By TIM ROWDEN
Editor
Washington – Senator Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) is at it again, introducing – once again – a National “Right-to-Work” bill that aims to weaken unions and the voice of workers everywhere.
Paul’s bill would make the 23 free bargaining states, including Missouri and Illinois, so-called “right-to-work” (RTW) states.
President Trump has said he will sign the bill if it reaches his desk.
Missouri voters rejected RTW (Prop A) in August of last year by an overwhelming 67 percent to 32.5 percent, but the fight to stop the anti-worker legislation isn’t over.
The Republican majority Missouri Legislature is considering RTW yet again. With Paul leading the charge at the federal level, and with Trump’s support, union members and all workers in Missouri and across the country could find themselves back in the trenches fighting the anti-union, anti-worker, legislation once again.
So-called RTW outlaws union represented businesses negotiating labor contracts that assure workers will either pay dues or a smaller “fair share” fee to cover the union’s cost of bargaining and representation. The goal, at both the state and national level, is to financially starve unions, which, by federal law, must represent all workers in a union shop whether they pay dues or not, thereby limiting the union’s ability to negotiate and represent workers.
ONLY THE LATEST ATTACK ON ORGANIZED LABOR
As UCOMM (Union Communications) blog reported, signing a national RTW bill would only be the latest in a long line of attacks on Organized Labor from Trump.
Not only did he appoint the deciding vote in favor of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Janus ruling, which made the entire public sector RTW, he also:
• Repealed or rolled back numerous safety standards put in place under the Obama administration.
• Has been in open war with federal workers unions.
• Is currently facing multiple lawsuits over union-busting and the failure to pay workers during the government shutdown.
TRUMP ‘BELIEVES IN’ RIGHT-TO-WORK
In 2017, when the last national RTW bill was proposed, the White House commented saying “The president believes in right-to-work. He wants to give workers and companies the flexibility to do what’s in the best interest for job creators. (Editor’s note: read that ‘companies’) Obviously, the vice president has been a champion of this as well.”
It’s unclear if Paul’s national RTW bill will gain any traction, particularly with Democrats in control of the House. But the fact that Paul has filed it, and that President Trump has expressed a willingness to sign it – adding to his growing list of attacks on Labor – should cause concern for union members and working people on both sides of the political aisle.
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Being in a union mean my job and my family are safe from the start to the end of my day’s work for rtw all I have is the shift that I am working now …. Union equal=certificate of completion for you and your job that starts with like training for all
Do not support this bill, union workers are average Americans with skill set to build a quality program, others are to easily cutting corners
A national RTW law should concern both union and non union workers. Non unionized workers are well aware of the union’s influence on their paychecks too. If unions are destroyed, wages and benefits will be destroyed for all. Not only that, wages and benefits for white collar workers will be negatively affected as well.
It’s simply more broken promises. During the Pre election carnival acts every candidate crowed about the desperate need to raise wages and improve benefits, and raise the wages and benefits of American workers. Post election attacks on Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid are rampant. Lies, lies, and more lies. Our Middle Class is struggling daily, just to keep their heads above water, and what do these leeches propose? Reducing wages and benefit packages of American citizens even more. Ridiculous!
Trump you’re crazy as hell if you sign this bill
Stop voting for crooked assed republicans.
Is unbelievable what is happening to the middle class American.
We Probably carry most of the country’s tax burden and all our government does is to find ways to take more of our income thru higher taxes,
I don’t know how much longer they can continue to rape us like they do With their unfair taxes.
As a Veteran and a member of two unions, we all must stand against this RTW effort. “Right to work” is the name for a policy designed to take away rights from working people. Backers of right to work laws claim that these laws protect workers against being forced to join a union. The reality is that federal law already makes it illegal to force someone to join a union.
The real purpose of right to work laws is to tilt the balance toward big corporations and further rig the system at the expense of working families. These laws make it harder for working people to form unions and collectively bargain for better wages, benefits and working conditions.
