F. Vincent Vernuccio is director of labor policy at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, a research and educational institute headquartered in Midland, Michigan.
Editor’s note: This is an edited version of an article first published in the Washington Examiner on May 4, 2016 under the title, “Right-to-work strengthens workers.” In March, the United Auto Workers reported that its membership grew 1.3 percent in 2015. This may come as a surprise to some because a substantial number of UAW...
A May 10 election in West Virginia could leave the state’s new right-to-work law in peril. On that day, voters will decide whether to re-elect Republican Justice Brent Benjamin to the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals, or replace him, possibly with union-supported Darrell McGraw. McGraw, who is seen as leading the pack of those...
For years union membership has been in decline. In 2012 union membership hit the lowest percentage of the American workforce since 1916. The union business model, based largely on industrial organizing efforts from the 1930s, does not appear to carry over well for today’s educated and transient workforce. It appears unions have not evolved to...
Summary: it’s been a long, slow slide for the United Auto Workers, which hit its peak in the early 1950s. Defeated in a critical unionization election in the South and facing a critical change in state law in its home base in Michigan, the UAW has responded to the challenge by raising dues and by...
Many opponents of right-to-work in Michigan try to portray it as an either/or issue. Either unions have to represent workers who are not paying them, or workers are forced to accept and pay for unwanted representation. But the truth is, Michigan can have its cake and eat it, too. Union supporters derogatorily call workers who...
Editor’s Note: Outside of Michigan, the attention that their November ballot initiative “Prop. 2” garnered was minimal compared to the national spotlight that has shone ever since their legislature turned them into a right-to-work state. But the two events are inseparable. And while right-to-work simply allows workers to choose whether or not they may wish...