The Right to Work

[EstimatedProphet]

When I was in High School the Right to Work amendment came up in Missouri (1980 election). I was even more liberal then than I am now, but I was totally in favor of it. Why? Orwellian language.
I was very liberal, but also naieve. I followed the arguments as much as I could, but they were presented as "the big bad unions are trying to block everyone from working unless they treat the unions as their true bosses". That was very much the tone that the amendment supporters followed, and at the time I wasn't sophisticated to see through what they were saying to what the true implications of the amendment would be-fast food conditions for everyone!
Fortunately the amendment failed, although at the time I was quite upset. thinking back, I have to wonder how many other people were fooled by the twisted language they used in support of RTW, and how common it must be now for people to be fooled by this administration and its Newspeak.

[Liberal Veteran]

1. Right to work is a HUGE misnomer.

It really means "Right to union bust" and often is paired with "Hire at will" which really means "No Worker Protections".

[2Design]

2. I am finding much of the language and the way they present it

is deceptive. When I look back on lots of things, like ERA that they opposed for a number of reasons that now all have happened and Women still do not have rights.

It is incredible. Like Bush saying he will cut taxes, Reagan did that. Everyone wanted lower taxes. What they didn't tell you is what they would cut to give it to you.

What I expected cut were useless positions like Tom Ridge, Cheny, and Rusmfeld. What I get cut instead is school loans, school funding, road funding, parks funding - everything that we ALL share is what they cut.

They cut aid to children while at the same time giving themselves a raise.

It is how they present it. It fools all of us too many times. The underlying cuts always hurt us and not them.

As Kerry has said, the congress and government officials have great health care and retirement and the rest of us have been cut.

We didn't get any money back, it showed up locally in higher taxes, tuition, gase, etc.

They want to bust unions. That is why they want school vouchers and no child left behind are all ways to try to prove schools shouldn't be public. They want to destroy the teacher union.

They are shipping jobs to sweat jobs in third world countries. Their stock holders want more money for retirement. The worker wages do not go up but he ceo wages have gone up 500%

They don't tell you the whole story.

This is the same as their attacks on Kerry. They don't tell that he voted against 87 $ because the money should have come from elsewhere. Kerry was against Bush tax cuts. The money should have come from there. So they make it look like they are the good guys. They steal from us constantly.

[EstimatedProphet]

3. Orwellian Newspeak works wonders, doesn't it?

however, it does rely on the average person not looking past the surface for things, or trying to consider the ramifications of newspeak statements. When someone does make the effort to look into things, they start to get past the lies.
This is what our real challenge should be, is to help people find the truth. I don't think anyone here would disagree...

[Disturbed]

5. What does "Right to work" really mean?

What does "Right to work" really mean?

It means that unions and management cannot negotiate a union security clause in their collective bargaining agreement. A union security clause states that a worker covered by the agreement must at least pay a fee for the services they receive from the union.
What’s The Real Purpose Of "Right To Work?"
The "right to work" provision was never meant to make sure a person could keep a job. It was designed to weaken and destroy the principle of collective bargaining. It represents a state-sanctioned policy of worker suppression. Passed as political payback when labor’s enemies took over the Congress in 1947, it was described by one supporter as recognizing and dealing "with the dangerous expansion of unionism…"

Supporters claim that "right to work" is good for the state’s economic development and that we should tout it as an attraction to business. In fact, "right to work" is the opposite of cooperative economic policy. Data from the U.S. Department of Labor shows that annual pay for workers in "right to work" states ranks consistently below the national average. Sound economic development and job creation strategies should be based on such things as public investment in infrastructure and education that will attract stable businesses that pay decent wages and treat their workforce with dignity and fairness.

It's Really A 'Right To Work For Less'

It's no coincidence that some employer groups, Big Business and ultraconservative lawmakers back “right to work” laws because such laws weaken unions and in turn depress wages. Studies show that workers in “right to Work” states earn significantly less, while workers in non-“right to work” states earn significantly more. A primary reason is that workers with a union contract earn higher pay-weakening unions lowers average pay. Workers of color and women workers who are union members make significantly higher wages.

[2Design]

6. as you said, you thought it was bad that it did not pass.....

unfortunately at another time, I believed their 'crap' and when I think about what they say even today, I have to stop and recognize the bull behind it.

