Right to Work Wrong - by Tim Mehringer

Great LTE from Marine Corps veteran and Union Veterans Council member on why right to work is wrong and bad for veterans.  Please read this as a model for something the Union Veterans Council can work with you to replicate in other states and struggles to come.
 

“Thank you for your service.”

As a member of the Marine Corps who served in Iraq, I am grateful to everyone who has expressed those words to me.

When I returned home to Missouri, all I wanted was a job where I could work hard, support my family, and be a member of my community. Sadly, my fellow vets and I returned home only to find the Missouri Legislature pushing “right to work” legislation.

“Right to work” is wrong: it’s an attack on the values we fought to defend and on the future we are fighting to build.

“Right to work” states have lower wages — with an average worker earning about $1,500 less per year than in non-right-to-work states — higher poverty rates, lower rates of health insurance coverage, more dangerous workplaces, and they invest less in their schools.

It seems the Missouri legislators pushing “right to work” have decided that contributions from the out-of-state CEOs are more important than the rights of working people throughout our great state.

That’s not the country I signed up to defend.

I fought to protect the rights of people to negotiate for a living wage and benefits that lift up communities, not legislation like right-to-work that only serves to pad corporate profits and reduce our standard of living.

So to the Missouri legislators supporting this anti-worker legislation, I urge you to reconsider your vote.

And to the legislators voting to sustain Gov. Jay Nixon’s veto of “right to work,” I say, “Thank you for your service.”

Tim Mehringer  •  St. Louis County
Member of Communication Workers of America Local 6300