In 1978 I was a junior in high school and not quite old enough to vote but I posted flyers supporting the Right to Work effort in Missouri. It failed.
The measure was recently before the Missouri legislature once again, and once again it failed.
If I may oversimplify, Right to Work legislation seeks to overturn government rules that forbid any employer with a union to hire non-union workers also. If there is a union, you must belong to it.
Unions oppose Right to Work because it would allow workers to stop paying dues while still benefitting from having the union conditions such as higher wages and enhanced workplace safety.
I am not anti-union. I work with lots of great union folks and I think unions have done a lot of good for this country.
I am not anti-union, But I am anti-government. Don't get me wrong, we need police and military and courts and laws against theft and murder and rules about which side of the road to drive on.
But we do not need for government to tinker with every part of our lives. And most egregious is to have politicians deciding winners and losers in what should be a free market.
My US congressman is Blaine Luetkemeyer and I was reading one of his latest e-mails last night. He wanted us to know he supports making the Research and Development Tax Credit permanent. I wrote the congressman a note and told him I could NOT support him on that. Sadly, that puts me on the same side as Nancy Pelosi. But for vastly different reasons.
I believe in free enterprise. I believe in free markets and competition. Capitalism does not require the aid of Washington cronies to be successful. It does require that government get out of the way and quit tinkering.
Blaine is a good man. He would argue he is trying to create jobs and get the economy moving. But I think the congressman may need to go back and re-read Bastiat and his "That which is seen and that which is unseen". Tinkering has consequences.
Today I spoke to my Missouri state representative for the first time. His name is Ron Hicks. Ron is also a good guy. He chatted with me for a while from the House floor, while awaiting some vote or bell. I greatly appreciate him taking the time. We agree on most things.
Unfortunately we did not see eye-to-eye on Right to Work. Ron voted against it. He said he received a large number of requests from people in his district to vote no, and he honored those requests. I believe him - there are a lot of union members in his district and they were no doubt active on the phones. I, on the other hand was a day late and dollar short.
Here is an article on Rep. Hicks and his Right to Work vote.
I can understand why politicians vote to support constituencies and special interest groups, but I cannot support it.
Unions would be stronger if government quit forcing people to belong. I believe competition makes people stronger. People, and unions, and companies.
We have a society where everyone is competing for a better spot at the government trough. The lobbyists and cronies and special interests are spending all of their time selling government and politicians on how important their group is, how much their legislation would help or create jobs or save the planet.
Government is not the answer. Government is the problem. Whether it is Research and Development credits, or the farm bill, or teachers, or "job creators", or green energy, or oil companies or unions, the role of government is to get out of the way and allow competition and free markets.
Right to Work simply gets government out of the way. Rep. Hicks should have voted for it, and so should Rep. Chuck Gatschenberger who I tried to reach for comment but could not connect with. He has always been known to be "pro-union", probably in support of his constituency, but as I have said we need to get away from being in support of special interest groups and instead be pro-liberty.
If we unleash the power of competition and free markets and instead put chains on the politicians we will have trouble filling all the new well paying jobs we create. And I would be willing to bet many of them might be filled by union workers. Free union workers.
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