Right to Work laws in America

[Anomalocaris]

It's a lose-lose situation.  Unions leaders get rich off from running the unions.  But if you don't have unions, you have less bargaining power.  The worker gets screwed either way.

No.  It's lose less vs lose more situation.  Not a choice between two equivalent loss situation.

It has been this sleigh of hand that the right wing has been playing since the mid 1970s to draw equivalence between the draw backs of an arrangement designed to benefit the middle class with the outcome of the alternative that is designed to screw the middle class.

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If there is a right to work, then here must be a right to living wage, time off, family leave, medical insurance, etc.  If the two does not go hand in hand, then the equivalence of factory slavery will be the eventual outcome.

[brewer]

There are both pros and cons regarding unions. Where they are necessary in industry/business/gov it's often a delicate balancing act that is rarely perfect.

https://www.nexxt.com/articles/pros-and-...ticle.html

https://vittana.org/20-pros-and-cons-of-right-to-work

[vorlon13]

I don't know if there has been a definitive SCOTUS ruling on it, but regardless of the pros and cons of unionization, freedom of association would include freedom to not associate, particularly if $$$ is involved.

An obvious remedy would be a Constitutional Amendment clarifying things, but I'm not holding my breath.

[Neo-Scholastic]

I can understand unions for public servants like teachers, police and fire fighters.

I can't and neither could FDR. It's a viscous circle of patronage in which unions subsidize candidates that favor the unions and who in turn give the unions more money with which to subsidize candidates. At least in the private sector people do not get to elect the bosses with whom they negotiate for wages.

There are also many unintended consequences. Some young teachers don't get their contracts renewed every two years because if the district retained those new teachers for a third year they would get tenure. Also the union pay scales do not differentiate between regular classroom teachers and many new positions (like literacy coaches and reading specialists) that require greater education and training, so their wages are suppressed.

[Minimalist]

The freeloaders benefit from the union's efforts but don't want to pay for it.

Fuck them.  They are as bad as the management scumsuckers.

[vorlon13]

The freeloaders benefit from the union's efforts but don't want to pay for it.

Fuck them.  They are as bad as the management scumsuckers.

Not sure how that argument would be received at SCOTUS.

Could you rephrase it taking that into account ??

[brewer]

The freeloaders benefit from the union's efforts but don't want to pay for it.

Fuck them.  They are as bad as the management scumsuckers.

And also suffer.

[Joods]

Seems like pros and cons on both sides of the issue. Too bad a decent solution can't be found.

[Anomalocaris]

Seems like pros and cons on both sides of the issue. Too bad a decent solution can't be found.

It is difficult to come up with any durable good solution when any measure aimed to curb the pursuit of the the interests of a privileged group to attain greater aggregate benefit for the society overall is deemed to be an unacceptable form of socialism.

[popeyespappy]

The union's job is to stop the company from shoving their dicks all the way up the workers' asses.

That's true, but in many cases it is only to leave enough room for union management to stick their pencil dicks in there too.

I do not believe people should be forced to join a union and pay dues as a prerequisite of employment. Once upon a time I worked in a Boeing union shop without paying dues. I opted not to be a dues paying member because the only thing that mattered to the union was seniority. While seniority should certainly be an important part of the equation it should not be the only thing that matters. I did twice the work for half the pay of the super senior union reps with zero chance of ever earning as much as they did despite being better at the position we were all hired to fill.