Ol_Smoke - 7/29/2018 10:09

I am a union Pipefitter so this is very near and dear to me and while I'm not interested in fighting with all the anti union people on here I do want to give some of my perspective. Right to work to me is a very friendly worded bill to kill off unions. For me it is designed so that trades people can join my local and not pay dues and not be part of the local but receive the benifits myself and brothers and sisters have worked hard for in the field and negotiated for. The result of this is over time our local shrinks in size due to fewer members joining then losing power in negotiations and then losing pay to the point the local collapse now lets say my $40/hr job is now $18-20/hr maybe at best? It's a race to get labor jobs down to $15/hr That's what its purpose is.

Now let me add this they're are plenty of skilled people in my trade who work non union but get payed well but a part of they're pay being elevated is that employer raising his wage to keep him from joining a local he wins as well.

To the OP my local is great, and to answer your question I do not essentially realize my dues as they are subtracted from my total package wage so i do not feel a burden in paying them though if they were lump sum I'd still pay but I could see that for some feeling troublsome. I would not feel this way if my wage dropped 50% and we couldn't do anything negotiations wise anymore, again the purpose of right to work.

I'll get flamed I'm sure because agtalk seems to be very anti union and were all just lazy money grabbing communist but as I go do want to ask what is wrong with an individual or group to try to get payed as much as they can for a job that the employer is willing to pay? We do it all the time on the farm.

Everyone have a good day.