Fighting the Lie of Right To Work

Let's get up to date here in Indiana. There's a specter looming on the horizon that will decimate Hoosier workers, union or not.

The phrase "Right to work" is a lie. It's an effort to confuse what the corporatists see as their pawns. The only true right to work was stated in the 1948 Declaration of Human Rights that states that all humans have a right to employment for their own gain. But the right wing in America calls their union busting efforts "Right to work" to obfuscate the issue, much as they use "Patriot Act" to con all Americans into giving up our Constitutional rights against unlawful search and seizure against a largely imagined external enemy.

The corporatists can't stand the idea that those who actually make this country work would have a say in their own destiny. They can't fathom the thought that those who get their hands dirty would dare stand up against their moneyed interests. They suffer from the delusion of "Eminent domain:" that all they see is theirs and theirs alone because they've been handed a bunch of money and they think that gives them more rights than the rest of us. That's called Fascism. They hide behind the flag and accuse those who work of being un-American for challenging their assertions.

Unions are the brakes on greed. Have you noticed that when Unions were strong, America prospered? After the demagogue Reagan gutted the power of Unions, our economy started the long slide downward to the point we are now Trillions of dollars in debt and beholden to the Chinese for a large chunk of that debt. When corporations were forced by law to fairly negotiate, workers, whose purchases and taxes keep this nation solvent, did just that. Notice also that after Reagan's treason against workers, we started our decline.

22 states now have this stupidity of "Right to Work." Workers in those states are losing thousands of dollars per year off their paychecks over the 28 states wise enough to eschew this policy. Median family income is lower. Eight of the 12 states with the highest unemployment rates are RTW states.

"Right to work (for less)" is coming to Indiana, or so the right wing demagogues are hoping. The official position is that industry won't come to the state if Unions are strong. But the facts do not support that contention. The Higgins Report from Notre Dame University blows away the argument http://higginslabor.nd.edu/assets/38894/higgins_report_on_rtw_march_2011.pdf

A good resource for information can be found at: www.badforindiana.org.

So consumed are the corporatists about getting RTW in Indiana that Republican Governor Mitch Daniels has restricted the rights of Hoosiers to assemble in the Indiana Statehouse. A rule taking effect on the first day of the 2012 Legislature restricts occupancy of the Statehouse to 3,000 people, half of those work in the Statehouse. The right wing can't stomach the thought of thousands of Hoosiers standing against their plan as we have done as recently as a month ago. So rather than listening, The Governor wishes to stifle opposition under the guise of "Safety."
We will not tolerate restrictions on the right to assemble to challenge government idiocy. This untoward and unconstitutional move affects those who wish their voices to be heard on any issue. It's nothing more than Fascism.

Is this how we want to live our lives, with government-sponsored destruction of our rights to fairly negotiate with employers?

If RTW passes, Hoosier workers will lose those rights. Unions will go into contract negotiations weak and what contracts we will be able to negotiate will suffer from lack of enforcement. If union shops do not generate the money to maintain contracts through our representatives and the grievance process because some workers freeload, all will lose the negotiated benefits.

Picture this: The union negotiates a contract with your employer. Your dues pay for the maintenance of that contract, except a number of your co-workers think they'll get the insurance, job protection and grievance procedures for free. A worker files a grievance of violation of the contract. Because your union can't afford to pay enough reps to handle the grievances in a timely manner, months pass before they can get to it. Meanwhile, your boss freely commits contract violations knowing that the more grievances filed, the longer it will take to resolve them. They can do whatever they want and the contract be damned; there's not enough people to enforce the terms of the contract. Eventually, the freeloaders render the contract useless.

That, in fact, is the right wing's hope: That you, the worker, have no rights.

Do we really want that?