I live in a part of the Nation that has historically been “Right to Starve”. And it was thus during America’s so-called “peak years” of the ’50s and ’60s. Over my life, I saw 20th Century Carpetbagging take place (it still does) when people with “modest” 7 Million dollar Long Island houses sell out and transfer to the “Sunny, Impoverished South” and take whatever good paying jobs were allegedly being “created”, while everything else was left for the great “unwashed” irrespective of their education. (Buying buying full-blown mansions when they arrived, btw.) So, if reparations becomes a “thing”, I want my part of the last seven or so generations of MY bloodline to get their payday (you can’t pay THEM, which is why reparations should fail, btw) as we sweated under the same Sun to pick cotton/farm and we played the same “40 acres and a mule” changes (except with no 40 acres and no Mule) and were equally disenfranchised when it came OWNING decent housing. What does this have to do with labor and this article? Where I live, those same people were too willfully ignorant to understand this elemental truth: “If capitalism is fair then unionism must be. If men and women have a right to capitalize their ideas and the resources of their country, then that implies the right of men and women to capitalize their labor.”-Frank Lloyd Wright. As a school teacher, I discovered that what passed for Unions here are the merest empty husk of the idealized concept. As a professional Musician, I saw the exact same thing. We have them, but it’s the “Money for Nothing” aspect of the how they subsist here that makes Unions existentially vulnerable. That said, there’s blame enough on all sides for that “all politics are local” manifestation. The factionalizations within Unions (pigmentation can matter more than qualifications do, and I’m not kidding, and it might not be in the direction you might think) that are the real enemy to progress. I wish that wasn’t true, but experience has bitterly taught me exactly how “Right To Starve” thrives here. Trump’s a master at manipulating it so it helps him while screwing everybody else. So…there’s THAT as well. In my opinion, we’re being manipulated into a second Civil War, by Autocratic Plutocrats both INSIDE and OUTSIDE of the United States. Socialized losses and privatized profits on a Global scale is the larger confidence game “war” being waged.
this benefits trump since he can pay whatever he wants to on his construction projects. he has left many who have done construction jobs out in the cold and they have to sue to get their money and usually have to settle for less since the lawyers negotiate the cost down. i would bet his service people arent paid especially well either. this i havent heard anything about
Trump and his hungry vultures make their billions of the poorly compensated sweat of others. This won’t get thtrough the house, but start organizing now to donate to Democratic presidential candidates, and work hard – don’t just bitch – to defeat Trump and take back the Senate
Republicans know they may not get another chance for national RTW. Their dream is to kill unions.
If this becomes law, I know we can get jobs if we go to Rand Paul’s office. People should organize a new kind of protest. A “Job In”. We don’t leave until we have a job.
I have worked both union and non union. RTW is a ploy to destroy the safety and welfare of American workers.In Ohio we defeated it in 1958 and if they try again we will defeat it again
Mr Trump, do you know why you are hated? Because you are making decisions for yourself and corporations over the people!
Look what has happened in Texas and other right to work states. The heads of these companies are getting richer and the worker is not being paid what is due to them. Don’t vote for this bill.
You Trump fans voted for this idiot.
We have more than enough problems in this country. This would be a huge step in the wrong direction.
If this does go through, it should be broadcast in all those blue-collar states he won last time. How does this jibe with bringing manufacturing bacK? Although if you believed that, you were an idiot. No offense.
Mr trump you sign this bill and you will lose the vote and confidence of every union worker that you have won over in this entire nation let’s not get crazy here the existing knowledge and quality of the union worker is hanging by a thread as it is !!! YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR you lower wages and this country will crumble !!!!!
NO DON’T SIGN THIS BILL. RIGHT TO WORK ONLY HELP’S THE RICH GET RICHER. WHEN IS ENOUGH ANOUGH.
Many people died to give us unions with better pay and most importantly, safety requirements!! Everyone is gone now that fought for unions, but they are as important now as they were then, if not more!!!Save unions!
I’m reading this as I’m attending the national Safty conference. Statistics show more people get hurt in right to work States . This by it self should wake up every politician up. Everyone deserves to go home after a hard days work Union or non Union . Please don’t back this bill it’s bad for everybody.
Do not sign this bill it will effect all middle class and all workers . Unions help the economy and workers .
Paul should be replaced This in New York and its a Uniontown
Don’t sign something so stupid! Middle class will be gone
Trump please dont sigh this bill. You will lose a lot of votes from workers trust me on this
Trump do not sign this!!!!!!! Rand Paul needs to be replaced and kicked to the curb with no benefits!!!!
I hope he signs this thing you want republican then you should get it till you choke on the billThat will also be taken out of your pocket go right wing!!!! Destroy America!!!!
Are we going back in time? As a union member it gives people a chance to learn a craft and to excel at it and get the benefits for their determination. I work in a right to work state, but I am still in a union which protects the workers from being taken advantage of from the greed of business people. Unions protect the people’s rights!!!
Mr President don’t sign this bill!