In about a month the Pennsylvania house and senate will return to Harrisburg and the fall session will begin. At this very time there are 4 bills stuck in committee, 3 in the house, 1 in the senate. These bills, if they pass will strike at the very heart of labor rights in Pennsylvania. Modeled after Ohio's SB5, Wisconsin's budget repair bill, and other union striping bills which are being produced by Republican controlled legislative bodies throughout the country, the rights of workers are being attacked under the guise of so called right to work laws.
These laws do little to create jobs, or shore up the middle class. These laws exist in states more likely to have a lower median income. 10 of the 14 states with right to work legislation have a median income of 45,000 or less; national average is 50,271. (us news world report 10/5/10. Only two of 13 states with median incomes of 55,000 or more are right to work states; Utah and Virginia. Pennsylvania is at the cusp of the low average, with a median income of 47,000 we should be looking for ways to push income levels up. These laws are blatant attacks against unions, not job creation measures.
The three bills in the Pa House Labor and Industry committee do little to create jobs. They weaken organized labor by removing fair share provisions, replacing them with right to work laws. Labor unions will no longer be required to represent all workers regardless of membership in the bargaining unit. In other words you will no longer have to pay fair share to union for representation, and you might be able to keep 20 bucks a paycheck. So you get twenty dollars more a pay, management gets more freedom to restrict your workplace rights. Republicans claiming to represent individual rights are frauds, these rights do not extend to the workplace unless you own or supervise that workplace. Minimal contributions for protection at work, guess it is a lesser of the evils.
The bill in the senate labor and industry committee is quite laughable if you ask me. This bill claims to protect your paycheck by preventing you from allowing private organizations from deducting from you paycheck. In other words, unions would no longer be allowed to collect dues from payroll deductions. This bill obviously violates my individual freedom to allow the union from collecting my dues, which as a dues paying member I grant them permission to withdraw. The hope of the Republicans authoring this bill is obvious. Remove automatic deductions, prevent simple dues collection, and starve unions of necessary funds for representation, contract negotiations and other vital union business. Republicans fire back that unions use these funds to fund political action that some of the workers might disagree with. This argument is furthest from the truth, yet, again our friends across the aisle either forgot to do all their research or left something out. Union dues and Union PAC funds are completely separate. When you join the union you get a separate card to fill out to donate extra money to the PAC, dues do not go to the PAC.
The term Right to Work is one of those creative ways to use language to deceive those you target. When you hear the term right to work you think, yeah nothing wrong with that, we all want the right to work. How can you oppose a persons right to work? By limiting person’s rights in the workplace, you limit their right to work. Don’t be deceived by language. The right to work is protected by unions. If unions were such a threat to the workplace, why is only 12% of the national workforce unionized. Unions prevent management from using a divide and conquer approach that will keep workers in line. It’s all about control and unions wrest some of that control to the workforce. Getting rid of every union won’t decrease unemployment, it will increase underemployment, which it seems is the goal of Republicans in this country. Whether it’s workers rights, minimum wage laws, or regulations. The Republican Party is after your rights in the work place. Hannibal is at the gates. The only response to this encroachment is unity. Divided we fall, united we stand.
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