Originally Posted by
T. A. Gardner
Start by getting rid of "Closed shop" laws and making the country "Right to work." If workers are not forced to join a union, many will choose not to. That limits the ability of unions to shake down workers for dues, particularly if a worker disagrees with the union. It also limits their ability to use dues money for political purposes as they would have less of it particularly from workers who disagree with their politics.
Unions didn't make America's middle class. Social and physical (ability to move to other places) mobility did. America for most of its history has one of the highest land ownership rates of any large country. That and the lack of a rigid social hierarchy allowed people to accumulate wealth. You want to destroy the middle class? Fix social hierarchy so people are pigeon holed into a specific place on that ladder and make them renters.
By federal law you cannot be compelled to join any union; in Agency Fee Payer states while you cannot be forced to join a union, you can be required to pay a fee equal to the costs associated with contract maintenance and bargaining fees; in right-to-work states you cannot be forced to join a union nor pay any costs as well. We call call them "freeloaders" since they are covered by the contract and unions are legally forced to represent them and pay nothing towards the costs which I feel is unfair but that's the law.
If the country wants a national right-to-work law, the unions should not be forced to represent the non-union employees in the bargaining unit aside from making sure they receive the same wages or higher.
In a side note; we have a shop in Miami (right-to-work state) that was composed of approximately 200 represented employees but only 8 were paying members of the union. Every four years when it would be time to bargain for a new contract (which would affect them as well), they'd all join the union, paying the $2.00 initiation fee, vote on a contract and when once ratified they'd all resign en mass. This really pissed off the regular dues paying members, so we fixed that problem by changing the initiation fee from $2.00 to $1,000. Boy were the non-union guys upset at that but there was nothing they could do about it and when the next time contract talks came up only another 20 or so were willing to pay the fee, but they all stayed as members. There is more then one way to skin a cat.
When you cuss a farmer, don't talk with your mouth full.
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