Many of us who fight for workers’ rights and good jobs know that So-Called Right-to-Work (SCRTW) is wrong for workers.
SCRTW laws allow workers in unionized businesses to benefit from a union contract without paying union dues. It’s like allowing someone to belong to a health club without paying membership fees – of course, some will take advantage of the offer. The problem for the health club is that, with less membership fees, it’s harder to keep up the equipment or pay the trainer.
It’s the same with a union, which won’t be able to maintain the staff needed to negotiate a good contract or provide other services to members.
These laws are designed to weaken unions and they do. A rigorous study, published in 2011, found that SCRTW reduced wages and cut health care and pensions for union and non-union workers. The study also shows so-called right-to-work laws have no impact on economic growth.
Unions are explaining why SCRTW is wrong, but we should say more about what SCRTW would mean for young people, from first-graders to recent college graduates.
While one of the central tenets of repeated calls for major changes to New Jersey’s public pension system is the claim that public employee pensions are overly generous, retirement benefits for the state’s public workers are already among the least generous of all large public-sector pensions in the country, in part because of cuts enacted in the pension reforms of 2011. In fact, New Jersey ranks 95th in pension generosity among the country’s 100 largest plans.
Governments across the U.S. and around the world are investing billions of dollars in the film and television industry in an effort to create and retain the high-quality jobs attached to the industry. Yet musicians – the highly-trained and highly-talented women and men who record the scores for movies and television shows – are being left behind. This report shines a light on this oft-overlooked segment of the industry by examining the trends and forces contributing to a dramatic decline in domestic employment for recording musicians working at the industry standard.
This report concludes that by increasingly offshoring recording work, Hollywood studios and production companies are saving relatively small amounts of money. These savings, however, have disproportionate costs for musicians, taxpayers, and the broader economy. Hollywood can easily afford to meet the top employment standards for musicians, thereby not only providing ample quality employment, but strengthening domestic economies.
In 2008, a coalition of community members, faith leaders, workers, and labor leaders passed the nation’s first Construction Careers Policy. This policy approach aimed to increase workplace standards in publicly-funded construction projects and increase access to quality construction careers for communities struggling under the weight of poverty and chronic unemployment. The policy met these goals by coupling a Project Labor Agreement with a targeted hire program.
Six years and six victories later, the success of the Construction Careers Coalition represents a new way forward in public investment and accountability. This report will outline the successful Construction Careers approach, the groundbreaking victories of this partnership, and the benefits to workers, community members, and taxpayers.