Union Dues and Don'ts
According to our friends at the American Spectator:
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Author Bio |
In their heyday, Unions accounted for more than one third of all jobs in the American workforce. Today, organized labor plays a much smaller role in our open, competitive economy. Only 12 percent of workers, and seven percent of private employees, belong to unions. Why? Because as economic opportunities have increased American workers have preferred freedom to the regimentation that comes from organized labor.
That's the big picture, but the details matter. The U.S. remains a federal system, so the impact of organized labor varies greatly by state. To measure worker freedom, the Alliance for Worker Freedom recently released the Index of Worker Freedom (IWF).
The Index relies 
on ten variables which all measure economic liberty. They are (1) right to work laws, (2) minimum wage level, (3) union density, (4) paycheck protection for union members, (5) prevailing wage legislation, (6) defined contribution public employee pensions, (7) collective bargaining rights, (8) public sector unionization levels, (9) entrepreneurial activity, (10) and workers compensation.
Some of those indices deserve fuller explanation. Twenty-two states bar mandatory union membership or dues payment, which helps counteract the coercive aspects of federal labor law, and high minimum wage levels can drive up unemployment for low skilled workers.
Union density matters because, as the Alliance for Worker Freedom's Brian Johnson explains, "Areas of high union density are often prone to forced persuasion, violence toward non-union members, intimidation, as well as numerous political and campaign contributions on behalf of organized labor (often conflicting with members' political views)."...click to continue.
