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Opening Arguments

Work release

It's baaaaack!

— A controversial “right to work” measure now appears set to dominate much of the Indiana General Assembly's 2012 legislative session.

An out-of-session panel of state lawmakers on Wednesday morning approved a report that recommends the measure, which would allow workers to opt out of paying union dues, to be taken up during next year's session.

The nine-member committee's vote was 5-4 on party lines, with Republicans saying it would help draw businesses to Indiana, and Democrats saying it would hamper workers' wages and rights.

It's all but inevitable that it passes, I think, because:

1. Republicans still control both the House and Senate, and they're as enthusiastic about the legislation as ever.

2. Gov. Daniels doesn't have a big agenda he doesn't want threatened this time around, so he won't oppose the legislation again.

3. Democrats have already used their ultimate "we'll sit out for weeks and make you sorry" tactic, so what have they got left?

I suppose that last po

Comments

Doug
Wed, 10/26/2011 - 10:41am

When you read them, "right to work" laws are really laws that restrict the ability of a business to enter into a contract. Currently, there is no requirement that businesses run a union shop (requiring union membership as a condition of employment) - union shops are only created where the business enters into a contract with a union.

People who are normally champions of freedom to contract and the right of businesses to set conditions of employment as they see fit suddenly support state interference with contracts that require union membership as a condition of employment.

Leo Morris
Wed, 10/26/2011 - 1:35pm

But the trade-off is that employees aren't forced to join a union as a condition of employment, which would violate their individual rights and the right to freely associate. It seems there's no way for a government to take a position without violation one party's rights or the other. And couldn't you make an argument that, such being the case, it's better to go with the option involving the least amount of coercion? Eemployees aren't forced to join unions, and companies aren't really forbidden from negotiating with unions should employees elect to have them.

In any case, if you accept the assertion that RTW states tend to have lower salaries, that makes the choice between more jobs with lower salaries (if RTW really does attract businesses) or fewer jobs with higher salaries. That seems like a valid debate to me.

Harl Delos
Wed, 10/26/2011 - 3:12pm

It's untenable to negotiate individually with thousands of employees. What good unions do is to figure out what it takes to make their members happy, and that information helps good managements keep employees happy.

Yeah, there are some really bad unions out there, but if you look twice, they generally don't exist except at the companies that treat employees poorly.

Herb Orr used to pay employees a pretty crappy rate, and you never got a raise, but at Christmastime, he'd give each employee a bonus of $100 times the number of months the guy had been working for him. If you'd been there 3 years, you got a $3,600 bonus. If you'd been there 10 years, you got a $12,000 bonus. He got rid of unsatisfactory employees right away (and you rarely have to fire someone; you get get them to quit pretty easily) and his good employees stayed FOREVER. But when he died, the new owners decided to change the way things worked, and suddenly, they had unhappy employees, a lot of turnover, quality really dropped, and a profitable company became unprofitable in no time flat.

Or take Eckrich. They kept bringing the unprofitable products to Osage street, moving production of the profitable ones to other plants, in an attempt to get the wages down at the home plant.

Odd thing, though. When they moved products into the home office plant, they suddenly started selling better and making more money, while products produced elsewhere stopped selling as well, and become less profitable.

Workers who are careful in measuring spices, temperatures, and cook times, and who maintain high sanitation levels end up producing tastier products that keep longer in the fridge. Housewives don't choose meats to buy so much as they restock the fridge, and if the meats are tasty, they get eaten more quickly.

You won't find many unions tougher than the UFCW that was at Eckrich - but Eckrich was lucky to have them. These days, the stuff produced with the Eckrich brand on it isn't very good at all.

Butch Cassidy: [to Sundance] If he'd just pay me what he's spending to make me stop robbing him, I'd stop robbing him.

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