From: "Christopher B. Wright" <cwbrenn-AT-ibm.net>
Date: Sun, 28 Feb 1999 12:33:49 -0500
Subject: re:friday fightback


On Sun, 28 Feb 1999 11:38:07 -0500 (EST), danceswithcarp wrote:

>
> 
> If you'd taken something valuable in college, like the geography of
> poverty, you'd know that the 10 poorest states per capita are "right to
> wirk" states while none of the right to wirk states are in the top 30
> regarding per capita incomes.  You'd also know that due to low wages in
> these states they are essentially the biggest job creators and they are
> mostly southern.  What this means is that since the 1980s there's been a
> net increase in migration, particularly among blacks but generally
> noticable across the board, *into* these southern states and now
> descendants of slaves are being wage exploited by the same families of
> capital that held them in chattel.
> 
> I'd say I can see the pattern.
> 
> Also, production factories in closed shop states (non-right-to-wirk) set
> what are known as "high wage islands" which means that in order to compete
> for the available labor pool employers must bid higher wages for non-union
> jobs in order to fill their positions.  In "right to wirk" states the
> opposite is true.
> 
> Yes, unions are bloated, bureaucratic, and a lot of times in bed with
> management, but where they wirk (WIRK?) they have benefits that spread far
> beyond the wirkplace.
> 
> Funny you didn't notice that.

Carp, I think you're being a bit harsh on Jerald. In _principal_,
"right to work" is not a bad idea -- it is, after all, ridiculous for
someone to be FORCED to join a union if they've no interest in doing
so. For quite some time I'd planned to be one of those wacky stage
actors, and I'd decided I would NOT try getting work in New York
because I didn't want to have to jump through all the hoops in order to
get my Actor's Equity card (you must be a member of actor's equity
before you can act in New York). In the south there are good theatres
and shows that you can audition for without being a member of anything.

Similarly, anyone working a job in the south can opt not to join a
union, and the Union cannot exclude you from working there.

In PRACTICE, "right to work" is used by companies to actively
DISCOURAGE the formation of unions and to exploit workers. There are
southern law firms that get paid a lot of money to do just that.

I don't have problems with the "right to work" idea in theory simply
because I don't like someone telling me I HAVE to become a
card-carrying member of anything. I agree with you that in practice it
doesn't work out that way, however...

In THEORY, unions _could_ be more effective as workers advocates in
right-to-work states because they would _have_ to represent the
workers' interests in order for the workers to use them. This would
make it easier for unions that genuinely try to represent its members
to get a toehold.

One of the problems with Union-only states is that the Unions have, by
and large, become like the employers they claim to protect workers
from. On this, at least, I agree with the IWW.


Christopher B. Wright, Team OS/2 (cwbrenn-AT-ibm.net)
"We are all born originals -- why is it so many of us die copies?"
	- Edward Young