Is Right-to-Work Good for Jobs?

In an opinion piece in Politico this morning, U.S. Senate hopeful George Allen expounded upon his hardline position on the issue of right-to-work laws.  States with right-to-work laws do not allow employers to require their employees to pay union dues as a prerequisite for employment.  Because of the impact this policy has on labor unions, right-to-work has become an incredibly controversial issue nationwide.

Opponents of right-to-work laws argue that it’s simply a ploy to cut off financial support from the unions.  Right-to-work laws create a scenario where workers can receive the benefits of membership in a union without having to pay the price of union membership (sounds like a pretty good deal, doesn’t it?).  The problem is, when workers don’t pay union dues the unions can’t afford to effectively advocate their positions, whether it’s through litigation, lobbying or any sort of worker’s rights campaign.  Without the means to fund these endeavors, the unions essentially fall apart.

Supporters of right-to-work laws, like George Allen, claim that this policy is good for business and ultimately beneficial to the economies of the states in which they are enacted.  Allen writes, “Having been governor, one would think Tim Kaine, my opponent in the Virginia Senate race, would know about the desirability of right-to-work laws for Virginia jobs...”

The question is: do right-to-work laws actually benefit state economies?

If we take state unemployment rates as the indicator for the relative health of state economies, as George Allen appears to, the results are actually pretty mixed.  There are states with right-to-work laws that have high unemployment and states with right-to-work laws that have low unemployment; the same goes for states without right-to-work laws.  However, if we look at the states in which unemployment has been dropping the most rapidly, a trend begins to emerge.

There are currently 22 right-to-work states, about half of the states in the union.  Of the five states in which unemployment has dropped the most since its high point after the recession – Michigan, Nevada, Indiana, Illinois, and Oregon – only one is a right-to-work state, Nevada.  Despite the fact that Nevada’s unemployment rate has dropped nearly 3% since it’s high point of 14.9%, it still has the highest unemployment rate of any state in the union.  If we take a slightly broader sample and look at the ten states in which unemployment has dropped the most, the picture doesn’t get any better for right-to-work states.  Of those ten states (the five already mentioned plus Ohio, Oklahoma, Minnesota, Vermont, and New Hampshire) only two are right-to-work states.  It looks like union busting may not be the answer to the country’s economic woes after all.

What’s really been fueling the U.S. economic recovery (no pun intended) is the success of policies like the U.S. auto bailout.  The states that are seeing the fastest and most successful recoveries are the states like Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York, the rust belt states that benefitted the most from the auto bailout; and coincidentally, none of these states have right-to-work laws.  

This country doesn’t need more union busters, what we need is courageous leadership and the good ideas that will keep us on a path to recovery.

A Great Day For America

I believe that the primary role of our government is to protect and secure individual rights in the name of the pursuit of happiness, not to bow to the whim of corporations or stand in the way of social progress.  Today I can say that we’re seeing a step in the right direction thanks to the courage of a group of public servants in Albany. 

Last night the state of New York officially legalized gay marriage, becoming the sixth state to recognize the right of all gay and lesbian couples to the same legal protections enjoyed by heterosexual married couples.  This is no doubt a big win for America and anyone who cares about our country’s commitment to human rights.

There are a couple of things to note about this landmark vote.  First, this measure was passed after having been voted down in the last legislative session, which means that there’s hope for other states where marriage equality initiatives recently failed (like my home state of Maryland).  Last night’s vote by the New York State Senate also marks the first time that gay marriage has passed in a majority republican chamber, a sign that marriage equality can win with bipartisan support. 

Although most of the strongest supporters of gay marriage are of the left-wing persuasion, the marriage equality movement has gained a number of high profile adherents from the right as well.  To put things in perspective, George W. Bush’s wife, daughter, Vice President, and Campaign Manager have all come out in support of gay marriage in the past few years.  A lot can change in a short period of time.

Now that New York has shown their mandate of support for gay marriage against these odds, I expect this to open the door for many other states to follow suit.  Like the fight for desegregation and voting rights in the 1960’s, the fight for equality based on sexual orientation has become the defining civil rights issue of our generation.  The recognition of all couples as equal citizens with equal rights is a key step towards civic equality.  The kind of civic equality America can be proud of.

Massachusetts Redistricting Competition

Common Cause Massachusetts will be holding a citizens redistricting competition this summer for the state of Massachusetts.  The Congressional maps should have 9 districts, State Senate maps should have 40 districts, and State House maps should have 160 districts.  See information below.

Ten years ago redistricting was politics as usual.

This time around we can make sure things will be different.

The state legislature is set to draw new legislative districts for the Commonwealth this fall. Now it’s your turn to get involved.

Help raise the standard of fair redistricting in Massachusetts by submitting your own map to Common Cause MA’s first Redistricting Olympics. You can make sure the peoples’ interests are truly represented. Winning maps will be submitted to the legislature for review and will also be awarded cash prizes ($750 State House Map; $500 Congressional Map; $500 State Senate). Your map(s) should also include a brief (no more than a page) explanation as to why you think the map(s) should be drawn as you propose.

Now accepting submissions. Maps will be accepted until August 15th subject to extension. Please email all maps and questions to redistrictma@gmail.com.

