What's your opinion of "Right to Work" legislation?

Should it be legal to force a worker to join a labor union against his will?
Several states are debating this issue at the moment. What do you think about it?

 

I think forcing anyone to do anything (such as forcing them to join a union, forcing them to buy healthcare) smacks of Nazism.

 

I am kind of wishy-washy on this. There are better solutions IMO, but in today's society, this may be the best solution you could get accepted.

 

NO

 

Unions have their place but closed shops are a relic of the past and should remain there.

 

If you want to see unions at there finest;
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york...tello-faked-jury-duty-class-article-1.1003957

 

NO.

I think it's a bunch of BS and disagree vociferously.

The premise of right to work is not that one has to "join a union" it entails folks that work in union shops where some may not belong to the union.

If a non union worker has a grievance or benefits from collective bargaining it forces the union to financially back the non union worker without the non union worker having to contribute to the process.
In other words it's a free ride.

This basically says the union is responsible for the non union worker. Which takes money from the union thus weakening it. Screw the non union worker in this case. I was one of the them and my problems were mine. That's how it should be.

 

clembo, you got me confused. What are you saying, what are you attributing to Davis and/or what are you quoting?

 

Understandable rlm. My point is basically there's a bigger picture and therefore question.

No one is saying anyone has to join a union for all intents and purposes. What they ARE trying to push is Union people backing Non Union People with Union money.

 

I have no ideas what the laws are in Illinois, and I agree that and you second point (nonunion being supported by unions) is my problem with this answer. However, there absolutely are states (28 of them) forcing people to join unions or at least if you want to work for a unionized company. In some (most?) cases that means you union dues are use to support whichever candidate the union opts to. Now there are legal means to avoid this, but the ones I have heard about are so complicated as to make them useless.

 

Those poor, poor union members had given up sooooooooo much to keep Hostess afloat during its last bankruptcy filing. But, now Hostess is having to file again citing an inability to renegotiate crippling pension and benefit plans. What more could those struggling union members possibly give up?
Union to Lose Big in Hostess Bankruptcy

January 11, 2012
NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- After Hostess Brands, the maker of Wonder Bread, Ding Dongs, Ho Ho's, Sno Balls, Drakes Cakes and Twinkies, filed for bankruptcy on Wednesday, the company's pinned its future on renegotiating unionized labor contracts.

Hostess Brands cited an inability to renegotiate crippling pension and benefit plans, which made the 19,500 worker strong company vulnerable to cash shortages and an economic downturn -- and were key to in its Wednesday bankruptcy filing.

For the company, which has made popular American breads and desserts since the 1930s, the filing is its second trip into bankruptcy. In 2004, the company formerly known as Interstate Bakeries went bankrupt and stayed in administration for over four years until it re-emerged as Hostess Brands in 2009.

http://www.thestreet.com/story/11372755/1/twinkie-maker-hostess-files-for-bankruptcy.html

 

Sorry, I don't understand the point you are trying make.

 

In America, we've become accustomed to union workers acting like babies. But, it appears that China, too has its share of whiners:
Xbox workers threaten suicide in China labor tiff

January 12, 2012
BEIJING (AP) — Dozens of workers assembling Xbox video game consoles climbed to a factory dormitory roof, and some threatened to jump to their deaths, in a dispute over job transfers that was defused but highlights growing labor unrest as China's economy slows.

The dispute was set off after contract manufacturer Foxconn Technology Group announced it would close the assembly line for Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox 360 models at its plant in the central city of Wuhan and transfer the workers to other jobs, workers and Foxconn said Thursday.

Workers reached by telephone said Foxconn initially offered severance pay for those who wanted to leave rather than be transferred, but then reneged, angering the workers; Foxconn, in a statement, disputed that account, saying only transfers were offered, not severance.

The workers climbed to the top of the six-story dormitory on Jan. 3 and threatened to jump before Wuhan city officials persuaded them to desist and return to work, according to the workers and accounts online. The workers gave varying estimates of the numbers involved in the strike, from 80 to 200, and photos posted online showed dozens of people crowding the roof of the boxy concrete building.

"Actually none of them were going to jump. They were there for the compensation. But the government and the company officials were just as afraid, because if even one of them jumped, the consequences would be hard to imagine," said Wang Jungang, an equipment engineer in the Xbox production line, who left the plant earlier this month.

The fracas is the latest labor trouble to hit Foxconn, a unit of Taiwan's Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. that makes iPads and iPhones for Apple Inc. as well as Xboxes and other gadgets, helping consumer electronics brands hold down costs. Its massive China plants are run with military-like discipline, which labor rights activists say contributed to spate of suicides in 2010.
Foxconn said that all workers on the Xbox line were offered transfers at their current pay but that 150 demanded severance and not all of them participated in the rooftop protest. "It is our understanding that certain individuals threatened to jump from the building if their demands were not met," the statement said.

http://news.yahoo.com/xbox-workers-threaten-suicide-china-labor-tiff-055515676.html

 

Republican Utopia!

 

A little bit ironic, wouldn't you say?
Charlotte stadium likely hosting Obama acceptance speech built with all nonunion labor

Bank of America Stadium, the Charlotte, N.C. sports area that has been proposed as the site where President Obama will accept the Democratic Party’s nomination for a second term in the White House, was built entirely with nonunion labor, The Daily Caller has learned.

Brett McMahon, president of Miller & Long DC, Inc., told TheDC it’s ironic that the Democratic National Committee is discussing the venue as a likely locale for Obama’s re-nomination ceremony, since the president has long-standing political alliances with America’s biggest and wealthiest labor unions


Miller & Long was responsible for the stadium’s construction in the mid-1990s. (RELATED: Seeking more luxury suites, DNC might move Obama convention speech to stadium)
“The majority of the companies that built the stadium were members of Associated Builders & Contractors,” McMahon told TheDC. “It is a great example of a grand monument that was built entirely union-free.”

And unlike many sports facilities, he added, “there was very, very little public expenditure” for the stadium. “It stands as an outstanding example of the free enterprise system at work.”
Sources inside the Democratic Party told the Charlotte Observer on Wednesday that plans are in place to have the president deliver his acceptance speech in the 74,000-seat stadium, so that more luxury-suite accommodations are available for the party to sell to top donors.

Obama has recently upbraided Bank of America, the facility’s named sponsor, calling it an example of a financial institution “using financial regulation as an excuse to charge consumers more.”

But despite the apparent disconnect between the president’s loyalties and his party’s practical needs, McMahon is pleased that his firm’s masterpiece is poised to have such a high profile during the August convention.

“It is a big deal to me because I spent two years working on the building,” he said.

McMahon serves as spokesman for the Halt The Assault campaign, a program of the Associated Builders & Contractors-sponsored Free Enterprise Alliance. That group describes itself as an ”action arm for small businesses, entrepreneurs, and other advocates of limited government, [and] open and fair (and intense) competition.”

It is sometimes critical of labor unions, and says on its website that the federal government “should be prohibited from requiring union-only project labor agreements.”

http://news.yahoo.com/charlotte-stadium-likely-hosting-obama-acceptance-speech-built-150107674.html

 

bump