We all know that Wisconsin's new "Right-2-Work" law is bad for Unions. Even the law's supporters admit that. As far as they're concerned, this is a feature, not a bug. But its proponents are so gleeful about squeezing the Unions that no one is really talking about how the law goes about doing this. It's not just the Unions who are being curtailed.
(cont'd) ...
The big purpose of the "Right to Work" law is to say that joining a Union cannot be a requirement for employment. That, as far as I can tell, is the whole rationalization for the "RTW" slogan: "You have a Right to Work without having to join a Union first." I don't have the right to work without having to show two forms of ID or submit to a background check or in some cases take a drug test; but I'm free from the Tyranny of Union Dues and on being able to vote on what the Union does. Free!
Except... The Union doesn't hire people; the Boss does.
"Right to Work" also prevents Tyrannical Union Dues from being automatically taken out of a worker's paycheck, the Highest Form of Tyrrany.
Except... The Union doesn't issue those paychecks; the Boss does.
These are policies a Union can request in an non-RTW state; even demand, and certainly negotiate for; but only Management can implement them.
"Ah but the Unions are Forcing them -- Forcing them, I say!"
Maybe, but Businesses are "forced" to do things all the time. They can be "forced" by a rise in costs to raise their prices; or by increased competition to lower them. They can be "forced" to discontinue a product due to bad sales or to add one due to customer demand. The Business Owners evaluates each situation based on what makes the best sense to them; and sometimes they will decide on something they don't particularly like because the cost of doing otherwise will outweigh the benefit. Heck, for that matter, an individual worker can be "forced" to work for crappy wages because they're better than making nothing at all, and somehow this isn't an infringement of his "Right to Work".
Several years ago, I worked at an auto parts plant which had unionized shortly before I was hired. At that plant, Management had made a conscious decision to co-operate with the UAW, reasoning that working with the Union would be better for the company in terms of productivity and the bottom line than fighting it would. I like to think that we repaid the Company's trust; during the years I worked there, our plant was consistently recognized, both within the Company and within the Industry at large, for the quality of what we made. When things got tough for the Auto Industry coming towards the end of the decade, our Union worked with Management, agreeing to concessions to try to keep the plant open. It eventually closed due to market forces outside our control, but not due to "The Greedy Union".
"RTW" places limits on what a Business can do to work with a Union, even if the Business wants to. It is, shocking concept, Government Interference in the Marketplace, something that conservatives usually claim to oppose.
Funny how that works out.