FACT: Unionization increases income—not just for union workers but also entire middle

[88m3]

Fact Sheet: The Value of Unions and the
Consequences of ‘Right-to-Work’ Laws
SOURCE: AP/Paul Sancya
A silent protester wears a sticker to signify loss in wages from the "right-to-work" law
in Lansing, Michigan, Wednesday, December 12, 2012.
By Katie Murphy | December 13, 2012
The passage of so-called right-to-work legislation in Michigan fails to take into
consideration the real impact unions have on both states’ and the nation’s economies
and on middle-class Americans. “Right-to-work” laws weaken unions by making them
provide services to union and nonunion members alike, without making all beneficiaries
pay their fair share. By severely weakening unions, which are vital to strengthening the
middle class and improving the economy, “right-to-work” laws have broad negative
consequences.
Here are the key facts you need to know about unions’ value for the economy and the
middle class.
1. Unionization increases income—not just for union workers but also
for the entire middle class. A study conducted by the Center for American
Progress Action Fund controlled for a host of other factors that also impact the strength
of a state’s middle class—such as education, unemployment, and types of industries—12/13/12 Fact Sheet: The Value of Unions and the Consequences of ‘Right-to-Work’ Laws | Center for America…
americanprogress.org/…/fact-sheet-the-value-of-unions-and-the-consequences-of-right-to-work-laws/ 2/3
of a state’s middle class—such as education, unemployment, and types of industries—
and found that if unionization rates increased by 10 percentage points, the typical
middle-class household, unionized or not, would earn $1,501 more each year. To put
that figure in perspective, we found that a 10 percentage-point increase in the share of
the population with a college degree would increase the average middle-class income
by $1,664 a year.
2. In non-“right-to-work” states, workers are more likely to receive
employer-provided health insurance and pensions. Workers in “right-towork” states are significantly less likely to receive employer-provided health insurance
and pensions. If benefits coverage in non-“right-to-work” states were lowered to the
levels of states with these laws, 2 million fewer workers would receive health
insurance and 3.8 million fewer workers would receive pensions nationwide.
3. Unions improve workplace policies and have beneficial policy
effects more broadly. Unions advocate for broader worker protections needed
for families to make human-capital investments—strong public education, social safety
nets, minimum wages, paid leave, and even civil rights and efficient regulation.
4. Unions balance structures of power in the workplace, resulting in
greater efficiency. Unions support high-productivity workplaces where information
can flow from the bottom-up to improve business performance.
5. “Right-to-work” legislation fails to grow state economies. The laws
have failed to increase employment growth in the 23 states that have adopted them, and
in states more recently adopting “right-to-work” policies, employment growth and
business relocations have reversed their previous expanding trends. In other words, the
economic evidence shows that unions and union membership—not “right-to-work”
laws—are what are conducive to broad economic growth.
6. Unions strengthen businesses and the economically vital middle
class by giving workers a voice in both the workplace and our
democracy. Unions do this by pushing for fair wages and good benefits, and also by
encouraging citizens to advocate for middle-class-friendly policies such as a strong
Social Security system and family-leave benefits.
Katie Murphy is an intern with the Press team at the Center for American Progress.

Fact Sheet: The Value of Unions and the Consequences of

 

[Orbital-Fetus]

Unions gave us the 40 hr work week, overtime pay, helped to stop child labor...

Unions are good in my book.

 

[the cac mamba]

Unions gave us the 40 hr work week, overtime pay, helped to stop child labor...

Unions are good in my book.

they also have taxpayers on the hook for huge pension plans that we cant afford. i feel like they hav a lil too much pull

 

[Broke Wave]

they also have taxpayers on the hook for huge pension plans that we cant afford. i feel like they hav a lil too much pull

Nah breh you're wrong and I'll tell you why

1. thats public sector unions

2. the society can afford it but in the last 30 years there has been reckless tax cuts that come at a cost breh and that has been damaging municipalties, states and the federal government.

 

[the cac mamba]

Nah breh you're wrong and I'll tell you why

1. thats public sector unions

2. the society can afford it but in the last 30 years there has been reckless tax cuts that come at a cost breh and that has been damaging municipalties, states and the federal government.

taxing the rich is a drop in the bucket to solving our budget problem

 

[Broke Wave]

taxing the rich is a drop in the bucket to solving our budget problem

Not true again breh... The progressive caucus has actually created a deficit plan which the CBO has rated as the only one which will balance the budget within the next 8 years... you should take a look at the proposals and tell me what you think.

