Hacker News Reader

Comment by flukus | Hacker News Reader

I'd be fine with this, just don't expect any of the rewards that unions fight for. You can negotiate your own wages, your own holiday leave, your own cost of living increases, your own disciplinary process, etc.

I'll stand up for your right to opt out and get none of these benefits.

View on HN

If you're in the U.S., this is an interesting layer to the labor rights debate: "right-to-work" states.

Now 28 states (including all of the South, where wages are low) have passed laws that guarantee those who opt out of unions in unionized workplaces receive the same benefits as those who are members.

As you'd guess, that works really effectively to undercut the appeal of joining a union.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right-to-work_law

What on earth was the justification for that? "We hate collective bargaining but want the benefits of collective bargaining"?

I mean, if you are anti-union, it's a pretty genius play politically because it legalizes and incentivizes free riding.

Unions exist on dues. As organizations, they were already weakening, and then if you further limit membership, you've really undermined their ability to collective bargain.

I get why they did it, I just don't get how they sold it to either people or corporate backers. The former may have been financially incentivized enough to override their ideology, but I would have thought the later would be dead against it. Or are there not a lot of half union shops?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com