Cherry-picking “right to work” numbers
Wednesday, May 10, 2017 - Posted by Rich Miller
* From the Illinois Policy Institute…
Indiana is a Right-to-Work state – it’s also home to union growth five times greater than neighboring Illinois, where forced-unionism is still the law of the land.
One of the most common criticisms of Right-to-Work laws is that they make it harder for workers to form unions and collectively bargain. But if this is true, then why is union membership growing so much more rapidly in Indiana than in Illinois?
The short answer? Jobs growth and population growth.
Right to Work doesn’t hurt unions – it just gives workers a choice.
* From Frank Manzo at the Illinois Economic Policy Institute…
Rich,
In case a recent Illinois Policy article on “right-to-work” and union membership gets (or has been) sent to your inbox, I have outlined why it is a flawed policy analysis in the article below.
Article: Union Membership Declined in “Right-to-Work” States and Increased in Collective-Bargaining States Last Year
It would be nice to not have to respond to articles with such absurd and baseless conclusions in 2017. But unfortunately, it’s become a small part of my job.
Just wanted to let you know that we had a response.
Onward to more productive uses of my time
* From that report…
The movement to implement “right-to-work” (RTW) legislation has accelerated over recent years. Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, and West Virginia recently become “right-to-work” states. Missouri and Kentucky followed in 2017. Today, 28 states have “right-to-work” laws.
One of the main policy changes contributing to the decline of unionization across the United States is the ratification of “right-to-work” legislation. From 2015 to 2016, union membership in RTW states declined by over 293,000 members. Union membership declined in 20 of the 26 states (77%) with RTW laws.
Indiana was just one of those six states.
* Back to the report…
Conversely, in fair-share collective bargaining (CB) states, overall union membership improved by about 56,000 members. Union membership declined in only 9 of the 25 CB states (36%)– which includes the District of Columbia– and increased in 16 CB states (64%) over the year.
However, Illinois lost nearly 35,000 members, one of 9 CB states to experience a decline. After netting Illinois out to compare the state to every other state, all other CB states gained approximately 91,000 union members over the year.
The bottom line: “Right to work” does not necessarily increase union membership, economic growth does. And Illinois is in really, really bad economic shape.
- Rocky Rosi - Wednesday, May 10, 17 @ 2:12 pm:
Right to work is the best way for job growth. Paying $25 for someone to push a button is killing jobs. This is why companies are moving to Mexico.
- Oswego Willy - Wednesday, May 10, 17 @ 2:20 pm:
- Rocky Rosi -
Whatever you think those making too much make, you figure out the percentage, you send me that percentage of your pay.
It’s growth, working with Labor, not reducing wages, that attract companies when the workforce and management find a common ground.
Deciding organized labor needs a 15% cut, “just because” isn’t an argument….
… no matter what Rauner’s PowerPoint or Leslie Munger and her hometown say.
- Lucci - Wednesday, May 10, 17 @ 2:24 pm:
I’m happy to have IEPI critique my work. However, taking a 1-yr view of union membership changes (2015-2016) as concluding evidence is not a valid way to do it.
A longer view from 2005-2014 showed that union membership shrank in forced-union states and held steady in RTW states. That needs to be updated, but that gives you a much more complete view than looking at 1 year.
https://www.illinoispolicy.org/union-membership-collapsing-in-forced-union-states/
- Lucky Pierre - Wednesday, May 10, 17 @ 2:28 pm:
Why is only one party concerned about economic development, growing high paying manufacturing jobs, stopping the outward migration of taxpayers and businesses?
Why are demands of trial lawyers and unions more important than economic development in Illinois?
- Anon221 - Wednesday, May 10, 17 @ 2:33 pm:
Rocky Rosi- Please list out the jobs that pay “$25 for someone to push a button” that are killing jobs. I really don’t think new high tech and manufacturing jobs are as simplistic as just pushing a button. If they were, then we could just create a robot to fill that niche.
- Downstate - Wednesday, May 10, 17 @ 2:34 pm:
Economic vitality also increases wage rates. We have a worker shortage in our area - particularly for starting positions.
$10/hour for high school students. A friend’s son, not yet out of high school, just left Walmart for a $12.75/hour job with full benefits.
That whole supply and demand thingy really does work.
- City Zen - Wednesday, May 10, 17 @ 2:36 pm:
Another thing to consider is how difficult it is to leave the union. Previously, teachers and other school employees in Michigan could quit their union in only one designated month per year. The Michigan courts just changed that to anytime. Impediments to leaving can skew numbers higher.
- Rogue Roni - Wednesday, May 10, 17 @ 2:38 pm:
Oh boy. I can’t wait to send my kids to work in an unregulated factory!
- Nick Name - Wednesday, May 10, 17 @ 2:38 pm:
“Illinois, where forced-unionism is still the law of the land.”
Forced unionism under what statute? Show your work.
- Annonin' - Wednesday, May 10, 17 @ 2:40 pm:
The other “benefit” of RTW is it helps pull down median income —IL about +$10 better than IN — so we can help make IL more attractive to employers who prefer to pay sub min wage if possible.
- Demoralized - Wednesday, May 10, 17 @ 2:40 pm:
It seems to me that in all “analysis” the IPI does they start with a conclusion and then work backwards, using whatever “data” gets them to that conclusion.
- Anonymous - Wednesday, May 10, 17 @ 2:41 pm:
For the first time, Lucky is right.
Until the Illinois GOP starts to care about economic development, growing high paying manufacturing jobs, stopping the outward migration of tax payers and businesses, this state is up a creek.
We can only hope that the Governor starts caring about those issues!
- Gooner - Wednesday, May 10, 17 @ 2:42 pm:
Anon. 2:41 was me. Hit say it too fast. My bad.
- Chicago 20 - Wednesday, May 10, 17 @ 2:44 pm:
If the Illinois Policy Institute is involved, I know whatever follows is biased and completely self-serving vile dribble.
- Colby jack - Wednesday, May 10, 17 @ 2:47 pm:
## Please list out the jobs that pay “$25 for someone to push a button” ##
http://ledger.illinoiscomptroller.com/salary-database/employee-salary-database/
- Liberty - Wednesday, May 10, 17 @ 2:50 pm:
Yes IPI, why are unions growing so fast in Indiana? LOL
- Jocko - Wednesday, May 10, 17 @ 2:50 pm:
I like how “fair share” is reframed as “forced-unionism”.
Kind of like “Right-to-Freeload” is another way of describing “Right-to-Work”.
- Fixer - Wednesday, May 10, 17 @ 2:51 pm:
Cute, Colby Jack. You should try applying for one of those jobs. Might change your perspective.
- Oswego Willy - Wednesday, May 10, 17 @ 2:59 pm:
I’ve never really seen the “Republican” angle on “wages need to be lower” as a party.
Raunerism, and those agenda-driven ideologues believe, (check the Rauner Decatur PowerPoint) you lower wages for organized labor… oh, and end collective bargaining… and while you’re lowering wages, just eliminate that prevailing wage…
… it’s Rauner forcing Labor to choose sides;
Do you support a person taking away your labor rights, your negotiated and agreed to wages, and actually, say labor makes too much…
… and see IPI cheering this…
… and you want Labor to support Right to Work?
Hmm.
- Rogue Roni - Wednesday, May 10, 17 @ 3:03 pm:
Fixer. Please don’t feed the trolls.
- Smitty Irving - Wednesday, May 10, 17 @ 3:03 pm:
Perhaps unionization in IN is growing because of a WC system that for permanently maimed and crippled workers pays less than 10 years, leaving one to the tender mercies of welfare? /s
- Fixer - Wednesday, May 10, 17 @ 3:08 pm:
Roni, I know. Normally I’m better about that.
- Mike Cirrincione - Wednesday, May 10, 17 @ 3:09 pm:
First of all, there is no such thing as *Right to Work*. This is a marketing slogan from the Republican Party, like *Religious Liberty*.
And if this is truly giving people a Right to Work, does this mean that work has been illegal and prohibited all this time? For instance, the Constitution of the United States of America was Amended to give Women the Right to Vote. Prior to that Amendment, Women could not vote. So is this Right to Work the same thing? No it isnt. Its a lie.
