This article points out the real crux to the RTW law, which gives employees the option not participate (paying dues) in the union and it will not change the terms or conditions of their employment. Irrespective of the employees choice to participate or not, the union will still be legally obligated to represent the employee regardless of their membership or dues payment status. Nonunion members do not pay for the benefits derived from the collective barraging process, but they still receive all the fruits of the collective bargaining process (representation, wages, hours, and working conditions). This desertion from the union has no legal recourse and any retaliation or discrimination against the non-member is unlawful. It is considered an Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) if the union fails to fully represent members and non-members equally, which causes issues when representing employees for discipline issues. Addressing discipline issues typically has legal costs associated with them, which the union has to pay for. The process has been nicknamed “freedom to freeload”, because you receive all the union benefits without being obligated to pay for them.
Michigan became a Right-to-Work (RTW) state on December 11, 2012 when Governor Rick Snyder signed the bill into law making Michigan the 24th state to implement RTW. This article discusses how the law prohibits requiring employees to join or support a labor organization, engage in, or refrain from, collective bargaining activities, to pay dues, assessments, or any other thing of value to a labor organization. The law also makes it is illegal to require any payments to third parties by its members.
This article will give good background information on RTW as well as the implementation in Michigan. The article spells out how the law works as well as some of its issues. The law also has constraints on the unions in respect to representation.
The validity of the article is high, because it comes from a Michigan Law firm. The article gives a legal overview of the Michigan law, as well as RTW in general. This law firm has no bias and does not represent the state, or any specific labor/management firms, to my knowledge and is not promoting or disqualifying this legislation.
Dias, L. (2011). Human resource management. University of Minnesota Libraries Publishing edition. Minneapolis, MN This is required textbook for this class and it gives a good overview of the collective bargaining process and how negotiations between the organization and a union work. The purpose of collective bargaining is for unions and management make a legal agreement about wages, hours and working conditions for an agreed length of time. The agreement made between management and labor is called a contract or Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA). It also explains the process of renewing contracts when they expire. Contracts spell out in detail about wages, discipline, promotions, and the process used to resolve issues when there is an impasse.
The book explains the concept of unionization and how the process of membership in union shops works verses RTW rules. It discusses how non-RTW states require employees to join the union compared to RTW where it is illegal to require membership. The RTW laws prohibit any requirement to pay dues, fees, or join a union.
The information from the textbook is very good background information on the process of collective bargaining. It also explains the dynamics of unionization and the importance of membership for viability. It gives background information on RTW and the effects on compensation.
The validity of this source is very high because the information comes from our text, which was written by a college professor, published by University of Minnesota, and has met the threshold for acceptance by Siena Heights University and our class’s professor.
This article looks at the decline of unionization and how it has reached a 97-year low. The article discusses declining union membership paired with the cyclical process causing reductions in union membership over time. The reasoning for declines in union membership is hypostasized to be from people who do not feel unionism affects them.
The article frames how average workers believe unionization isn’t their problem, because they do not belong to a union. The article looks at the ambivalence towards unions and why it is wrong in two critical ways. The first critical error is people do not realize when unions prosper the economy is more successful. Unionization drives raising wages, which causes increases in overall workers purchasing power, which helps to drive the economy. This purchasing power spurs economic growth causing the need for hiring more workers to support the new economic demands. The second critical error is non-union members do not realize when union wages increase it causes overall wage to rise. Irrespective of union membership the overall increase of union wages is proven to have a direct relation to high prevailing wage in the area where the union is located.
This article gives great information on why the United States is seeing a decline of union membership. It dives into the attitudes of union membership as well as the political aspect of why it is important for industry and management to want to limit the power and spread of unionization.
The article came from Time magazine, which is a very valid news source. Time is a weekly magazine, which has been around since the 1920’s. This source is so common most people in the United States recognize it as a valid new source at face value.
This article points out the concept of Right to Work (RTW) is based American workers should have the right to work for a living without being compelled to belong for a union It explains employment-requiring unionization, called a closed shop or an agency, is a complete contradiction of RTW principles. They supporters of RTW believe it is unfair for people who do not support collective bargaining ideology should not have to financially support union activities. The concept of RTW is based on every individual having the right to unionization, but should not be required to join a union. RTW laws guarantee that no one will be required, as a condition of employment, to join a union. The law also prohibits the requirement of paying dues to a labor union. RTW derived from Section 14(b) of the Taft-Hartley Act affirms the right of states to enact RTW laws. There are 26 states that have passed RTW laws. This article is to balance the arguments against RTW. It frames the supporter’s arguments of why the law is beneficial and gives a lot of factual legal information. It also points out not all workers want to be represented by unions and how this law gives workers an opportunity to be employed in industries, which were normally closed shops, without the restraints of union membership requirement. The validity of this site is good and the information is all based on the RTW laws. The site does give good counter arguments to unionism. The organization has been around for a long time and the website cites it is a nonprofit organization established in 1968
A Stanford Law School professor, Alison Morantz, did a study comparing union and non-union coal mining groups. Her study focused on safety records from 1993-2010 from the Mine Safety and Health Administration. The study found a correlation between unionization and decreases of fatalities and traumatic injuries when compared to non-union operations. The article cited non-union miners had up to 30 percent more traumatic injuries paired with 83 percent more fatalities. The study also showed a higher volume of reported injuries in union mining operation, but this is due to stringent injury reporting requirements of union shops.
