Your Right to Work Rights – In Three Minutes

This may clarify the issue in the news about "collective bargaining" and worker's rights:


Home
Your Right to Work Rights – In Three Minutes

[En español]

1. No employee in the United States can legally be required to be a full-dues-paying, formal union member. But in many states, an employee can be forced to pay certain union dues or be fired from his or her job.
2. Union members have the right to resign from formal membership at any time. However, dues deduction authorizations may limit when they can be revoked.
3. Employees covered by state Right to Work laws can not lawfully be required to pay any union fees to keep their jobs. But state Right to Work laws do not protect railway and airline employees and employees of private-sector contractors on some federal properties.
4. Because they enjoy the special privilege of exclusive representation, unions have a legal duty to represent fairly all employees in their bargaining units. Unions are legally required to represent nonmember employees the same as members, but unfortunately this duty is often breached.
5. If a law or bargaining agreement permits it, employees can be forced to pay certain union fees. If you don’t join the union, or resign from membership, and notify the union that you don’t want to pay full dues, the required fee must be limited to the union's proven costs of collective bargaining activities. This fee may not lawfully include things like political expenses.
6. Nonmembers with religious objections to supporting a union have the right to ask the union to redirect the forced dues amount to charity. Religious objectors do not have to belong to a specific church to claim this right.
7. A union member who wants to work during a strike should resign from union membership BEFORE going to work. If the resignation is mailed, the employee should not work until the day after the resignation is postmarked. Otherwise, the employee could be fined by the union. If you are already a nonmember, you can work at will during a strike and not be lawfully fined.
8. Many employees have a legal right to petition for an election to oust an unwanted union from their workplace or to eliminate the union’s ability to collect forced fees. You should contact us if you want to do this.
9. Your best source for information about your Right to Work rights is this web site. Foundation attorneys have represented many employees like you, and have taken several cases all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court to protect workers’ rights.
10. If, after reviewing the information available through the links below, you are still unclear about your rights, or believe that you need legal aid because union officials have violated these rights (as they frequently do), call us at 800-336-3600 or send us an e-mail here.

To learn more about your legal rights, please select the category of employment to which you belong:

• Federal Government Employee
• Private Sector Employee
• Public School Teacher or College Professor
• Airline/Railway Employee
• State or Local Government Employee

​

 

In a closed shop I was given the choice of joining the union or getting fired. I chose the lesser of two evils and got fired. Later, when I got a government job I learned I did have legal protections that people who are just taxpayers don't have.

 

Your right to work - for less.

We are heading back to the good old days when a working man could labor 60 hours a week and still not make enough to feed his children.

 

...and when twenty dollars bought a weeks worth of groceries.

 

And twenty dollars was more than a working man brought home after a full days work.

 

The logo of the teamsters union is a horse.


The only animal that sleeps standing up.

 

That was exactly my point. Raising minimum wages or bargaining for higher wages, only drives down the value of the dollar.

If fourty years ago I earned $200/week and rent was 4 days wages, groceries for a week was 10 hours work and a new car was 12 weeks pay, and today rent is 4 days wages, groceries for a week is 10 hours work and a much improved new car is 12 - 15 weeks wages. What has changed except the value of the currency?

 

Things have changed in forty years for most working people. 1974 was the end of working people making gains against the economy.

Fifty years ago families were getting along with just one wage earner in the family. Now both must work to provide the same quality of life that one paycheck used to provide.

I can't buy a new car with 12 -15 weeks of take-home pay. My tax load is much higher than it was back then. My payroll taxes were paid up by September. Now they never are. State sales tax was < 4%. Now it's almost 10%.

Today with union membership at a modern times low, workers wages are lower. Inflation is going to happen. Economists demand it.

The minimum wage doesn't increase inflation as much as it fends off starvation. Bargaining for increased wages is a necessity because of inflation. Not the cause of it.

 

Being Union is not just about money, although it ranks high up there. Other important benefits of being union are; job security, quality of life, viable benefits, discharge only for just cause, Holiday pay, paid vacation, etc and most importantly, the right to bargain collectively for your terms and conditions of employment.

Most executives have personal service agreements (PSA's) which are labor agreements; they spell out the wages to be paid, medical benefits, stock options, severance pay (golden parachute), bonuses and other varied perks associated with the job. My question would be; if the executives need a contract, how come the rank and file doesn't??

 

Then enter into a contractual agreement with you employer on your own. Unions repress personal responsibility.

 

The problem with that line of thinking is that as an individual, you have absolutley no leverage; collectively you do.

 

I still fully control my conditions. I can less how you negotiate for your wages and benefits.


I I out perform you in the workplace, in a non-union shop I can negotiate for a better wages or other conditions. In a union shop one is never rewarded for industry, so why bother and just get by with as little as possible.

 

Not true; your employer decides your conditions of employment; Your boss has the final say that matter; in fact if you go into his office demanding terms and conditions of employment, you can be fired with no legal recourse.

Again, not true; I work in a union shop and some of the union members are given bonuses and merit increases in pay for excellent performance. Contract minimums are just that, the minimum they have to pay you; they always have the right to give bonuses and pay above scale.

 

Or I can quit and go elsewhere. I am not enslaved to one job.

One union member in a shop can not be promoted or laid off unless seniority rules are adhered to.

 

I agree, and it is unfortunate, but anyone with a brain could have seen it coming for quite a while, so quit having children!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

So your cure for declining working conditions and pay is to not have children?

That seems to be the kind of thinking going around in Washington.

 

It's rather like working for the mafia because you make more money. You'd obviously go for it but I would pass.

