We know right to work is bad for workers. The 11 bottom states in wages in America are right to work states. When we were trying to stop right to work in Oklahoma, we compared their wages with neighboring Arkansas. Right to work Arkansas had lower wages.
Right to work costs workers and their unions power. And as we have noted many times in this space, it is the declining power of workers and their unions that stagnated wages for 35 years and created the largest income and wealth inequality in American history. Right to work forces unions to represent workers who aren’t union members and pay no fee for representation.
President Obama ripped presidential candidate and Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker for signing right to work legislation in his state. “I’m deeply disappointed that a new anti-worker law in Wisconsin will weaken, rather than strengthen workers in the new economy,” Obama said in his statement, which linked the labor movement to the growth of the American middle class.
The Bill was passed Monday. The President’s statement was issued Monday night.
President Obama cited, “a sustained, coordinated assault on unions, led by powerful interests and their allies in government… So even as its governor claims victory over working Americans, I’d encourage him to try and score a victory for working Americans -– by taking meaningful action to raise their wages and offer them the security of paid leave. That’s how you give hardworking middle-class families a fair shot in the new economy –- not by stripping their rights in the workplace, but by offering them all the tools they need to get ahead… It’s no coincidence that the rise of the middle class in America coincided in large part with the rise of unions -– workers who organized together for higher wages, better working conditions, and the benefits and protections that most workers take for granted today.”