We have perhaps the worst labor record of any state. Even in states with similarly violent histories, like West Virginia, unions have sometimes emerged victorious. Not here. From the Marion Massacre to Cherie Berry’s malign neglect, Tar Heel workers have suffered subjugation more often than progress. Republicans want to make it worse.
This is currently the second-least unionized state in the nation. Only 3% of our workforce enjoy collective bargaining protections. Yet somehow the NCGOP thinks employers face a dire threat of runaway unionism, and want to take the radical step of putting “Right to Work” in our Constitution. This would be disastrous on many levels.
In economic terms, workers would lose out. Nine of the ten highest-wage states are non-RTW. The tenth, Virginia, rejected a RTW amendment last fall. The benefits of non-RTW status hold even after factoring out cost of living. According to the most rigorous recent analyses, RTW costs workers $1,558 dollars per year after a cost-of-living adjustment. A RTW amendment would make it illegal to erase this disadvantage.
A RTW amendment would further diminish the political power of working people. Modern progressive groups tend to focus on single causes, noble ones. But unions fight for the common good on all fronts. The NC AFL-CIO backed same-sex marriage, fought for public transportation, and has helped lead the charge for Medicaid expansion–even though Medicaid makes union contracts less necessary. Republicans would like nothing keep plutocrats on their throne. RTW would all but ensure that outcome.
Finally, this amendment would once again plunge in the dagger of disrepute. No other state–not even viciously anti-union places like South Carolina and Tenneessee–enshrines Right-to-Work in their constitution. So we would once again be trail blazers in repression. Outsiders would see our government as being uniquely, implacably hostile to their rights of its citizens. And that notion would not be without merit.
Alexander Jones is an original contributor to PoliticsNC.
It is interesting that this post is embedded with ads from a SCAB recruiter!
Of course you leave out the most important principle behind RTW – the right to NOT join a union. By your definition that is “anti-union” when actually non-RTW is “anti-rights.” Even with RTW, workers are free to organize and join a union, they just keep choosing not to.
Unions are where they are in NC – and other states even without RTW laws – because they add no value.
Want to make higher wages? Increase your value. Works every time.
“Want to make higher wages? Increase your value. Works every time..”
Does it? So what happened to the market economy, or fair market value on jobs? The task matters little, only that the worker’s “value” increases, Is that why there are Ph.D.’s working in fast food? They increased their value?
Because PhD’s in English are a lot less in demand than a Bachelor of Science in molecular biology.
Not much in the way of human decency, humanity, character or ethics in the North Carolina General Assembly. The NCGA members who are profiting from their despicable policies cannot possibly believe their gain is worth the lives and land they have ravished.
That opening paragraph describes dealing with the VA as well. Break you, then run you around pretending to fix you… if they feel like pretending.
When we had control, Democrats could have made things much easier for labor. But business friendly Democrats were in the pocket of imbig business. The furniture and textile industries ran full steam for a century. Any time someone mentioned unionization or they could actually get to the point of petition for a vote, the rumor mills ran non-stop. The main topic of contagion was, “they’ll close the doors.”. Well eventually they did, all the while successfully keeping the unions out, providing a fraction of what they should have been on the basis of what these companies were earning. They aren’t the only ones that capitalized on that environment, they’re just the best known to me.
The end result was still the same however; the factories and jobs left. The workers lost out on decent pensions, higher wages across their work lives, better opportunities for their children, and a higher standard of living overall. Zero sum game, but the workers bought in to it and believed the rumors and lies they were told. Fear won and it will again if we don’t break the cycle.