The Right to Work

I am currently reading Barry Goldwater's The Conscience of a Conservative and there is a chapter that got me thinking. The chapter discusses labor and unions.

Maryland, as you may know, is not a right-to-work state. It's a Right-to-Join-the-Union-Or-Take-A-Hike state. That means that if there is a union that represents the employees of that company, you MUST join that union in order to work for the company. You cannot refuse to join the union. Joining the union is a condition of employment.

In right-to-work states, such as those in the South, you are not required to join the union in order to be hired by the company. Have you ever wondered why nearly every new manufacturing facility that has been built in the last 20 years has NOT been built in Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, or Maryland? It sounds fairly simple to me.

The one thing, however, that really makes me anti-union is their abuse of power over their forced members. Unions routinely persuade their members to vote Democratic and donate millions of dollars yearly to the Democratic candidate of their liking - usually the ones that promise to push for higher wages for union members and life harder for the companies that hire their members. Stick it to the company, right?

However, if you are a Libertarian or a Republican you have no say in how your union dues are spent. I belonged to the Teamsters when I was employed by the Price Club back in college. My dues over a 3 month time period were $400. Read - four hundred dollars!!! For a summer job!!! And I KNOW that a portion of that money was used as donations toward Democrats, spending which I would object.

I am not anti-union in the respect that I think they ought to go away. To the contrary. I think that unions keep companies in check. You'll remember from 5th grade history that the unions were created to stop wide-spread abuse of employees during the Industrial Revolution. And unions continue to keep these companies in check. And the unions can represent an employee in a grievance situation.

But let's be realistic. Today's unions are their for self-serving purposes. Making a few at the top very rich. They are not really there to represent the collective bargaining power of the masses to make life easier for them. So in that respect, Barry Goldwater's book is relevant today as it was in 1960. Check it out.