Was there any "Right to Exploit" commentary in your newspaper today?

[TexasTowelie]

Ironically, this commentary appeared on Labor Day in the McAllen Monitor. The commentary comes from Mark Mix who is president of the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation and National Right to Work Committee.



Congratulations and happy Labor Day! If you are reading this, chances are you are one of the millions of Americans living in one of 28 Right to Work states. You might not know it from Right to Work opponents’ rhetorical posturing, but Right to Work laws are simple and straightforward.

A Right to Work law ensures that no employee can be forced to join or pay dues or fees to a union as a condition of employment. This leaves the decision of union membership and financial support where it belongs; with each individual working person.

Right to Work should be embraced simply on the basis of protecting each worker’s freedom of association, but the advantages do not stop there. Enshrining workplace freedom also brings significant economic benefits to the 28 states that have passed Right to Work laws.

Right to Work states have enjoyed higher private-sector job growth one and a half times more thank in forced unionism states, according to data compiled by the National Institute for Labor Relations Research (NILRR).

Read more: http://www.themonitor.com/opinion/columnists/article_3fa7aaa0-8f69-11e7-b543-cb8b92c77623.html

[bitterross]

1. So, What are the real stats? NILRR sounds deceptively like NLRB

And I bet it is no accident the name of the organization is NILRR so people will think NLRB instead.

Who is the NILRR and are their stats credible?

[TexasTowelie]

3. I do not know about the credibility of their statistics,

Last edited Mon Sep 4, 2017, 07:43 PM - Edit history (1)

but as a former statistician I know the ease of analyzing a data set to support completely opposite arguments. The commentary also fails to note that the wages in non-union states, but somehow that consideration is completely overlooked.

I agree that the naming of the organization is also an attempt to make them seem official because of confusion with the NLRB.

[bitterross]

10. I'm going to go with - not very credible and very biased

Given the small amount of research I just did to uncover a few facts about the organizations and people behind that article I don't trust it at all.

I had enough stats and quant in college to know how to manipulate numbers.

[lunasun]

9. Probably connected to these groups

http://www.prwatch.org/news/2014/06/12498/who-behind-national-right-work-committee-and-its-anti-union-crusade

[xmas74]

13. I don't have them in front of me

But RtW makes over 10,000 less per year, has a higher than average rate of families on assistance, higher than average rate of preterm births, etc. Nonunion jobs also have a higher death rate.

Missouri is fighting RtW as we speak. I saw allthe stats just a few weeks ago.

[bitterross]

20. Thanks. I'll stop being lazy and go find them.

I was just hoping someone already had a good link or two.

[Yonnie3]

2. "Right to work" also means the right to be fired without cause.

At least that was how it was explained to me in Virginia.

[xmas74]

15. It is.

Unless you can prove discrimination and you're a member of a protected class in that state.

[Yonnie3]

17. Unemployment insurance too.

Firing without cause allows the worker to collect unemployment, raising the employer's payments.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

16. Nope, that's at-will emloyment, which is present in every state, with minor and specific exceptions

in some states. Right to work means right to scab.

[Yonnie3]

18. It was taught to me as if it was part of the same law in Virginia.

I often remember details wrong from decades ago, so it might be separate.

So, rewording: The Right to Work means the Right for Anyone to work your job?

[WhiskeyGrinder]

19. Right to work generally means you get the benefits of the union without supporting the union.

[xmas74]

22. In Missouri it was advertised as part of

At-will, along with union busting. In some states the two now go hand-in-hand.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

23. At-will employment has been a generally accepted default in most state laws since the

1890s. If people were touting "easier firings" or "at will employment," it was to play on the assumption that it's "impossible" to fire union members.

[LeftInTX]

4. No!!

Excerpt from our's:

It is also a day to recognize the impact of the labor movement on our society. Among other things, unions (not companies) brought us the five-day workweek, overtime pay, the minimum wage, workplace safeguards, paid vacations, sick leave, employer-provided health insurance and other protections that are written into law.

http://www.mysanantonio.com/opinion/commentary/article/Remember-true-meaning-of-Labor-Day-12168052.php

______________________________________________________

I can guarantee that some jerk will right a letter to the editor complaining about this editorial.

[bitterross]

5. Get this- Stan Greer, the Program Director for NILRR - BS and MA in Slavic Studies. Really!

Okay, you can't make this stuff up. Took me less than 20 minutes of web searching.

The program director listed on the NILRR website has a BS from Georgetown in Russian Language and Literature (per his LinkedIn page). His Masters from Univ. of Pitt. is in Slavic Language and Literature.

You just know they are hiding crap when they list the degrees but not what they actually studied. This guy is completely unqualified to be opining on economics and he's their program director and most prolific contributor at NILRR.

Give me some time to find Mark Mix's qualifications - or lack thereof.

Link to his commencement program with his degree from U of Pitt.
http://digital.library.pitt.edu/cgi-bin/t/text/pageviewer-idx?c=pittcommence;cc=pittcommence;type=simple;q1=Greer;sort=datea;didno=31735062137553;rgn=full%20text;idno=31735062137553;view=image;seq=19;node=31735062137553%3A1.5;page=root;size=s;frm=frameset

Link to his LinkedIn page: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stan-greer-710886a6/

[lunasun]

7. Lawsuit against his defamation

Dale Pierson, attorney and general counsel for Local 150 of the International Union of Operating Engineers, has brought suit against the National Institute for Labor Relations Research (NILRR) claiming the group defamed him in its online posts that reported on the union’s litigation effort to overturn Indiana’s Right-to-Work Act.

NILRR identifies itself as “a non-profit research facility analyzing and exposing the inequities of compulsory unionism.” It is located in Springfield, Virginia, and maintains a website at www.nilrr.org.
https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=dfdd448b-eda9-458c-a3d0-91b0a2c80b89

Complaint goes on to say that in that online post, Stan Greer, a senior research associate for NILRR....

[lunasun]

12. Mark Mix is mentioned in link @ post # 9

In June 2010, Mark Mix, the current head of the NRTW groups, attended the Kochs' exclusive Aspen strategy meeting to give a presentation on how to mobilize conservatives for the 2010 election, along with representatives from Koch-backed groups such as the Center to Protect Patient Rights (now called American Encore) and Americans for Prosperity

[bitterross]

14. Yep, a Koch-sucker. /nt

[hunter]

6. Our daily newspaper died.

It's three days a week now with an Editor-in-Chief who lives in another city and communicates via the internet with what brave local reporters remain after firings and layoffs.

Sadly the paper now more frequently than ever publishes editorial cartoons and articles appealing to stagnant backwater old fart California Republicans, which this place is not. But maybe they're the only people besides me still subscribing.

It's almost like they're trying to be irrelevant.

[bitterross]

8. Mark Mix - Also unqualified to be writing opinions on Economic issues

Mark Mix holds a BA in Finance from James Madison University and an Associate Degree in Marketing from the State University of New York.

The above is according to the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation:http://www.nrtw.org/bio-mam/

NRTW would appear to be a marketing organization that promotes the view of the business owners.

[dembotoz]

11. Sunday Milwaukee journal not sure if it was him

But sounds that way
I was appalled

[moondust]

21. Canada demands end of "right to work"

Canada demands U.S. end ‘right to work’ laws as part of NAFTA talks

One source familiar with the discussions said Canada wants the United States to pass a federal law stopping state governments from enacting right-to-work legislation; the source said the United States has not agreed to such a request. Canada believes that lower labour standards in the United States and Mexico, including right to work, give those countries an unfair advantage in attracting jobs.