By Victor Skinner
EAGnews.org

HARRISBURG, Pa. – Republican state lawmakers, following the lead of GOP peers in neighboring states, have  proposed right-to-work legislation for Pennsylvania, and the state’s unions are up in arms.

Two bills introduced by state Republicans Brad Roae and Fred Keller would outlaw union membership as a condition of employment, and relieve those who have already opted out of union membership from paying “fair share” fees  required under the current law, the CNHI Harrisburg Bureau reports.

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Pennsylvania and 23 other states do not block requirements for new employees in certain professions to join unions and pay dues.  In most cases, employees can opt out of union membership, but are still required to pay a fair share fee that’s approximately 80 percent of full dues.

The Commonwealth Foundation reports there are about 5,000 Pennsylvania teachers who are not union members, but pay the fees. Roae told the CNHI news service that teachers and other professionals shouldn’t be required by law to join or pay money to any organization against their will.

“Nobody should be prevented from joining a union if they want to join and nobody should be forced to join a union if they do not want to join,” Roae said. “People should not be forced to pay partial union dues to a union they do not want to join.”

The Pennsylvania Education Association, by far the largest labor organization in the state, hates the idea of giving employees a choice to join for obvious reasons – they don’t want to lose captive members and the dues they are forced to pay.

Union officials are arguing the same illogical points they have in other states like Michigan, the most recent state to ditch compulsory unionism and free workers to make their own choices.

“Wythe Keever, a spokesman for the Pennsylvania State Education Association, said the legislation would essentially create ‘free-riders’ because the union is required to represent all teachers whether they are union members or not,” the news site reports.

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“It’s not fair that they would get the same benefits without having to pay. Nowhere else in society would we allow that,” Brian Rieser, president of the City Grove teachers union, told the news service.

The argument, of course, is absurd. The unions are under no legal obligation to represent or negotiate on behalf of non-members. It’s the unions themselves that want to continue to be the exclusive representatives of all employees, so they have no competition within any particular workplace.

The fact is thousands of residents in Pennsylvania, and millions across the country, are paying for union “services” they never asked for. With the lack of accountability, union officials can do practically whatever they want with little consequence, because dues payments are automatic.

In states that have freed employees to make up their own minds about membership, public employees have fled the unions by the droves. Changeovers in Indiana and Wisconsin illustrate that when teachers and other employees are given a choice, thousands opt out, revealing the union’s lack of value to many rank-and-file workers.

As Pennsylvania’s Fred Keller points out to CNHI, right-to-work legislation simply holds unions accountable to their members to ensure they’re getting their money’s worth.

“If the product is valuable, they ought to be able to sell it,” Keller told the news service.