Right to Work Laws

The one time I heard about "Right to Work" regulations in the US, they meant that you had the right of not being a member of a union to keep a job.

It also meant you had the right to be a scab.

Exactly. Each state may choose to enact such a law. They are favored by unions and some employees. Employer's and some employees do not. For what it is worth, New Mexico is not a right to work state, but the Navajo reservation, which is partly in New Mexico is right to work.

Oh, there is also the federal Davis - Bacon Act as well as state variationsin a similar vein. These provide that contracts with the federal government (and some state contracts) will pay employees the prevailing union wage, even though not on a union job.

The unions love this one. I hate it. When we work for the state, the biweekly payroll takes over twice as long to prepare, with a net gain to our employees of under $50.00.

Check this out:

http://www.nrtw.org/rtws.htm

Find out if your state has Right to Work Laws

Thanks for the leads so far...will check in again in a day or two when I have more time!

Article 23 of the "Universal Declaration of Human Rights" says:

This is, how in we Europe understand "right to work laws".
(Starting in 1946 in Switzerland, nearly in every European country there have been attempts to constitute these rights as 'basic laws' or similar - all failed until now.*)

(*"Work constitutes a right and shall enjoy the protection of the State, which shall seek to create conditions of employment for all citizens and shall pursue the moral and material advancement of the rural and urban working population." This is from the Greek constitution. Similar is to found in others as well, but I've never heard of that you could sue this right.
Human rights are, btw, part of the German Basic law as well.)

I think you may have this reversed. One of the reasons for implementing Right to work laws is that Unions could basically force people to become members by virtue of the person being employed in a Union shop. With Right to Work laws in place the Unions can't do that. The Unions have fought proposals to pass right to work laws pretty hard.

"Right to Work" has a different meaning here Walter. It has nothing really to do with Rights in the concept of individual vs. State. It's really more about Individual vs. Union if anything.

For two opposing views on the issue here in teh US:

http://www.aflcio.org/issuespolitics/stateissues/righttowork.cfm

and :

http://www.nrtwc.org/whoweare.php3

You're right, of course, fishin.

Yeah, right to work is a deceptive bit of nomenclature.

Thanks, fishin - I've noticed it.