8 myths about organized labor

A lot of what I do lately has been educating. I always said that if I wasn't a firefighter I would've been a teacher, but they now seem to melding together. 

One of the biggest lessons I've discovered this year is that people make decisions based on what THEY think, not necessarily facts. Ignorance can be a mindset, but more often than not I believe it's due to a lack of education. I still have people that correlate organized labor to Jimmy Hoffa, corrupt officials, and blackmail. Times have changed dramatically, and while the big corporations may like to bring this up as a reminder,

Basic Right to Work Education

Recently, Iowa and Missouri passed sweeping Right to Work legislation. These two changes have led to 28 states in the U.S. now being Right to Work, so I figured right now might be a good time to give a quick crash lesson to everyone about what Right to Work actually is, and how it can affect you as an organized labor member.

Right to Work originally comes from the southern states of America. The theory was highly supported in the 1940’s by pro-segregationist and anti-communist groups. It was originally started in 1936, in Houston. Vance Muse, who was an oil industry lobbyist, received backing from the big oil companies, and off to the races it went. The name in itself is purposely misleading. It has nothing to do with giving you a “Right to Work”. What it does mean when Right to Work passes is that you don’t have to pay union dues, but the union must represent you. This includes covering workers in Collective Bargaining, but more importantly, grievances and discipline. This is called free-rider benefit: The free-rider gains all the benefits but doesn’t have any costs associated for them. Over time, your workplace rights are taken away.