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.
Recent 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..."
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