The Pocono Record reports that State Sen. John Eichelberger has introduced legislation that would make Pennsylvania a “Right to Work” state. According to the article, the Senator Eichelberger’s bill would:
- Eliminate the automatic deduction of union dues and political contributions from public employee paychecks.
- Prevent the automatic deduction from public employee paychecks to unions’ political action committees, or PACs.
- Make Pennsylvania a “right-to-work” state, which would prevent public- and private-sector workers from being forced to pay union dues if they choose not to join the union.
Of course, by enforcing their “Beck” rights, workers already have the ability to stop paying that portion of union fees collected for political purposes. However, this bill would allow workers that do not want to belong to a union from paying any union fees at all.
If this bill passes it would have serious implications for both labor and management. It also could lead to new employers moving to Pennsylvania because they would not be burdened by union work rules and wage rates.