Right-to-work laws lower your pay: Opposing view

Richard Trumka

America is demanding a raising wages economy, but that idea is under assault because of a corporate funded plan being pushed by some politicians to take America in the opposite direction with right-to-work.

A few politically ambitious governors have signed right-to-work laws lately, but it's an idea that frequently loses in state houses across the country. In the past few weeks alone, it has been rejected in New Hampshire, West Virginia. New Mexico and Maine. In Montana, no one but the sponsor of a right-to-work bill would testify for it. It failed there, too.

The data tell us people in right-to-work states earn 12% less and have worse healthcare and retirement benefits than workers in other states. Simply put, right-to-work is wrong.

But like the zombies from The Walking Dead, right-to-work proposals keep coming back. Corporate interests think they have the right to lower your pay, reduce your health care and cut your retirement. They think it's their right to increase profits by making your job more dangerous.

Raising wages, however, is popular with regular people. Voters passed minimum wage hikes in every state last year where it was on the ballot, drawing diverse support, including from working-class Republicans. It is also the right thing to do. People are hurting.

From 1997 to 2012, the raises in America went to the top income brackets, while pay for the rest of us has been flat. When working people form unions and bargain, we can win a fair share of that value. The purpose of right-to-work is to weaken unions, and that's what corporate America wants.

Even some Republicans such as Ohio Gov. John Kasich are starting to understand that cutting pay isn't actually good for a state's economy. He has said right-to-work is a bad argument to attract jobs. Education and infrastructure are much more important.

Responsible leaders know some things are bigger than politics, like your safety on the job and the prospects of your family down the road.

A few politicians will be just irresponsible enough to take the corporate right's bad ideas and run with them. It's wrong. It's backward. It'll cut your pay. That's the point.

Richard Trumka is president of the AFL-CIO.