Editor, Times-Union: Having been a conservative Republican all my life, I was disappointed to see our legislature take a stand for Obamacare and big government. Let’s see why right to work is attractive to industry:
1. Won’t have to pay benefits 2. Can lower wages 3. Can get rid of experienced employees and hire young people for less money 4. Compliance with workplace safety won’t be reported since employees have no protection and can be easily fired 5. It will be easier to exploit employees.
Since employers can do away with medical insurance, that burden will fall to Medicaid. With the lower wages, most workers’ families will qualify for several forms of government assistance thus government will have to grow to meet those needs.
As employers won’t offer medical insurance, people will choose Obamacare as the answer. Most private insurance companies will go out of business with no employer support most people cannot afford insurance.
Some may cite examples of non-union places that pay well and offer benefits, but if you investigate many of these benefits came about when the employees threatened to organize and go union.
If right to work spreads, we can expect to see the economy falter. Our economy is based on consumer spending. If we lower wages and no one has extra money to spend, won’t we go back into a recession?
In the early history of Ford, Henry doubled his workers’ wages. All of the industrialists thought he was crazy. His answer was “somebody has to have the money to buy my cars.”
This law is just a way to shift the burden of medical care from business to the taxpayers.
