Here’s a question Donald Trump should try and work in to the debate: why is Hillary Clinton against the right to work?
(Investors) Democrats love to talk about rights. They say people have the “right to affordable health care,” the “right to a debt free college education,” the “right to choose,” and so on.
But there’s one right they apparently want to erase: The right to work.
Here’s how Hillary Clinton put it in a videoconference this week at the Laborers’ International Union of North America: “I will fight back against so-called right to work. Right to work is wrong for workers and wrong for America.”
Come again? The right to work is wrong for America?
Clinton is referring to state right-to-work laws that give employees the right to work without being forced to join a union. In states without these laws, unions can force new and existing employees to join a union or pay union dues as a condition of employment at unionized companies.
Why would she say this? Because she, like the rest of the Democratic Party, is beholden to the slowly fading away unions, rather than with people who want to work and not have joining a union and paying dues be a requirement for employment. Twenty six states have right to work laws
When Wisconsin was on the cusp of passing its right-to-work law last year, Gov. Scott Walker said that “This isn’t anti-union. It restores worker rights and brings jobs back to Wisconsin.”
He’s right about that last part. Between 2004 and 2014, overall job growth in the U.S. was 6.1%. In states without right-to-work laws, it was a paltry 3.9%. But in right-to-work states, job growth over those years was 9.1%.
In fact, the last poll done on right to work, conducted by Rasmussen in 2012, found that 74% favor right to work laws. But, Hillary is a shill of the unions, which, let’s be honest, aren’t entirely bad. They can do a damned good job in protecting workers from companies, bad policies, and horrible bosses. Which is rather weird, since we’re told that Government is super awesome, so why would we need public sector unions? Regardless, a person should have the right to join a union or not, which puts the burden on the union to provide good reasons for someone to join the union once they join a company. In other words, the union has to woo an employee. As it should be.
Crossed at Right Wing News.
It’s part of conservative DNA to favor owners and corporations over labor and workers. You mouth platitudes about freedom and equality yet systematically take money out of pockets of workers and give it to the wealthy.
One of the reasons that wages have been stagnant and corporate profits/ 1%ers have been doing so well is the coordinated conservative/Republican/donor class efforts to crush unions.
Good job, cons. Unions are disappearing, wages are flat, the wealthy are flourishing.
Right to Work for Less laws are not good for America. But neither is conservatism.
Do the Right to Work for Less laws also stipulate that voluntary non-union workers forgo union benefits, e.g., higher pay, safety rules, vacation, strike pay, etc?
Both federal and state laws have been primarily union-supportive, yet, for some reason, private sector unionism is dying out. One would think that, if the workers actually saw unions as beneficial to them, those workers would vote for union representation; one wonders why they haven’t. Of course, the lovely Mrs Clinton was shouting this in the same speech in which she looked so ridiculous shouting about how she ought to be 50 points ahead.
Unions in the private sector have to be, in the end, partners with the organized businesses; they have to moderate their demands enough so that the corporations can stay in business. Sometimes they manage to do so, and other times they don’t; ask the people who used to work for Hostess or Bethlehem Steel.
Teach American companies continually set profit recorfs in most of Obama’s terms. Stronger unions would have prevented wage stagnation I think the only year record profits was not broken was last year which also saw our median income break an all time high % rate increase. FINALLY maybe companies are going to have to pay more in wages
Note also that the estate tax she proposes is a huge tax on WOMEN. That is because the male usually dies first and the woman is stuck with a big estate bill from both feds and state. I have seen many women who did not think they were rich being left poor in their later years as a result of the husband dying and the government taking everything.
Unions built America. During that time when America was “great” unions were stronger.
Sorry, retard.
Capitalism built America, unions were a by product.
John, Unions are the reason for us losing the moniker “great”. They have destroyed our ability to compete on the global stage. My favorite story that represents Unions is the battle of Midway. As the Japs approached to island, a ship arrived with munitions and weapons. The Union members on the ship would not allow it to be off loaded as there were no union stevedores. The Marines on the island decided the issue very quickly. That is the American Unions. Many other examples from WWII exist and are just a shameful.
Unions sucked the life out of America. Look around. Almost every industry unions infested is now over seas. Yeah, that helps the working man.
It’s so funny to see little johnny argue in one thread that wages are stagnant and in another thread argue that mean income levels rose under Obama.
You can’t argue with the logic that is missing from john.
I have worked more than a few jobs. 3 of those jobs were in union shops 2 of which I was forced to join the union. The other I was salaried and not eligible for the union.
One job I asked for the union’s help on an issue and, even though I was paying union dues, I was part of the supplemental work force and was NOT protected by the union.
Another job the only ones protected by the union were those that showed up to work drunk or high, or skipped work without calling in. These people would get their job back with back pay. Those of us that showed up on time everyday and worked, we paid union dues just to receive a pocket calendar at Christmas.
The third I wasn’t a member of the union and while working 3rd shift we had a piece of equipment go down which shut down all of production. This was a vacuum pump that is supposed to have the air filters cleaned once a day by a union member. This filter hadn’t been cleaned for over a week. I cleaned it out and got production running again. This union member filed a grievance against me for doing his job.
Now all three of these places are now closed and have. or are, moving to Mexico.
Every non union shop I have worked for is still operating in the US.
Unions had their place years ago and did a lot for workers. But now they are not needed and are just a way for union officials to fleece the workers.
Mr Hawk wrote:
Well, of course he did!
Then again, maybe he had to, in order not to get fired for not having cleaned out the air filter on schedule.
Maybe it’s just around here Dana, but I have never met a union person who was ever fired regardless of what he’s done. And I met a guy who touched a 12 year old student of his and he was “transferred” and still is working. Being from Philly I could tell you stories about the pipefitters, plumbers and roofers unions that would make your skin crawl. They make the mafia look like boy scouts.
As much as you don’t want to credit Hitler with some positive things that he did, like the autobahn, etc., he did one thing with the unions that I thought was great. On assuming power, he called in all union leaders and asked for a list of their demands. They gave him the list and he made them into law. The following day, he outlawed unions as there was no longer any reason for their existence.