The criteria for evaluating the maps can be found here:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wJEPff_ov0dh_wgRDfbe2lqUbvVIF6b7VL-gefDpx1Y/edit?hl=en_US&authkey=CLef4ng      

To create your maps you may use any software of your choosing.  Here is a link with instructions for how to use one possible free redistricting software:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1C_UPcFNnVb6n25c7n503VUSuwbHoXVPNYl23MkhJGXc/edit?hl=en_US&authkey=CKXwqtQL

Journalism in the Public Interest

Over the weekend I attended Common Cause Mass’s annual brunch at the Charles hotel in Cambridge.  This year’s theme was journalism in the public interest.  What was clear from the brunch was that in an era where most people get their news online instead of subscribing to newspapers, journalism has become a much less lucrative profession.  As a consequence, many small papers are going under, and even the most successful papers continue to dramatically reduce the sizes of their staffs to make up for lost revenues.  As a number of the brunch’s honorees pointed out, this trend is not only a shame for the hardworking journalists but it’s also a significant threat to the efficacy of our government. 

The maintenance of a free press is the single most important safeguard against abuses of power in our democracy.  Without a free press, those who govern would be able to keep the inner workings of our country secret from the people who are supposed to be sovereign.  Our government would then become a government of by, and for the bureaucrats instead of the people.  Perhaps that’s why the framers of the Constitution put the guarantee of a free press in the First Amendment, before the right to bear arms, due process of law, and even the prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. 

Think of the things that our elected officials would try to get away with if they thought nobody was watching, or reporting; mishandling public funds, trading votes for campaign contributions, packing courts, and even launching misguided wars, the list goes on and on.  As my father always said, never say or do anything that you wouldn’t be comfortable seeing on the front page of the New York Times.  Public officials like Anthony Weiner learned that the hard way, as did the Tom DeLays, Rod Blagojevichs, and Scooter Libbys of the world. 

Contrary to what Sarah Palin may say (shocking, I know), the ‘gotcha’ media serves a public purpose.  The media helps keep public officials governing in a way they’d be happy to see on the front page of the New York Times.  The potential for getting caught and the fear of public humiliation keeps in line those who we entrust with the direction of our country, and when they do betray our trust the free press can call them out on it.  

On this day the 21st anniversary of my birth.

Today is my 21^st Birthday.  Rest assured I shall take advantage of my newly acquired 21-year-old status by hitting the bars in Boston, but I’d like to spend the rest of this blog post talking about something else. 

This is also the 796^th anniversary of the signing of the Magna Carta (Great Charter), designated with the official seal of King John of England on June 15, 1215.  This occasion marked the first time the people of England were able to impose limits on the King’s absolute authority, and proved to be a milestone on the way to establishing the rule of law over the rule of man throughout the world.

We’ve come a long way in those nearly 800 years, but our work is not yet done.  As I write this blog post, small groups of elites continue their assault on the middle class in America, with little respect for the sanctity of our institutions or the rights of the people.  Our elected officials seem to view tax cuts for millionaires as a higher priority than collective bargaining rights or protecting benefits like Medicare and Social Security, benefits that the workers who form the backbone of our country have spent their lives paying for.  Last time I checked the American middle class didn’t cause the financial crisis, and they are not responsible for our nearly $15 trillion national debt.

Back in 1215, King John had to answer to the people for his abuses of power.  796 years later, it’s time for our leaders to answer for their abuses.  The era of our leaders cutting their own taxes and raising their own pay at the expense of the middle class must come to an end.

Some Thoughts on Independent Redistricting Commissions

Last week I had the good fortune to attend a public forum in Lexington on the redistricting process in Massachusetts.  The forum’s attendees were acutely aware of the importance of redistricting to the effectiveness of their representation on multiple levels of government, as well as the potential for foul play in the process - particularly on the issue of gerrymandering.

By engaging in partisan gerrymandering, public officials artificially redraw legislative districts so as to maximize their party’s interests instead of accurately reflecting the interests of the communities in question.  As a protection against this dangerous practice, a number of states across the country have decided to put control of the redistricting process in the hands of an independent commission.  These independent redistricting commissions ensure that the people running for these districts are not the same people drawing them, a practice that subverts the democratic process such that candidates select voters instead of voters selecting candidates. 

Among the panelists at the forum in Lexington was the Chairman of the Joint Committee on Redistricting Rep. Michael Moran (D-Brighton), who is a staunch opponent of independent redistricting commissions.  When pressed on his position by a number of the forum’s attendees, Moran claimed that he opposes independent commissions on the grounds that the district maps they produce face just as many legal challenges as the maps drawn by state legislatures. 

If we take Rep. Moran’s point of view and use the quantity of lawsuits per redistricting cycle as a barometer for the fairness of the districts, independent commissions actually come out looking pretty good:

In the six states that used independent commissions to oversee redistricting a decade ago (Alaska, Arizona, Idaho, Hawaii, Missouri, and Montana), none of the maps they produced resulted in more than a handful of lawsuits, if any.  And in the states in which there were lawsuits, there were no charges of partisan gerrymandering.

When state legislatures controlled redistricting last decade, the results were much more mixed.  In states like Alabama, Illinois, and Texas charges of partisan gerrymandering were rampant and each of these states faced lawsuits numbering in the double digits. 

Last time there were four lawsuits filed in Massachusetts against the state legislature’s redistricting plan, which was more than the number of challenges filed against any of the plans submitted by independent commissions.  If the people of Massachusetts want to reduce the number of legal challenges to their legislative districts, next time they may want to look to an independent commission.