Congressional Progressive Caucus : The People's Budget

 

[the cac mamba]

Not true again breh... The progressive caucus has actually created a deficit plan which the CBO has rated as the only one which will balance the budget within the next 8 years... you should take a look at the proposals and tell me what you think.

Congressional Progressive Caucus : The People's Budget

i said taxing the rich, not taxing the rich and making cuts

 

[Broke Wave]

i said taxing the rich, not taxing the rich and making cuts

Well breh taxing the rich and letting the bush tax cuts expire for the most part is going to have to work in conjunction with humane spending cuts.

If you look at the discussion in DC its literally a given that Medicare/Medicaid/SS/Poor people have to be cut, like it's a requirement... it's not a serious plan unless the poorest among us are hit.

Washington is

 

[Mr Hate Coffee]

I work in manufacturing. I've worked as an engineer in a Right to Work state and a non Right to Work state.

The unions were so weak in Georgia (RTW) it was ridiculous.
But then they're so overpowered where i'm at now its mind blowing.

There has to be a compromise somewhere... because mgmt without borders will always screw the workers.

 

[TruStyle]

There has to be a compromise somewhere... because mgmt without borders will always screw the workers.

Friend the importance of this statement is beyond expression. The problem is most ppl forget there was a time when this is EXACTLY how the world ran. In the beginning of industry, people worked in slavery condtions for pennies a day. In the most filthy and dangerous conditions known. People would die,be maimed, and lose limbs fukking daily. The used to actually send women and children into machinery to clear clogs and jams, do you know how many kids died and lost arms and legs.



How fast we forget what our grandfathers endured for us to work safely and fairly.

Also shoutout to @Broke Wave for holding this thread down while I was at work at my UNION job.

The funny thing is, most ppl who want unions to go away besides the wealthy elite, are people making less with less benefits. Working class people want other working class people to make less. Its fukking mindboggling. It stems from the rich elite CACs constant media disinformation campaign.

Any time I have a debate with someone they only thing they really say is "unions are just lazy and dont want to work, they just make it impossible to fire lazy people" or some other varation of this shyt.

Sure some lazy shytheads make into the union. But what industry or business doesnt have lazy fukks who screw everyone else over.?? Somehow the unions get painted as the only place it happens? the fukk?



There was a time in this country when we MADE american and bought AMERICAN. We all supported each other, the money was flowing, so the the real question is..

What happend? Its almost to the point where we cant afford to fight for fair wages and benefits. They shipped all our work out of the country, know they have us fighting each other for minimum wage jobs and theres still not enough for everyone. These companies keep posting record profits year after year.

I fear its too late, we can no longer AFFORD to fight back as a nation.

What power would we have if we could get all the WALMART workers in the country to strike one day. Walmart usual tactic of shutting down the store and moving is going to be a little more tricky....Of course now there is so many unemployed people they could just fire everyone and refill the whole store. But doing that all that same time would be such a mammoth undertaking it would almost force them to sit down and talk.

What does it say to you, that even mentioning UNION at someplaces is enough for the company to literraly come in and blow the place up and restart in another town. A union is just a group of organized people? Are people working together really that scary? Why?
You dudes forget, all those jobs that got lost overseas, those products come back here for sale. They are the same price.. Everything in the world has gone up, except wages? Buying a 30dollar ninja turtle for your kids is hard when you have to work 5 fukking hours to pay for it.

Let the unions fall and we can all work for minimum wage. The fact that we have to have a LAW that says how little you can be paid should say something to all of you.

It says employers CANNOT be trusted to do whats right. If they could work you for free they would, if they could pay you a penny a day they would.

I know most of these issues dont effect most of the coli, who been making 6 figures since 19 working in IT, or the other successfull business men on here whose businesses are still unnamed and never mentioned.

But for those of us not living a fantasy life on a message board for a bunch of strangers. This is some serious shyt and its only getting worse

 

[A.R.$]

Not true again breh... The progressive caucus has actually created a deficit plan which the CBO has rated as the only one which will balance the budget within the next 8 years... you should take a look at the proposals and tell me what you think.

Congressional Progressive Caucus : The People's Budget

Washington don't even talk about this. If you listen to the talking heads in washington and new york you would think the problem is medicare, madicade, and SS. These rich fukks couldn't care less if hard working people have to work back breaking jobs until they are 70.

 

[A.R.$]

Friend the importance of this statement is beyond expression. The problem is most ppl forget there was a time when this is EXACTLY how the world ran. In the beginning of industry, people worked in slavery condtions for pennies a day. In the most filthy and dangerous conditions known. People would die,be maimed, and lose limbs fukking daily. The used to actually send women and children into machinery to clear clogs and jams, do you know how many kids died and lost arms and legs.



