains of the previous century may be reversed if power is not allocated appropriately. Weaken the unions too much and strengthen the management too much and soon there won’t be a minimum wage, there won’t be a five day work week, there won’t be any environmental regulations and there won’t be a guaranteed Christmas holiday! The world will devolve into a Dickensian dystopia.

Maybe, right now at least, unions aren’t all that necessary. There are other ways of protecting the rights of Labor without the strangling, obstructing negotiation tactics unions often resort to (see Hostess’ recent dispute), especially now that the government isn’t, you know, sending the National Guard to break up factory worker strikes.

Nothing is what it is intended to be. Nothing maintains that original ideal. Everything morphs into a depraved version of its intended self. In the past unions a necessary tool to achieving a progressive, equal, utopian society. Now, many people - from their adversaries in Capital to the many workers paying membership dues with little perceived benefit - consider unions to be impediments to economic progress.

And consider that the recent “Right to Work” legislation isn’t anti-union, it just isn’t explicitly pro-union. States aren’t outlawing unions, they are merely allowing people to choose not to join. Again, this may, and most likely will, weaken the position of union and labor powers. But it doesn’t doom it. Maybe people will leave their unions, maybe capital takes advantage of this trend. But, if things get too bad for labor, there is always the possibility that people return to their unions and the collective safety they provide, at least as long as the system isn’t completely hijacked by a newly created Robber Baron class of capitalists.