Right-to-work laws are promoted as a way to expand workers’ rights and freedoms. But their racist roots - and negative impact on communities of color - say otherwise, creating less access to freedom than ever.
The term “right-to-work” was popularized by a proud bigot named Vance Muse.
Muse was so racist that to a 1936 U.S. Senate Committee, he proudly stated, “I am a Southerner and I am for white supremacy.”
This was the man who became the first face of right-to-work.
Muse and the Christian American Association would disseminate racist propaganda to white working-class people that read:
“... white women and white men will be forced into organizations [labor unions] with black African apes whom they will have to call ‘brother’ or lose their jobs.”
For decades, labor unions have resulted in many Black workers gaining fair wages and other rights.
But right-to-work laws - which discourage workers from chipping in for the cost of negotiating contracts - work in the interest of wealthy corporations, who UNDERMINE labor unions because they don’t want working-class communities protecting themselves from corporate greed and abuse.
With the government in their pocket, this wealthy elite has rigged the Supreme Court, which ruled that right-to-work is now the law of the land.
Black workers and communities of color are being targeted. And if these big corporations have it their way, we would never unionize and protect our interests - we would never have access to true freedom.