How fast we forget what our grandfathers endured for us to work safely and fairly.

Also shoutout to @Broke Wave for holding this thread down while I was at work at my UNION job.

The funny thing is, most ppl who want unions to go away besides the wealthy elite, are people making less with less benefits. Working class people want other working class people to make less. Its fukking mindboggling. It stems from the rich elite CACs constant media disinformation campaign.

Any time I have a debate with someone they only thing they really say is "unions are just lazy and dont want to work, they just make it impossible to fire lazy people" or some other varation of this shyt.

Sure some lazy shytheads make into the union. But what industry or business doesnt have lazy fukks who screw everyone else over.?? Somehow the unions get painted as the only place it happens? the fukk?



There was a time in this country when we MADE american and bought AMERICAN. We all supported each other, the money was flowing, so the the real question is..

What happend? Its almost to the point where we cant afford to fight for fair wages and benefits. They shipped all our work out of the country, know they have us fighting each other for minimum wage jobs and theres still not enough for everyone. These companies keep posting record profits year after year.

I fear its too late, we can no longer AFFORD to fight back as a nation.

What power would we have if we could get all the WALMART workers in the country to strike one day. Walmart usual tactic of shutting down the store and moving is going to be a little more tricky....Of course now there is so many unemployed people they could just fire everyone and refill the whole store. But doing that all that same time would be such a mammoth undertaking it would almost force them to sit down and talk.

What does it say to you, that even mentioning UNION at someplaces is enough for the company to literraly come in and blow the place up and restart in another town. A union is just a group of organized people? Are people working together really that scary? Why?
You dudes forget, all those jobs that got lost overseas, those products come back here for sale. They are the same price.. Everything in the world has gone up, except wages? Buying a 30dollar ninja turtle for your kids is hard when you have to work 5 fukking hours to pay for it.

Let the unions fall and we can all work for minimum wage. The fact that we have to have a LAW that says how little you can be paid should say something to all of you.

It says employers CANNOT be trusted to do whats right. If they could work you for free they would, if they could pay you a penny a day they would.

I know most of these issues dont effect most of the coli, who been making 6 figures since 19 working in IT, or the other successfull business men on here whose businesses are still unnamed and never mentioned.

But for those of us not living a fantasy life on a message board for a bunch of strangers. This is some serious shyt and its only getting worse

Real shyt. Sometimes I watch Morning Joe before I go to work. They claim becoming a right to work state will bring more jobs there is no prof that this is true.

 

[The_Sheff]

It baffles me how these rich fukks can actually trick the public into thinking unions need to go. Do they honestly believe that corporate abuse of workers is gone for good? We dont have 40 hour work weeks, paid vacation, and child labor laws because companies were nice. Naaaa, that shyt was forced down their throats by unions.

Years ago there was enough money to go around so that things were built in America, bought in America, and the middle class could live a decent life......on one salary. Now they want you to believe none of that is possible. The reason we cant do that now is because the middle class salary has essentially been capped for the last 40 years while the rich hoarded all the money for themselves. They refuse to give the money back to the middle class so they do the only thing they can to give us the ability to afford anything.....ship manufacturing overseas so they can keep the prices of the goods semi-affordable for us. If we were getting paid what we were supposed to then we could afford some higher priced American made products. Everyone benefits in that case.

 

[Prince Akeem]

It baffles me how these rich fukks can actually trick the public into thinking unions need to go. Do they honestly believe that corporate abuse of workers is gone for good? We dont have 40 hour work weeks, paid vacation, and child labor laws because companies were nice. Naaaa, that shyt was forced down their throats by unions.

Years ago there was enough money to go around so that things were built in America, bought in America, and the middle class could live a decent life......on one salary. Now they want you to believe none of that is possible. The reason we cant do that now is because the middle class salary has essentially been capped for the last 40 years while the rich hoarded all the money for themselves. They refuse to give the money back to the middle class so they do the only thing they can to give us the ability to afford anything.....ship manufacturing overseas so they can keep the prices of the goods semi-affordable for us. If we were getting paid what we were supposed to then we could afford some higher priced American made products. Everyone benefits in that case.

Let's keep it 100...Its mostly lower/working class white people that fall for this crap.

 

[Type Username Here]

Let's keep it 100...Its mostly lower/working class white people that fall for this crap.

Yup.

It's all a by product of the two party system mentality.

These people might not be anti-Union if given an alternative party. Some of these people feel they have to support some of their party's platform, to their own detriment, so the other side doesn't win.

It's quite ingenious actually.