Now I get why "right to work" is not an "excessive government regulation of businesses"...

[alp227]

It came to mind as I'm reading this ITT article "In Wisconsin’s Battle Against Right to Work, Labor Goes Through the Motions". The right campaigns against what they say are excessive government regulation of businesses. But it's all fine and dandy for government to forbid businesses from requiring union membership/dues for employment. Apparently, union-busting takes precedence over businesses' freedom?

[merrily]

1. Let's start first with the big lie: "Excessive government regulation" is a right wing shibboleth.

Quick: name 10 significant federal regulations of any one industry that the industry association lobbyists would ratify as necessary, reasonable and not in the least bit excessive.

Right to work means right to work yourself into an early grave for starvation wages in unsafe, even deadly, workplaces. That is what happened before unions were able to organize and unite workers, bargain collectively and lobby government for things like minimum wage, time off, vacation pay, etc. That's what employers afforded workers without so-called excessive regulation.

History of federal workplace safety legislation

Efforts by the federal government to ensure workplace health and safety were minimal until the passage of OSHA. The American system of mass production encouraged the use of machinery, while the statutory regime did nothing to protect workplace safety. For most employers, it was cheaper to replace a dead or injured worker than it was to introduce safety measures.[2][3][4] Tort law provided little recourse for relief for the survivors of dead workers or for injured employees.[5] After the Civil War, some improvements were made through the establishment of state railroad and factory commissions, the adoption of new technology (such as the railway air brake), and more widespread availability of life insurance. But the overall impact of these improvements was minimal

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupational_Safety_and_Health_Act_%28United_States%29

That's what you get without so called excessive regulation.

[mercuryblues]

2. 11 of the 15

poorest states in this country are right to work states. We know what poverty does to children in the classroom.


Eleven of the 15 states with the highest poverty rates are RTW states, while nine of the 11 states with the lowest are worker-friendly.

Nine of the 11 states with the lowest poverty rate are worker-friendly

The politicians know this, yet push for RTW laws. They know the standard on living will decrease, life expectancy will decrease, home ownership will decrease. The GDP in RTW states is also lower.

What will increase? Crime, uninsured

the Reichwing knows this and yet the push for RTW laws.

http://neatoday.org/2012/08/14/right-to-work-laws-increase-poverty-decrease-productivity-2/