The passing of a right-to-work law in Michigan is a hugely significant development. In my mind, Michigan would have been the last state to pass legislation removing the requirement for workers to join a union as a condition of employment in unionized businesses.
As welcome as this new law is for those of us who recognize how economically pernicious and ethically debased compulsory union membership is, the reporting of the story has been marred by sloppy, inaccurate usage of a key word: “rights.” Here’s a typical example from Reuters: “Michigan weakens union rights in home of auto industry.”
Americans greatly value rights. It’s in our DNA. However, no rights—neither unions’ nor anyone else’s—have been lost by passage of this right-to-work law. What has changed is that unions can no longer compel a worker to pay dues to them as a condition of employment. That was never a “right,” but a power—a power that had been bestowed on unions by prior legislation conferring upon them a privilege. Unions in Michigan have lost a privilege, not a right.
In fact, rather than infringing on anyone’s rights, Michigan’s right-to-work law restores a lost right to workers—the right of voluntary association. Our Declaration of Independence and the Constitution’s Fifth Amendment name liberty as an unalienable right; now workers in Michigan have the liberty to choose whether to join or not join a group as each one’s conscience dictates.
American labor law has been out of whack for the last century. Unions have been given special powers and privileges that have trampled on the rights of their fellow citizens. Consider:
Do businesses have a right to block you from purchasing from their competitors? Do Kellogg employees have a right to stand in the cereal aisle of a grocery store and interfere with your right to buy a General Mills cereal? Of course not. Then what gives unions the “right” to prevent an employer from choosing to hire someone who doesn’t happen to be a union member?
Unions behave monopolistically, suppressing competition. It’s time to amend the Clayton Antitrust Act of 1914 by removing its explicit exemption for unions. What’s sauce for the goose is sauce for the ganger (sic). Unions, like businesses, should not enjoy the privilege of being insulated from competition. Workers should be free either to refrain from joining a union or to join a competing union that they believe will better serve their interests.
Should anyone have the power to tell an American that he can’t move to a particular state? That would violate the citizen’s rights. Then what right does the National Labor Relations Board have to tell a private corporation that they can’t move to a different state? Why does the NLRB have the power to infringe on the First Amendment right of free speech by forbidding employers from communicating key financial information to workers as an “unfair labor practice?” Why does the NLRB operate a separate, special judicial process outside of the laws and courts that govern non-union Americans and hold union members to a lower standard of accountability for extortion, racketeering, and acts of vandalism and violence? For all Americans to have equal rights, we must abolish the NLRB by repealing the 1935 Wagner Act that created it.
What American has a “right” to violate the life, liberty, or property of other Americans? Courtesy of the 5-4 Enmons Supreme Court decision in 1973, unions have enjoyed special privileges allowing them to inflict bodily harm, to prevent people from entering workplaces, and to destroy private property if it is “in the pursuit of legitimate union goals.” Such violations of the rights of others can never be a “right” of unions or anyone else. To restore justice (“justice” means “equal protection of everyone’s rights,” not “we get what we want,” as the unions seem to think) Congress should pass the Freedom from Union Violence Act.
Michigan’s right-to-work law is an important step in restoring the unalienable rights of every American. We still have a long way to go, but If Big Labor’s unjust power to infringe individual rights can be rolled back in Michigan, then there is hope that individual rights will be restored across the country.
Dr. Mark W. Hendrickson is an adjunct faculty member, economist, and fellow for economic and social policy with The Center for Vision & Values at Grove City College.