Rebuttal: Right-to-work gives workers a choice

It's telling that in union boss Ron Gettelfinger's screed against right-to-work laws ("King exposed folly of right-to-work ," Feb. 3), the United Auto Workers president never takes the time to explain what the right-to-work principle actually stands for.

Setting aside Big Labor's atrocious record of discrimination against minorities, forced unionism occurs when a worker is forced to be a member of or pay dues to a union to get or keep a job. In states without right-to-work laws, like Michigan, union officials such as Gettelfinger have the power to order workers fired for refusal to pay union dues. Right-to-work laws give employees the choice of whether or not to support a union with their hard-earned dollars.

National Right to Work Foundation attorneys have provided free legal aid to hundreds of thousands of employee victims of compulsory unionism, and they have taken 14 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court. The foundation is asking the court to take up a case regarding a Michigan employee of faith who is challenging the forced dues policy of Gettelfinger's UAW union, which smacks of religious discrimination.

Everyone should have the right, but no one should ever be forced, to join a union. Under the protections of a right-to-work law, if union membership is of value to workers, they'll join without being forced to do so, and workers' ability to withhold their financial support can help keep the union hierarchy accountable to the rank-and-file.

Regardless of union bosses' mischaracterizations of the right-to-work principle, polls have shown that 80 percent of Americans agree that union membership and dues payment should be fully voluntary.

Mark Mix , President,

National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation

Springfield, Va.