Saturday, February 06, 2016

Little Evidence That Unions Make Workers Safer

Little Evidence That Unions Make Workers Safer [Michigan Capitol Confidential]
Are workers safer when they’re forced to pay union fees in order to have a job?
Repeating a talking point used in Michigan and other states, union leaders at the AFL-CIO are warning West Virginians a right-to-work law would lead to more injuries and deaths on the job.
Right-to-work prevents unions from having workers fired for refusing to pay union fees. 
Right-to-work doesn’t restrict union membership or negotiations over safety equipment, training, or anything else.
Images from 
Little Evidence That Unions Make Workers SaferRecent federal data show workplace injury and fatality rates continuing a decades-long decline in right-to-work and forced unionization states alike.
The latest U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics nonfatal work injury figures are from 2014, just one year after Michigan implemented right-to-work and two years after Indiana did so.
Michigan’s nonfatal occupational injury rate was 4.1 per 100,000 full-time employees in 2012, the year before right-to-work took effect.
The state’s nonfatal work injury rate declined to 3.8 in 2013 and 3.7 in 2014.
In 2011 – the year before Indiana’s right-to-work law took effect – Indiana had a nonfatal work injury rate of 4.3 per 100,000 full-time employees.
That rate dropped to 4.0 in 2012, dropped again to 3.8 in 2013, and was 4.0 in 2014.
Not only have new right-to-work states reported declining workplace injury rates,  in many cases right-to-work states are statistically safer than forced unionization states..."

No comments: