General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsStop Using the Phrase "Right-To-Work" in any Fashion
President Obama made waves by wading into the debate over whether or not Michigan should become a "right-to-work" state by lamenting it as "the-right-to-work-for-less" which is a common turn of phrase used by liberals to deride such laws.
I applaud the President for stepping in but I am disheartened by the acceptance of the phraseology used by conservatives. Martin Luther King Jr. called the "right to work" a false slogan and that is what it is.
By calling it "right to work" it facilitates the idea that these types of laws are about improving the contract rights and work opportuntities for individual workers and it is an effective campaign. They make it seem like talented workers will be able to work and bargain for better wages above and beyond mediocre or bad employees that would hold them down if they bargained collectively. By buying into the phrase "right to work" we help facilitate this fraud.
If you just heard that phrase without context admidst the political hoopla "would you like the right to work?" it sounds good.
It must be rejected.
I suggest that we refuse to acknowledge this terminology and begin calling these states "Free-Loader" states or something similar.
I believe the terminology does not work in the union movement's favor.
What say you?
Scootaloo
(25,699 posts)spanone
(135,872 posts)the names they conjure are usually the OPPOSITE of their intended goals
rock
(13,218 posts)Blue Idaho
(5,057 posts)"Right to Starve" it stinks and it will ruin your state.
Kalidurga
(14,177 posts)Could the phrase right to work be changed to something more accurate sure. It could be called the right to work with fewer rights. Or it could be called the union busting law. Or it could be called the right to make your state much poorer. Or it could be called the right to tank your states economy. There are a whole lot of things it could be called. But, if they gave the law an accurate title it would have no support.
rachel1
(538 posts)and better wording of the true intention of the law.
Part of destroying their propaganda is to use better wording.
leftstreet
(36,112 posts)I can't believe the Democrats have let that term stand all these years
KansDem
(28,498 posts)n.
...a person or thing that mars or prevents growth, improvement, or prosperity
About sums it up...
DinahMoeHum
(21,808 posts). . .and that latter phrase has already been used in history.
Brickbat
(19,339 posts)jody
(26,624 posts)meow2u3
(24,772 posts)In other words, an end run around the 13th Amendment.
Here's how license to enslave works: Underpay your workers, subject them to dangerous working conditions and/or a hostile work environment, and strip them of their constitutional rights, and turn around and call it "at will employment", as long as you're paying them just enough to keep them from killing you and your family.
limpyhobbler
(8,244 posts)The right-to-free-load is more accurate.
meow2u3
(24,772 posts)meow2u3
(24,772 posts)Right to work is a half-truth. You have a right to work, but not a right to be paid enough to support a family, much less what you're really worth. Nor do you have a right to question the working conditions and/or environment.
In a right-to-work-for-peanuts state, you're an inferior subject to the will and whims of a boss who may or may not think it's good business to invest in one's workers, so you may end up at the mercy of some psycho boss who'll not only fire you for no reason, but also might blacklist you so you'll never be able to work again.
I may be exaggerating in the previous paragraph, but it's to illustrate the point of how license-to-enslave states think so little of labor.
MichiganVote
(21,086 posts)Blue_Tires
(55,445 posts)LeftInTX
(25,545 posts)warrprayer
(4,734 posts)it is "right to work for less"