Union activists are gearing up for an expected battle over legislation to make Maine what's known as a "right-to-work" state. Enforced in 22 other states, right-to-work laws prohibit agreements between trade unions and private sector employers that make union membership and dues a condition of employment. Such rules, say critics, make it harder for unions to organize, operate and collect dues. But proponents say they also make states more attractive for business.
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Right-to-work legislation has been proposed before in Maine, but never when there was a Republican governor and a Republican-controlled Legislature. And this year Greg Mourad of the national Right-to-Work Committee says Maine is one his organization's priorities.
"We see Maine as a real opportunity because of the gains of right-to-work supporters within the state Legislature," Mourad says. "There are significantly more of them now than there used to be--without getting into specific numbers--and we believe that there is a realistic possibility that it could pass one or both chambers, and we think that that is definitely a shot worth taking."
Mourad describes the National Right-to-Work Committee as a grassroots organization with 2.5 million members who share the belief that joining a union and paying union dues should be an individual's choice. Not surprisingly, union leaders resist that characterization of union membership.
"No one in this country is required to join a union. You don't have to be a member of a union if you don't want to," says Matt Schlobohm, executive director of the Maine AFL-CIO. Schlobohm says unions have a duty of fair representation to everyone, whether they're a member or not.
"All that a union security clause allows is if it's negotiated by the employer and the employees is if you don't want to be part of the union that's fine," he says. "You can be required to pay to the costs of collective bargaining, enforcing the contract, putting grievances through. What this kind of legislation says is you can gain all of the benefits without having to contribute to any costs of the organization."
Schlobohm says he and other union leaders refer to the laws passed in 22 states, mostly in the south and west, as "right-to-work-for-less" legislation. They say it drives down wages, erodes benefits and lowers workplace safety standards for all workers, not just union members.
Studies vary in their findings on the subject. Greg Mourad says wages may appear to be lower in right-to-work states, such as Iowa, unless you factor in the lower cost of living.
"A couple of studies have been done that factor in cost of living in those right-to-work states, and they find that families in right-to-work states have anywhere between three and five thousand dollars more purchasing power per household in cost of living adjusted dollars," he says. That is to say, workers in New York make a lot more than workers in Iowa but it costs a lot more to live in New York than it does in Iowa."
Another recent study commissioned by the Grand Rapids Press and Booth Newspapers found that Michigan could have as many as 60,000 more people working in the auto industry if it had become a right-to-work state in 1965 before the out-migration of auto industry jobs.
But the study's author, Dr. Hari Singh, also found that the jobs would not be as high-paying. Singh points out that there are many things that can cause differences in employment and wages across states and regions.
And that is going to be a major consideration for Maine's newly merged Labor, Commerce, Research and Economic Development Committee chaired by Republican Senator Christopher Rector of Thomaston. "We're one of the only states that lost jobs in the last year--only one of a very small handful of states, as I understand it," he says. "And we need to be looking at growing jobs for Maine people across the board."
That said, Rector says it's not clear to him what role right-to-work plays in the 21st century economy. "When I look at the jobs that are growing here in Maine in technology areas, I look at the two business recruitments that we made here in the Midcoast area where I live, in Boston Financial and Athena Health, I'm not sure that right-to-work issues really play a role in how that economy is growing."
Greg Maroud of the Right-to-Work Committee says as many as half of all businesses looking to expand or relocate will automatically rule out non right-to-work states. But Matt Schlobohm of the AFL-CIO points out that national-right-to-work efforts have stalled in recent years, even as the nation struggles to gain an economic foothold.
He says that's because workers can see that right-to-work rules make it more difficult to get health insurance and other benefits as their ability to collectively bargain is diminished.
Maine currently has about 75,000 union members representing about 12 percent of the workforce. That's down from a high in the mid-1950s, when about one in three workers belonged to a union.
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