Overall it is understandable industries like mining, and other dangerous trades would see accidents, but even in more controlled industries have shown measurable injury reduction benefits from unionization. In the late 1990’s hotel workers in San Francisco noticed an abnormally high number of musculoskeletal injuries being reported by its membership. Some of the injuries required surgery and others became permanently disabling. The union suspected these injuries were work related and contacted University of California, Berkeley, to investigate. Berkeley’s Labor Occupational Health Program paired with the help of housekeepers collected credible statistics on workplace health. From the research they found 75 percent of workers reported work-related pain and or discomfort requiring half to take time off to recover. From the data collected the union was able to bargain better working conditions and the workload placed on its members by management.
This article is will help frame my arguments how RTW increases injuries and death rates compared to states allowing closed shops. Most of the information is from coal mining industry, which is a dangerous career, but also looks at industries that are atypical for worker injuries and how the union and management came together to resolve the issues the union members was having.
The article is valid because it was a study done by a Stanford Law School professor and published by Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. Harvard being one of the most prestigious Universities in the world gives this article a lot of validity.
This article looks at the development of RTW in Michigan. In November of 2012 labor lost a big battle when it attempted to get collective bargaining rights placed into the Michigan’s state constitution. Lawmakers in Michigan took the opportunity, after the failed attempt of getting union rights in to the state constitution, to frame an argument for Right to Work (RTW). The argument was presented that the people of Michigan want to have RTW, because the labor unions constitutional amendment failed. Lawmakers quickly prepared a bill to fast track RTW and Governor Rick Snyder initially stated RTW was not on his addenda, but now wanted to have a thoughtful discussion after he felt unions tried to back door legislation. Republicans had complete control of the Michigan House of Representatives, Senate, and Governor and were being told by different conservative groups that not having RTW laws was causing business avoid coming to Michigan. Two companies moved operations to Indiana (Toyota and Amazon) after the passage of RTW. Legislators in Michigan framed the argument that not implementing the law is hurting the Michigan’s economy.
This article gives good historical information of why and how the RTW became law in Michigan. It explained the views from labor unions, proponents of RTW, and lawmakers. The article also gives insight into the political effects from the implementation of the law. Overall the article gives a comprehensive look at the RTW law in Michigan.
The validity of this article is high because it came from a proquest search data base and its was published it in the Wall Street Journal. The information is cited well throughout the article and represented both sides well limiting the prospect of bias.
Michigan’s union membership has been on the decline since the 1980. The implementation of the Right-to Work law has greatly accelerated the decline of union membership significantly. The Bureau of Labor Statistics states “ the percentage of unionized workers nationwide fell from 11.3 percent in 2013 to 11.1 percent in 2014” (Shepardson, 2015). In Michigan the RTW law caused a more significant decline in union membership from 16.3 percent to 14.5 percent, which was a decrease of 48,000 members even though the workforce grew by 44,000 workers in that same time period. These numbers are expected to continue to decline, which is attributed to the new RTW law not taking effect on union contracts still in affect. Union members do not have an option to withdraw from the union until after their contract expires. RTW has already caused Michigan to drop to the 11th most unionized state from being the seventh.
“Roland Zullo, an assistant research scientist at the University of Michigan Institute of Labor and Industrial Relations, said the impact of right-to-work legislation” is to weaken unions (Shepardson, 2015, para. 7). Union membership declines creates reduced workers wages by $6,400 plus fewer benefits paired with changes in worker safety.
This article will help me frame the statistics about how RTW and the effects unionization. It will also help show the decline of union membership and pre and post RTW in Michigan. The statistics also will allow me to draw comparisons from national declines of unionization compared to Michigan.
The validity of this article comes from the Detroit news, which is a valid new source in Michigan. The article cited its sources in the article and showed limited bias in it conclusions.
Union membership has declined significantly since records were kept in 1983. In 1983 total union workforce was 20.1 percent with 17.7 million compared to 11.1 percent with 14.8 million workers today. Public sector workers have the highest union membership at 35.2 percent of the workers, which is five times more than private sector workers. Workers in protective service occupations (police officers and firefighters) and education (teachers) have the highest rates of unionization.
Earnings of non-union workers are 79 percent of unionized ones. The median non-union weekly earnings were $776 compared to unionized $980. These earnings comparisons are not adjusted for any factors and are just a broad sampling of pay.
State union membership levels are highest in California, New York, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Ohio, and New Jersey. The lowest levels of union participation are in South Carolina, North Carolina, Utah, Georgia, and Texas all having less than five percent union membership.
This articles information is good for support for the claims of my paper. It gives good statics and historical information to help frame the final paper. Also, historical information from this article will help show trends of union membership.
The validity of the information is high because it is from a federal government agency, the Bureau of Labor Statics, which tracks information specific to workers. Governmental sites should always be free of bias, and the information from this site comes from mandatory reporting increasing the validity.