Really Getting it Straight on Right to Work - Granite Grok

Really Getting it Straight on Right to Work

To the Editor:

It is too bad that Rob Azevedo’s entertaining article in The Citizen on June 29th,  “Getting it straight on Right to Work” misrepresents the proposed New Hampshire Right to Work law and vilifies the TEA Party people who support it.  

Right to Work (RTW) is not about union busting, not about lowering wages, not about working hard, not about keeping people from forming or joining unions.  RTW is about the same thing Americans fought the Revolutionary War for, Liberty.  


RTW is about worker freedom of choice.  Is it right, is it even American, to force workers to pay money to a third party for services they don’t request, don’t want, and maybe against a worker’s wishes?  TEA Party people don’t think so.  Forced payments for unwanted services is more consistent with the bribes required to get a job in third world countries, or to “protection” money paid to the mafia or a gang.          

RTW is not anti-Union, it does not force anyone to leave a union, it does not prevent anyone from joining a union, it does not stop workers from forming a union.  However, RTW is pro-worker.  It forces unions to provide services that workers value in order to get and keep members.     

RTW is not about working hard.  Most Americans work hard.  World-wide markets and competition force workers everywhere to work hard.  

Right to Work is not about pay.  About 85 percent of  private sector workers  are not unionized, most are compensated well, and they could unionize if they wanted.  Many union supporters don’t seem to realize that employee turnover raises business costs, may impact committed schedules which hurts business, is bad for morale, and no business wants to lose good workers.  Most businesses compensate employees fairly, related to their contributions to the business.    

The primary purpose of compulsory unionization is to benefit union bosses and politicians, not to benefit workers.  Union bosses contribute to the campaigns of politicians who create laws and regulations which benefit union officials.  These contributions have mostly gone to politicians who have massively increased the size of government which increases taxes and creates increasingly oppressive regulations on people and industry.    

The regulatory and tax environments created by these union supported politicians has been driving jobs out of our country for more than fifty years.  Regulatory costs which under Bush were an enormous (and unacceptable) $1.7 trillion (more than ten percent of our GDP) are increasing under Obama.  Regulations drive up business costs, making American businesses less competitive.  US business taxes are the second highest in the world.  These factors plus the delays in getting construction or process approvals often make business expansion and job creation unaffordable in the US, killing American jobs.             

The most vocal opponents of Right to Work are union bosses who will no longer be able to ignore the wishes of  union members, and the politicians who have traded legislation beneficial to union bosses for political contributions.    

The primary RTW winners are workers who can join unions that benefit them and not be forced to join other unions.  Possible other winners are unemployed Americans who get jobs created in a less oppressive business environment, taxpayers who may not have to fund such a bloated  bureaucracy, and consumers who have greater choices and possibly reduced costs because of reduced regulatory costs.  

Right to Work is pro-worker, pro-responsible unions, and pro-American.  

Don Ewing

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