Letter: Ruling harms unions

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court ruled that public-sector employees should not be required to pay dues to their union. They call this right to work, but that is misleading. Mark Janus argued that because public sector unions’” bargain directly with the government, then that is lobbying and inherently political and as unions cannot force their members to contribute to political activities that the union supports, they do not have to pay their dues.

Setting aside that ridiculous argument, what right to work really does is allow individuals to get something for nothing. Even though these individuals get all the benefits of being a union member, they don’t have to pay anything for it. The union is still required, by law, to represent their interests. That means if the company terminates the employee, the union has to expend resources defending that employee and try and get the job back. Make no mistake, this is not about freedom of association or anything else, this is about breaking the union’s bargaining power. Unions created the middle class, and as they go, so goes the middle class.