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Right to Work in Michigan

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Right to Work in Michigan
In general, The Right to work policy was put into action to prevent labor unions from establishing a requirement of employees’ memberships including union dues, or fees constricted with employment. The Right to Work law regulates the agreements that are between employee and their employers. Right to work currently exists in 24 U.S states. Recently, in 2012, Michigan and Indiana have adopted the policy.
The Opponents of the Right to Work are concerned that the average wage in RTW states are lower than the average wage in a non-RTW state. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2001, state the average worker in a RTW state would earn on average $5,000 less per year than those in other states. They do not state the cost of the wages that go to pay for the union you’re apart of in that state.
According to economist Gordon Lafer, RTW laws do not boost the job growth in the states that adopt the laws, they also lower the wages and reduce benefits for union workers and non-union workers. By reducing employees’ income, a Right-to-Work law could have a significant negative effect on Michigan’s economy.
Before Michigan adopted the Right to Work policy in 2012, Michigan’s cities were in an economic downward spiral. The Mackinac Center for Public Policy shows how Michigan before the RTW policy came into effect there were poorer performance in nearly every economic measure when compared to the standard RTW state. This includes poverty, unemployment, and income inequality.
The Data from the U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics and the U.S. Census Bureau that was conducted by Mackinac Center Senior Policy Analyst William T. Wilson, Ph.D. Shows since 1970, Michigan had lost almost 100,000 manufacturing jobs, and a loss of 2.18 million manufacturing job losses with in the non-RTW states. The non-RTW states had an increase in poverty, and Michigan had seen an increase of 0.6 percent.
Michigan’s GDP only grew at half the rate of the states that had adopted the RTW policy, and from the time period of 1977 through 2000, the unemployment rate in Michigan was, on average, 2.3 percent higher than the RTW states. The Right to Work laws are beneficial to the long-term economic development of our states. RTW laws increase state economic development and overall prosperity.
The graph below shows that since 1950, states with right-to-work laws have seen their employment grow at roughly double the rate of non-right-to-work states References :
MIworkerfreedom.org. (n.d.). Retrieved October 28, 2014. https://www.mackinac.org/16278
Reidel, A. (n.d.). Know Your Rights: Michigan's Right to Work Law | National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation. Retrieved October 27, 2014, from http://www.nrtw.org/en/blog/know-your-rights-michigan-right-work-03212013
Melchior, J. (n.d.). Jillian Kay Melchior - Michigan Judge: State Right-to-Work Law Trumps Union Policies. Retrieved October 30, 2014. http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/387870/michigan-judge-state-right-work-law-trumps-union-policies-jillian-kay-melchior

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