RIGHT TO WORK MEANS A RIGHT TO NOT JOIN A UNION

Hail, Hail Michigan

http://finance.townhall.com/columnists/johnransom/2012/12/14/hail-hail-michigan-n1466081/page/full/

Townhall Finance – John Ransom - 12/14/2012

Cities may go bankrupt, police may be laid off, public safety endangered and public finance corrupted but the unions get paid first, no matter what.

It shouldn’t surprise us that while most of America hails Michigan for victory in passing a right-to-work law in the union-controlled state that borders Canada, the unions are complaining about their beef- and their benefits. They did much the same in Madison in 2011 as Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker forced unions to compete in an open way for benefit contracts. And despite union grousing, the world did not come to an end in Wisconsin. In fact, quite the opposite is true.

Magically, school districts on the verge of financial ruin suddenly were able to find millions of dollars in new money.

“When the Appleton School District put its health-insurance contract up for bid for instance,” writes the City-Journal, “WEA Trust [the benefit provider run by the union] suddenly lowered its rates and promised to match any competitor’s price. Appleton will save $3 million during the current school year.” That open bidding process outside of the union monopoly was a result of Walker’s reforms.

And it reduced costs without degrading benefits.

Right-to-work means an end to the union monopoly on employment. It means that more people can have jobs. It means that unions have to provide a competitive environment or their customers will leave.

In the world of unions and progressives a competitive environment must be avoided at all costs. That's way too much pressure.

For unions freedom of association means workers are given only one representative, one association, one, non-dissenting voice carefully following the party line.

 

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