|
RIBCO
Articles of Interest
|
2007-01-12
|
Presidential Candidates And Right-To-Work Laws |
| |
mlive.com - Everything Michigan
Tuesday, January 11, 2007
By James Hettinger
br@mbusinessreview.com
Just when I thought the campaign of 2006 was over and we all could enjoy a well-earned reprieve from the mind-numbing bombardment of political advertising and propaganda, people have begun to line up as candidates for the 2008 Presidential election.
As I was able to stimulate the pulse of the readership with an essay on why it sometimes makes sense for economic developers in Michigan to work closely with labor unions (in Business Review's Sept. 14-20 edition), I thought it might be interesting to return to the controversial cauldron and see what other mischief can be fostered.
As an economic developer who has chosen to play out his professional career in Michigan, the subject of unions is never far from the list of discussion items. Through the years, I have had the unenviable task of trying to correct perceptions sown in the minds of potential investors by my colleagues and competitors from the right-to-work, usually southern states.
Twenty-two states have right-to-work laws, not all of them in the south. North and South Dakota as well as Wyoming and Iowa have right-to-work laws.
Section 14(b) of the Taft-Hartley Act authorizes states to establish right-to-work laws. To make a long story short, a right-to-work law means that a worker does not have to join a labor union as a condition of employment. This is usually referred to an open-shop system.
If a union is in existence, the worker may be required to pay a fee for the fruits of union representation, but that worker may not be compelled to take membership in the union.
This contrasts with states like Michigan, non-right-to-work states, where if one goes to work for a unionized employer, the worker must join the union. Furthermore, in some cases, an employer may be obliged to fire an employee who has avoided paying union membership dues. This is the union-shop system.
More than a few southern governors and other folks have made trips overseas to inform potential investors of the advantages of investing in the right-to-work states. They tout the lack of influence that unions have in their respective states and the great degree of management flexibility that results in the open-shop system.
They also point out that non-right-to-work states like Michigan are dominated by unions that bring agendas of impossibly high wages, strikes, antibusiness legislation and even violence. By the time I reach the office of the CEO, assuming I get that far, I have some serious explaining to do.
My serious explaining may take the form of pointing out that the right-to-work states have a much higher rate of workplace fatalities (19 of the top 25 states are right-to-work states), and therefore their employers have much higher insurance premiums in those states. There are other arguments, as well.
With all this as simple background, let us return to the subject of the 2008 Presidential race. Early aspirants John Edwards and Hillary Clinton have both sought the support of organized labor. Both candidates have come from right-to-work states -- North Carolina and Arkansas -- although Ms. Clinton has blurred the past by becoming a United States Senator from the state of New York.
Nonetheless, both have considerable political experience in states that have not been particularly hospitable to the union movement.
So I am very hopeful, as this long and inevitably tedious campaign unfolds, that somebody will toss some spice into the mix by asking Mr. Edwards and Ms. Clinton what they did, in North Carolina and Arkansas, to advance the interests of organized labor. What steps did they take to, perhaps, seek a repeal of the right-to-work laws?
And if they do answer that they tried to do something, look up the percentage of unionized workers in North Carolina and Arkansas and ask them how effective their efforts really were. With friends like this ....
James Hettinger is president and CEO of Battle Creek Unlimited. "Opportunities Unlimited" is a regular feature of Business Review, alternating with columns by the Right Place Inc.'s Birgit Klohs and Southwest Michigan First's Ron Kitchens.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
