In a blog entry at the American Prospect, Jamelle Bouie writes that Mitt Romney's latest South Carolina ad highlights his defense of the state's "right to work" law, which makes it difficult for unions to organize. In that vein, he plans to establish himself as a union buster, a man conservatives can trust.
One of the things to pay attention to in Mitt Romneyβs latest South Carolina ad is his implicit defense of the stateβs βright-to-workβ law, which makes it more difficult for unions to organize. βThe National Labor Relations Board, now stacked with union stooges selected by the president, says to a free enterprise like Boeing, βYou canβt build a factory in South Carolina because South Carolina is a Right to Work state,ββ Romney says in the ad. βThat is simply un-American. It is political payback of the worst kind.β Combine this with his attack on President Obama as a βcrony capitalist,β and I wouldnβt be surprised to see Romney tout right-to-work laws as part of his strategy for reviving the economy.
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The problem, of course, is that said laws do nothing of the sort. The Economic Policy Institute has a great primer on the actual effect of right-to-work laws on workers, wages, and employment. On the whole, RTW laws βreduce wages by $1,500 a year, for both union and nonunion workersβ, βlower the likelihood that employees get healthcare or pensions through their jobs β¦ for both union and nonunion employeesβ, and βhave no impact whatsoever on job growth.β
Read Jamelle Bouie's entire blog entry at the American Prospect.
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