 

Likewise in a union shop, you are free to quit and go elsewhere if you so choose; and like you we are not enslaved to our jobs as well. The only difference being that we enjoy true job security as opposed to our non-union counterparts.

Promotions through my experience are never predicated upon senority; layoffs are conducted by seniority, which is what gives us our job security. Management cannot pick and choose as they can with our non-union co-workers.

Nonetheless if working non-union is appealing to you, then God bless you; me, I've worked union for my entire career and have never had to worry about my job security, pay raises or benefits. I've always had complete faith in my union to do what is in my best interests and will always continue to do so.

 

Gamewell is right. Being in a union means you're free to practice extortion with absolutely no fear of legal action.

 

No Gamewell. People like you have no leverage. Where I worked the incompetent, lazy, and the corrupt had to have a union because they had no leverage. Other people were doing fine. Now, with a union, the other people are doing worse but the incompetent, lazy, and corrupt have job protection and are guaranteed the same salary and benefits as the hard-working, competent, and honest employees.

You need a union, Gameswell.

 

I would be surprised if any of you anti-union guys actually had any experience with a union.

First of all. a union is only as good as it's members. I have never talked to someone who holds these anti-union feelings who has ever gone to a union meeting and taken part in union activities or contributed to running his union.

The folks I have talked to never took part in the union. But just (*)(*)(*)(*)(*)ed about it while enjoying the workplace safety and benefits.

My union, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, fits none of the stereotypes mentioned in this thread.

No union dues are used for political actions.
There is no seniority in layoffs. The company can lay off any worker without reason. When a worker is dispatched to a job the company can refuse to hire him with no reason.

We expect 8 hours pay for 8 hours work and the company expects 8 hours work for 8 hours pay.

The result is that employers have a motivated work force and workers have a decent wage and safe working conditions.

Having painted that rosy picture I must also say that I have seen places where the labor-management environment is hostile and production suffers.

This I blame on the American adversarial management style. If you want workplace trouble treat workers with contempt.

If you work for wages and you don't want the protection of a union you don't understand the real world and are working against your own best interest.

But then, seeing who we sent to Washington and our state capitols, working against our best interest is what we do.

 

And I'm sure that your beloved union is ever so concerned that the businesses they strongarm into higher wages and shorter hours can afford to pay the extortion without going out of business -- no they aren't.

Unions are the reason that manufacturing is dead in the USA. They're the reason that manufacturing centers like Detroit and Chicago are emptying out. Businesses cannot afford unions or their extorted benefits or they would provide them without the extortion. That's why any job that can be done overseas is sent overseas -- you union mafia types have driven every job you touched out of the country. And the sick thing about it is that not only do you not care that you've caused 10% unemployment, but you think that you should have even more power to force even more jobs to China, India, Mexico and any other country smart enough not to let your ilk gain a foothold in their country.

 

Absolute nonsense.

 

I have no hard feelings towards trade unions, in fact in many cases these unions and the business get along quite well and beneficial to both sides as it should be. Yet the trade union is often thrown in with public unions and the larger unions that have decided that political power is far more important to them then their members.

 

stonehorse;4130462]I would be surprised if any of you anti-union guys actually had any experience with a union.

Response: Well, color stonehorse surprised. My first factory job, 1958 was in a union shop. I tried to go to a meeting and was told to mind my own business. I was threatened with bodily injury, harrassed, and when I refused to join the union I was fired.

First of all. a union is only as good as it's members. I have never talked to someone who holds these anti-union feelings who has ever gone to a union meeting and taken part in union activities or contributed to running his union.

Response: Organizaed crime never appealed to me so after my first experience I avoided unions.

The folks I have talked to never took part in the union. But just (*)(*)(*)(*)(*)ed about it while enjoying the workplace safety and benefits.

Response: I had to quit laughing. I got not benefits from the union where I worked most of my life. We did better with pay and benefits before the union but the lazy, corrupt, incompetent, and cowardly desperately needed a union.

My union, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, fits none of the stereotypes mentioned in this thread.

Response: Of course not. We had a nuclear power plant being built and they were suffering a lot of vandalism, especially with eletrical installations. Guess what? The union workers spend most of the day installing and then ripping out. Let's here it for union job security.

No union dues are used for political actions.
There is no seniority in layoffs. The company can lay off any worker without reason. When a worker is dispatched to a job the company can refuse to hire him with no reason.

Response: That is simply untrue.

We expect 8 hours pay for 8 hours work and the company expects 8 hours work for 8 hours pay.

Response: Nonsense. At my first union job you didn't get 8 hours a day work unless you paid off the shop steward who made job assignments. Unions usually have thugs for the union on the company payroll but they do no work for the company. At my last job, a police department, we had union folks desperate to be union representatives who would do no work but would get paid by the taxpayers.

The result is that employers have a motivated work force and workers have a decent wage and safe working conditions.

Response: Oh, they're motivated. Most are motivated to avoid conflict with the union thugs but very few are motivated to do their job and those who are aren't well thought of by the union.

Having painted that rosy picture I must also say that I have seen places where the labor-management environment is hostile and production suffers.

This I blame on the American adversarial management style. If you want workplace trouble treat workers with contempt.

Response: That's your option. I blame it on the corrupt unions.

If you work for wages and you don't want the protection of a union you don't understand the real world and are working against your own best interest.

Response: I hate that. Selfish, self-centered liberals are always trying to say that if you do anything for any reason other than your own self-interest you're a fool and they're prepared to tell you what your self-interest is.

But then, seeing who we sent to Washington and our state capitols, working against our best interest is what we do.

Response: There is no "we" there Kemo Sabe. I told you, I don't hold with organized crime.