- Chicago 20 - Wednesday, May 10, 17 @ 3:16 pm:
“Right to Work” is a lie. This legislation doesn’t give anyone the right to work it only forces unions to provide services for free. Academic studies all come to the same conclusion that “Right to Work” laws harm the economy.
https://ler.illinois.edu/?page_id=3872
- Anonymous - Wednesday, May 10, 17 @ 3:29 pm:
Since January 2007, Illinois has lost 110,000 manufacturing jobs.
Since January 2007, Indiana has lost 14,000 manufacturing jobs.
- Robert the 1st - Wednesday, May 10, 17 @ 3:39 pm:
=I’ve never really seen the “Republican” angle on “wages need to be lower” as a party.=
Free markets? My union friends always get confused when I ask them about the neighborhood kids unionizing and lobbying the government to force them to pay more to mow the yard. It’s one of those back-and-forth things…
“I’d mow the lawn myself”
“no, they’d lobby to require certification and for the government to bar private competition, like IL unions did with prisons.”
- Oswego Willy - Wednesday, May 10, 17 @ 3:44 pm:
- Robert the 1st -
When you look at lawn services…
Do you think a great many of those workers are Americams or from another country, here for the season?
Comparing 15-year olds to migrant workers… that’s the argument you want to make in real time too?
- Anonymous - Wednesday, May 10, 17 @ 3:47 pm:
If Indiana had lost manufacturing jobs at proportional rate in population as IL, it would be down by over 50,000 jobs now, not 14,000.
- Mad dog - Wednesday, May 10, 17 @ 3:50 pm:
Look up , the effects of adopting rtw laws, by university of Illinois. Read a real study, not from scam propaganda outfits. No cherry picking. Deal.
- Robert the 1st - Wednesday, May 10, 17 @ 3:59 pm:
I guess my point is; how much is the individual defending unionization-at-all-turns personally willing to pay more for goods and services? Where does it end? Most union buddies I have shop at Walmart and eat fast-food. Or, like in my original post, pay a kid to mow their lawn.
- City Zen - Wednesday, May 10, 17 @ 3:59 pm:
==If the Illinois Policy Institute is involved, I know whatever follows is biased and completely self-serving vile dribble.==
=Academic studies all come to the same conclusion that “Right to Work” laws harm the economy.
https://ler.illinois.edu/?page_id=3872==
So you quote a union-friendly study from a branch of the union-funded Economic Policy Institute?
- Anon221 - Wednesday, May 10, 17 @ 4:00 pm:
And Indiana just lost a few more…
http://fortune.com/2017/05/07/trump-rexnord-mexico-jobs/
But hey, that’s just business, right?
- Demoralized - Wednesday, May 10, 17 @ 4:01 pm:
Robert:
Wage laws are there for a reason. They are there to combat the businesses that would, if they could, pay low wages. While you argue “free market” you know as well as I do that there are bad apple business owners who would (and do until they get caught) treat their workers horribly. If the “free market” truly worked then there wouldn’t be a need for wage laws.
- Power House Prowler - Wednesday, May 10, 17 @ 4:08 pm:
I don’t think you understand about prisons, the danger they pose when low wages are paid to staff. Most building trades members have served a five year apprenticeship. That is a combination of on job training and after work classes. Rtw does not give anyone the right to work. Any money saved by reducing labor cost ends up as profit for the contractor. No savings to the state or building owner.
- City Zen - Wednesday, May 10, 17 @ 4:08 pm:
@Robert the 1st - You get the hypocrisy. I see it all the time too.
The parking lot at my high school is filled with cars from foreign manufacturers built in right-to-work states. Each car was undoubtedly bargained down in price, meaning some poor salesmen was left with a measly commission to support his working family, lowering his taxable income so the state gets less, and less sales tax that our city can use to fund stuff. Then every few years that same school comes begging for a referendum, wondering why there isn’t enough tax dollars.