No matter what they say, I will vote Dem the rest of my life. BUT I find myself take pause because of their promises. I stop. I recognize their is a catch, there always is.

So if even being educated it makes me hesitate, I can imagine how with those sound bites, they get the votes and people voting against their own self interest and in 20 years there will only be poor and rich, like Brazil.

[sandnsea]

4. Labor strikes & the Revolution

Picked this up looking for some union history yesterday. Was this taught in US history and I just missed it? Do we actually owe the Revolutionary War and our entire country to union and a labor movement?

"Primitive unions, or guilds, of carpenters and cordwainers, cabinet makers and cobblers made their appearance, often temporary, in various cities along the Atlantic seaboard of colonial America. Workers played a significant role in the struggle for independence; carpenters disguised as Mohawk Indians were the "host" group at the Boston Tea Party in 1773. The Continental Congress met in Carpenters Hall in Philadelphia, and there the Declaration of Independence was signed in 1776. In "pursuit of happiness" through shorter hours and higher pay, printers were the first to go on strike, in New York in 1794; cabinet makers struck in 1796; carpenters in Philadelphia in 1797; cordwainers in 1799."

http://www.socialstudieshelp.com/Eco_Unionization.htm

[2Design]

7. the other time was the turn of the century from 1800 to 1900s

Unions is what helped the irish and other imigrants get help for working in unsafe factories. Help with setting a work week. Higher wages. Children went to school.

And then the WPA did an enormous job getting further improvements. This is what the rethugs want to turn back. Everything that has occured in the 1900's

And the middle class doesn't understand that is it just a matter of time before it happens to them.

Unions were very good and the strong point of the create of fair wages. The problem is so many have a story of someone who abuse that system.

Those are the stories that are used to convince people to vote against themselves.

[sandnsea]

8. Sure, but see

I can't recall labor, strikes, and union type organizing as part of our patriotic Revolutionary War Founding Fathers tradition. That's what was interesting to me about this particular snip. How much different would our country be if people accepted as patriotic historic fact that the country was founded by union/labor organizers?

[UdoKier]

9. Kicking.

"Right to work" is one of the biggest con jobs of all time.

Organized labor is the reason this country ever had a sizeable middle class.

[Radical Activist]

10. Right to work more for less pay

Controlling the language used in the debate is very powerful. Conservatives and corporations have been much more effective at that than liberals. The demonizing of the word liberal is another good example of that.

[EstimatedProphet]

11. Did you catch Real Time with Bill Maher Friday?

Maher did make the point that the term "liberal" has been demonized, and Owens (R-CO) said that it was our doing, and Maher then agreed with him!
Stop that! Conservatives misrepresenting solid liberal values is not "our doing"!

[bleedingheart]

12. We didn't fire back at them quickly enough.

our DLC leaders just sat there like lemmings and they didn't defend the party...that is why the world liberal was demonized for no good reason.

True Liberals know they are for the people and that is why many of them are proud to say it out loud with pride.

[69KV]

13. orwellian newspeak

"Right to Work" is Orwellian newspeak.

The real purpose of it is to weaken organized labor. By discouraging people who are hired at unionized workplaces from joining the union, it makes it more likely for the union to be decertified. That was the whole purpose the anti-labor slime who are behind "right to work" had in mind from the start.

It also encourages free-riding, since it lets people take advantage of the benefits of a unionized workplace without having to pay union dues. That's free-riding, and it's immoral.

"Right to work" is also an infringement on the right of parties to freely enter into contracts, because it makes it illegal for a union and an employer to contract for a closed or all-union shop. For this reason I think it could and should be challenged in the courts on constitutional grounds.

There was a movement in Idaho earlier this year to put a measure on the ballot to repeal the state "right to work" law. It didn't make the ballot but IMHO repealing these laws should be a top priority, right after booting the Bush regime out of office. Organized labor and post-1932 liberalism are the very reasons we have a middle class in this country, and the middle class rises and falls with liberalism and unions. The Repukes know this. The Repukes want to take us back to the late 1800s robber baron era, in which there is a small aristocracy and a large underclass of starving paupers. "Right to work" is one of their tools.

[EstimatedProphet]

14. Yes it is!

Full agreement there. We need to get rid of RTW laws.