The state of Michigan is the most recent to impose "Right-to-Work" law.
An intentionally deceptive euphemism, a "Right-to-Work" law enables individuals to work for an employer without requisite membership in a union that negotiates their salaries, working conditions and benefits. Under this law, such workers are neither obligated to join a union, nor, to pay union dues. And Right-to-Work law also kills what is known as "agency shop," under which employers deduct a fee from the wages of non-union workers to ensure that such non-union workers, who benefit from the union’s bargaining efforts, make a contribution towards those efforts.
Republicans in bed with corporations hate both the idea and existence of unions, collective bargaining and agency shop … in other words, virtually anything that helps the middle class and working poor improve the quality of their lives and those of their families! And why? Two words … POWER and MONEY -- which are interchangeable.
There are at least two great ironies in the "Right-to-Work" scenario; first, "Right-to-Work" is predicated on that human-type known colloquially as the "freeloader," who, by definition is … a person who takes advantage of others' generosity without giving anything in return. Irony number one; in what has been called the 2012 "comment of the year," candidate Mitt Romney (on May 17, 2012), in essence said that "47% of Americans would never take personal responsibility and care for their lives.”
The irony? It's the freeloaders who happily and without reservation make the anti-union "Right-to-Work" strategy … work! They help fulfill the Republican/Corporate Welfare Recipient-objective of destroying organized labor by de facto bankrupting it!
Irony number two ... the freeloaders not only help erode or destroy the viability of the services they mooch, they ultimately LOSE MORE THAN WHAT THEY SAVE IN UNION DUES PAYMENTS BECAUSE THEIR SALARIES, BENEFITS (and working conditions) ERODE MORE with the demise of the union ... A DEMISE THEY CAUSE! If a $40,000/year worker pays 1% of his salary in union dues, it costs him roughly $400/year. If the agency shop fee is say, half of that, the savings to the employee is about $200/year. Saving $200 a year while likely losing thousands in salary and benefits is less-than-intelligent … and "less-than-intelligent" is what "Right-to-Work" proponents count on.
In the fact-based world where common sense prevails, what reasonable human being believes in the notion of the proverbial "free lunch"? What reasonable person would either work gratis or, expect anyone who provides him with goods or services … to work without compensation? None that I know.
A month or more ago, I thought Mitt Romney didn't have a clue about the "average Joe." Turns out, he seems to be correct roughly 47% of the time.
Dang … You think you know someone …