- Anonymous - Wednesday, May 10, 17 @ 4:10 pm:
- Anon221 - Wednesday, May 10, 17 @ 4:00 pm:
And Indiana just lost a few more…
http://fortune.com/2017/05/07/trump-rexnord-mexico-jobs/
But hey, that’s just business, right?”
Um, yes. Of course it’s business.
- Scamp640 - Wednesday, May 10, 17 @ 4:12 pm:
Unions help to save capitalism from the capitalists. Individual business owners only care about their own bottom line and want to be able to pay the lowest possible wages. But impoverished workers cannot buy things. Henry Ford knew this almost a century ago.
Unions help to provide living wages so that workers can purchase homes, cars, clothing, and send their kids to college. Without living wages that allow workers to purchase stuff, capitalism fails. Capitalism depends on a very simple relationship: Mass production needs mass consumption. Businesses should be thanking unions for protecting (preventing) businesses from acting on their own worst impulses. America is great because of unions. And America will decline in proportion to the decline in the middle class and living wages. As I said, unions help protect capitalism from the capitalists. RTW is good for some individual capitalists in the short term. RTW is bad for America in the long term.
- Anon221 - Wednesday, May 10, 17 @ 4:18 pm:
Anonymous @4:10- “Um, yes. Of course it’s business.”
And so is this…
https://www.fastcompany.com/3068744/made-in-america-20
I personally think the Rexnord workers would prefer Made in the US jobs.
- Anonymous - Wednesday, May 10, 17 @ 4:40 pm:
Of course Rexnord workers in the US prefer that.
- Anonymous - Wednesday, May 10, 17 @ 4:40 pm:
But Rexfnord needs to be able to compete, if it can produce the product at a lower cost, it should.
- Chicago 20 - Wednesday, May 10, 17 @ 4:47 pm:
-”So you quote a union-friendly study from a branch of the union-funded Economic Policy Institute?”
The University of Illinois is not funded by the Economic Policy Institute.
Click on the link and expand your horizons.
- City Zen - Wednesday, May 10, 17 @ 5:07 pm:
@Chicago20 - The authors:
Frank Manzo IV, MPP - Policy Director, Illinois Economic Policy Institute
Robert Bruno is a Director in the Labor Education Program. The Labor Education Advisory Board (LEAB) is a partnership between the Labor Education Program and the Illinois AFL-CIO.
No bias here, huh? Then again, I see beyond the horizon.
- Anon221 - Wednesday, May 10, 17 @ 5:07 pm:
Annonymous @4:40 pm- “But Rexfnord needs to be able to compete, if it can produce the product at a lower cost, it should.”
Then there should be no hand wringing ever about Illinois or Indiana or any other state losing jobs, and we can all stop promoting RTW idealogy since it doesn’t matter anyway. Moving jobs out of the US is always going to be cheaper and more cost-effective, right? That’s what Intersect Illinois should be focused on!
- Chicago 20 - Wednesday, May 10, 17 @ 5:24 pm:
“Right-to-work laws result in lower wages and a lower likelihood of health care and pensions for union and non-union workers. It also shows right-to-work laws have no impact on economic growth.”
http://www.newsweek.com/slippery-math-right-work-advocates-332555?amp=1
- Chicago 20 - Wednesday, May 10, 17 @ 5:33 pm:
From a Ball State University study.
“• Overall, based on the experience in other states, right-to-work legisla- tion is not likely to have an effect on the manufacturing industry in Indiana.”
https://cms.bsu.edu/-/media/WWW/DepartmentalContent/MillerCollegeofBusiness/BBR/Publications/RightToWork/RightToWork.pdf
- Union Thug Gramma - Thursday, May 11, 17 @ 9:29 am:
I see some are “worried” about the bias of IEPI, “Frank Manzo IV, MPP - Policy Director, Illinois Economic Policy Institute
Robert Bruno is a Director in the Labor Education Program. The Labor Education Advisory Board (LEAB) is a partnership between the Labor Education Program and the Illinois AFL-CIO.
No bias here, huh? Then again, I see beyond the horizon.”
But no mention that the IPI is a child of the National Policy Institute which is run by Richard Spencer who is a proud white supremist…no bias there, either.