Currently there’s a lot of speculation about Labor Union survival in modern age because of Michigan becoming on the 24th Right-To-Work state in the United States of America on December 11, 2012 by Gov. Snyder’s signing both House Bill 4003 and Senate Bill 116 into law, thereby prohibiting both private and public sector workers from being forced to join unions and pay dues to the same as a condition of their employment.
This is seen by both sides of this particular war as a serious blow to organized labor in Michigan and in America at large. One wonders, however, why they each feel this way.
- Is union survival based upon force and coercion of workers to such an extent that the union will collapse if and when employees’ membership becomes voluntary?
- Is the labor unions’ political power so focused on “purchasing” politicians that any drop in their dues will weaken them, possibly to the point of irrelevance and resultant failure and dissolution?
These are real questions of great and lasting importance that need to be answered by both sides of the Business v. Organized Labor conflict. Otherwise, there will be conflict for no sake or purpose other than the conflict itself…except to line politicians’ pockets and give the MSM something to sensationalize.