Klaatu
21st July 2011, 03:33
Last Updated: July 20. 2011 1:00AM
Mark Gaffney
Right-to-work laws wrong for Michigan
"You will find people saying that they are for the so-called right to work law, but they also believe in unions.
This is absurd. It's like saying you are for motherhood but against children."
— President Truman, 1947
Given the economic state that Michigan is currently in, the push for right-to-work laws are unnecessary and will make further hardships for average Michiganians.
This issue has been prevalent on the political scene for decades, and right-to-work (for less) has been refuted by some academic scholars. Recently there have been attempts to put this issue back onto the legislative agenda. Now is not the time to waste our resources on this polarizing issue that will do nothing to help get our economy back on track and help create jobs.
Free collective bargaining states provide quality wages and benefits that all struggling Americans need to survive. Without these protections the standard of living is significantly decreased for the entire state.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average annual pay in 2009 for right-to-work states was $4,476 less than the average in Michigan for all workers.
Further, advocates of the right-to-work (for less) claim that economic growth is more prosperous than collective bargaining states. This is based on averages, and high-growth states skew this data in favor of right-to-work (for less) states. Gordon Lafer wrote an Economic Policy Institute paper on right-to-work, and likened this statistical misnomer to Bill Gates walking into a bar, and on average everyone became a millionaire.
Aside from just being paid less, in right-to-work states there are increased health and safety risks, as Michigan's occupational injury rate was 2.7 (per 100,000 workers) in 2008. In right-to-work states that number was 5.4. There is also a lack of health insurance coverage — right-to-work (for less) states were 20.8 percent more likely to be uninsured than Michiganians in 2009. There is also decreased spending on education per student in right-to-work (for less) states, and workers are 13.8 percent less likely to have pension coverage than in Michigan.
Despite evidence citing the statistical inadequacy of right-to-work states on fair and equal payment, some continue to push for this legislation.
Why are there so many proponents of right-to-work (for less) emerging now, after it had been written off as another union-busting tactic?
The answer is simple. Those same politicians, coalitions and other advocacy groups are not in the interest of benefiting the workers. They are working to provide payback to the millions of dollars corporations poured into their campaigns. Big oil, chemical and tobacco companies were huge campaign contributors to our Republican-controlled legislature, and now this is political payback.
Why do we waste our efforts on policies that do nothing to fix our economic crisis? Pointing fingers and scapegoating others is no way to get things done. We need to work together — politicians, citizens and interest groups — in providing balance to Michigan's economy without stripping the few protections workers still have.
Martin Luther King Jr. said it best: "In our glorious fight for civil rights, we must guard against being fooled by false slogans, as 'right to work.' It provides no 'rights' and no 'works.' Its purpose is to destroy labor unions and the freedom of collective bargaining. We demand this fraud be stopped."
Mark Gaffney is president of the Michigan AFL-CIO, a federation of Michigan labor groups. Email comments to [email protected]
http://detnews.com/article/20110720/OPINION03/107200324/Right-to-work-laws-wrong-for-Michigan
Mark Gaffney
Right-to-work laws wrong for Michigan
"You will find people saying that they are for the so-called right to work law, but they also believe in unions.
This is absurd. It's like saying you are for motherhood but against children."
— President Truman, 1947
Given the economic state that Michigan is currently in, the push for right-to-work laws are unnecessary and will make further hardships for average Michiganians.
This issue has been prevalent on the political scene for decades, and right-to-work (for less) has been refuted by some academic scholars. Recently there have been attempts to put this issue back onto the legislative agenda. Now is not the time to waste our resources on this polarizing issue that will do nothing to help get our economy back on track and help create jobs.
Free collective bargaining states provide quality wages and benefits that all struggling Americans need to survive. Without these protections the standard of living is significantly decreased for the entire state.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average annual pay in 2009 for right-to-work states was $4,476 less than the average in Michigan for all workers.
Further, advocates of the right-to-work (for less) claim that economic growth is more prosperous than collective bargaining states. This is based on averages, and high-growth states skew this data in favor of right-to-work (for less) states. Gordon Lafer wrote an Economic Policy Institute paper on right-to-work, and likened this statistical misnomer to Bill Gates walking into a bar, and on average everyone became a millionaire.
Aside from just being paid less, in right-to-work states there are increased health and safety risks, as Michigan's occupational injury rate was 2.7 (per 100,000 workers) in 2008. In right-to-work states that number was 5.4. There is also a lack of health insurance coverage — right-to-work (for less) states were 20.8 percent more likely to be uninsured than Michiganians in 2009. There is also decreased spending on education per student in right-to-work (for less) states, and workers are 13.8 percent less likely to have pension coverage than in Michigan.
Despite evidence citing the statistical inadequacy of right-to-work states on fair and equal payment, some continue to push for this legislation.
Why are there so many proponents of right-to-work (for less) emerging now, after it had been written off as another union-busting tactic?
The answer is simple. Those same politicians, coalitions and other advocacy groups are not in the interest of benefiting the workers. They are working to provide payback to the millions of dollars corporations poured into their campaigns. Big oil, chemical and tobacco companies were huge campaign contributors to our Republican-controlled legislature, and now this is political payback.
Why do we waste our efforts on policies that do nothing to fix our economic crisis? Pointing fingers and scapegoating others is no way to get things done. We need to work together — politicians, citizens and interest groups — in providing balance to Michigan's economy without stripping the few protections workers still have.
Martin Luther King Jr. said it best: "In our glorious fight for civil rights, we must guard against being fooled by false slogans, as 'right to work.' It provides no 'rights' and no 'works.' Its purpose is to destroy labor unions and the freedom of collective bargaining. We demand this fraud be stopped."
Mark Gaffney is president of the Michigan AFL-CIO, a federation of Michigan labor groups. Email comments to [email protected]
http://detnews.com/article/20110720/OPINION03/107200324/Right-to-work-laws-wrong-for-Michigan