Right to Work: The Law that Brings You Falling Wages, 80-Hour Weeks

[Donnachaidh]

http://www.labornotes.org/blogs/2011/04/right-work-law-brings-you-falling-wages-and-80-hour-weeks

Twelve state legislatures are seeking to pass right-to-work bills, which allow workers to get the benefits of union representation without joining or contributing. That weakens the union’s ability to advocate, eventually hurting the whole workforce—including those who thought they could get a free ride.

Right to work came to Louisiana in 1976 and drastically changed my family’s work for the worse. I am a third-generation member of the Operating Engineers, Local 406 in Lake Charles. My grandfather, great-uncle, father, brother, cousins, and I have all worked in the heavy equipment industry. While previous generations ran a wide range of equipment (dozers, draglines, and cranes), my father, brother, and I have only worked with large, heavy-lift cranes.

My grandfather landed on Omaha Beach in the 1944 D-Day invasion and operated cranes that rebuilt the bridges across the major rivers of Western Europe. After returning from the war, he continued as a union Operating Engineer for the next 40 years. On my grandfather’s income from a mostly regular 40-hour work week, he and my grandmother were able to raise a family and take yearly vacations.

I am not trying to paint a rosy picture of my grandfather’s work. This was before the days of air-conditioned crane cabs and computerized safety systems. The folks who ran equipment in the 1950s through the 1970s could expect to work hard and return home dirty.

More at the link --

[xchrom]

1. recommend

[upi402]

2. 'Right to Work' is one reason I opposed Clinton's nomination

He was not a friend of labor. But worse, he was an enemy of working people.
There's a reason corporatists use their media to stain unions. And it harms 99% of us.

[KansDem]

3. "Right to work" indeed!

Another title to an act that has the opposite effect...

[P. Galore]

4. Virginia has been a Right to Work state for a long time. nt

[Donnachaidh]

6. welcome to DU! n/t

[Proud Liberal Dem]

5. I hate that these sort of laws are called "right-to-work"

when they have absolutely NOTHING to do with ensuring a person's "right-to-work" (who was the Luntzian genius who came up with the idea of calling them these, anyway?). I would, however, eagerly support real "right-to-work" laws that actually ensure that all people whom are are able and willing can always find a job earning a truly livable wage and benefits.

[Recursion]

7. Projectionists

To the extent that there's a case for it at all, it's projectionists. In NY you can't be a projectionist without joining the union. You get no training in the union. you get no certification. You simply pay a guy (if he agrees to take you on -- good luck with that); it's literally nothing but a false labor shortage. The problem with corruption in organized labor is that it gives neanderthals rhetorical cover to pass crap like "right to work" laws.

[ret5hd]

8. What is the pay for a projectionist?

[Donnachaidh]

9. in a right to work state, probably minimum wage

I know that's what I was paid when doing that job.

[Recursion]

11. It was more back in the days of reels

It's hard to convince a movie theater manager to pay you more for pressing a button, unfortunately. Some of the mega-google-ultra-plexes (outside of New York) don't even have projectionists now; the content is delivered digitally and managed remotely. But in New York you still have a guy sitting there making sure it's happening.

[Donnachaidh]

12. uhh, this WAS back in the day of reels

and it was minimum wage back then.

[Recursion]

13. That sucks

And, yeah, 'right to work' depresses wages everywhere, sadly.

[Recursion]

10. Not great

Payscale.com says 35K in NY which is twice the median nationally. I'm not saying that projectionists don't deserve union protection; I'm saying the union should do more than prevent people from being projectionists.

[GKirk]

14. Is your grandpa around to ask?

because the union stories I hear, about the 60s at least, include a lot of overtime.
And overtime was something that was wanted.