‘Right to Work’ Law is Really Right to Work for Less

Frank Komola retired in 2012 following a 23 year career at UPS. He belongs to the retirees chapter of Local 25, International Brotherhood of Teamsters in Boston. He and his wife, Lisa, live in Haverhill.

Frank Komola retired in 2012 following a 23 year career at UPS. He belongs to the retirees chapter of Local 25, International Brotherhood of Teamsters in Boston. He and his wife, Lisa, live in Haverhill.

If you live in Massachusetts, a number of laws have been enacted and are enforced that benefit workers. Workers are fortunate that unions here have lead the way in securing a decent minimum wage, over time provisions, holidays, occupational safety laws and many more.

Unions have been the reason why companies have had to include above average wage rates for members’ jobs,  rewards for their years of service in the form of seniority, paid benefits like health insurance, paid family leave, retirement plans and generous vacations.

However, it is extremely difficult to get union representation in a workplace. In non-union workplaces, employees have had their hours cut back, pay raises denied or been terminated without cause because of their support of potential union representation.

So, for union members, the sacrifices they make to secure union representation and to negotiate all of these benefits are extremely high.

But non-union workers haven’t made those sacrifices in “right to work” states. They receive all of the benefits that union members do, without having to suffer through all of the difficulties that made the union workplace possible, or pay the union dues that are used to achieve the wages and benefits they enjoy as well.

So you might ask, why join the union and pay dues every month? Because it costs money to hire individuals to negotiate those contracts for you, enforce the provisions of the contract for you at job sites and administer the health and retirement benefits everyone receives. Take away the union stewards, and no one is going to be around to defend you against the company. Take away the union officials, and no one is going to be there for you to negotiate a new contract. Take away the union business office, and no one will be there to ensure that you get the health and retirement benefits you and your family are counting on to prevent your financial ruin. If the union is gone because you and others didn’t become dues paying members, and instead of a large union of workers  representing you, you and your fellow employees negotiate one at a time, there isn’t a snowballs chance in hell you’ll ever see the benefits of a union again. And big companies are counting on you to eliminate the power of many that a union represents by getting “right to work” laws passed in states like New Hampshire.

The New Hampshire House of Representatives Committee on Labor, Industrial and Rehabilitation Services has scheduled a hearing on a  “right to work”  bill for Wednesday, Feb. 8, at 10:05 a.m. The bill number is 520 (2017). The hearing will be held in the Representatives Hall at the State House in Concord, New Hampshire.

I hope my fellow union members and retirees, non-union workers and concerned citizens in the state of New Hampshire will contact their representatives or attend this hearing to oppose this legislation. No one should be forced to go it alone at work.

2 thoughts on “‘Right to Work’ Law is Really Right to Work for Less

  1. “Because it costs money to hire individuals to negotiate those contracts for you” –

    Right, those monies also include over $200K in campaign donations by Local 25 to Beacon Hill pols (via OCPF) over the years. What I take exception with private unions is their “employees” consume over 35% of member dues to pay themselves (using Local 25 L-2 filings). Nice to pay yourself well into six-figures while you membership is destroyed. On the public sector side, it’s great when you can not only campaign for who sits on the other side of the bargaining table, but give them money too (i.e. public unions), win-win.

    The sad tragedy is that while I sympathize with the plight of private unions, they have simply sold their own membership out. Whether it be by design, ignorance, or stupidity, or maybe in exchange for a favor that comes back to haunt them later doesn’t matter. Whether it be Beacon Hill or Capitol Hill, private unions have been sold out in this country – see ridiculous decline of both membership and JOBS.

    There’s too many things wrong here with unions, with a monthly criminal report from The DoL to back it up. They are simply no longer trusted, except in the bastions of liberal utopia states like Massachusetts. What unions fail to get is that they are still sold out nonetheless – see offshoring, outsourcing, and H-1B’s. Keep voting and donating for your own demise, I’m sure it will work out great for your members, sans public unions which should be outright abolished.

  2. Frank, ‘Right to Work’ laws are one of the biggest scams Democrats have created, along with other labor legislative issues like The Fair Leave Act, etc. Liberal Democrats are forever defining themselves as the party of “Choice”, except when they have socialized union wage rates via collective bargaining agreements and prevailing wage rates to the detriment of free market principals. CBA’s in public employee union settings have not only created an environment that breeds mediocrity of the work ethic among it’s employees, they have artificially inflated wage rates to the benefit of only the worker, with no corresponding benefit to the taxpaying public.

    Not long ago in our country’s history people, mainly women, could “chose” to work or stay home if they wanted, especially when starting a family. Not any more. Out of control liberalism in this country has created so many taxes and fees in government at every level it is next to impossible for one spouse to stay home and not work. It now requires a two person working household to live a middle class lifestyle in the USA. Liberal Democrats have completely conned workers to think they are somehow working on their behalf, when the truth is Democrats have grown government so big, at every level, they’ve stolen the “choice” away from workers that they had not long ago in history. It’s amazing that the Woman’s Movement we saw protesting recently never mentions this. They have been completely manipulated and conned about this issue by liberal democrats, and they don’t even realize it.