CELESTIAL ADVICE
(This is Sybil’s first column, regarding so-called Right to Work, and was published in the wonderful now defunct magazine “On The Issues” in 1993. Interestingly, “Right to Work” is still a political issue to this day.)
Sybil Ludington, as almost no one knows, was a heroine of the American revolution. Like Paul Revere, she rode her horse through the night to warn and rouse the revolutionaries to fight the British. Her ride was about five miles longer than Revere’s - he was captured after about ten miles. Now the Matron Saint of Forgotten Women, Sybil has become a kind of feminist “Dear Abby.: * To wit:
Dear Saint Sybil,
During the past elections in Oklahoma, I heard a lot about “Right to Work”, but I don’t really understand what that term means. At first I thought it was a woman’s issue, like the right to work at whatever job a woman wants to. Then I heard some people say it really means the right to work for less. Help me please.
Yours, Eliza Domuch
Dear Eliza,
I agree that “Right to Work” is a strange and misleading term. My celestial acquaintance George Orwell wishes that he had come up with it.
I like to compare Right to Work to A Mother’s Right to Change Diapers, or to A Teenager’s Right to Take Out the Trash; or to A Soldier’s Right to Clean Latrines. We already have the right to work, the issue is what we will work at, and how much or how little the pay will be. People in Oklahoma pushing for Right to Work say that we’re losing businesses to surrounding states who have it. Those against Right to Work point out that wages in those surrounding states are considerably lower than those in Oklahoma. They also note that Right to Work allows some people to get a free ride - to enjoy the benefits won by unions without paying dues to support the unions’ work. Perhaps this is why Clayton Williams, unsuccessful candidate for Governor of Texas in 1990, supported Right to Work. Millionaire Williams paid no federal taxes at all in 1986, so he understands the joy of a free ride.
Right to Work reminds me of another right from long ago, the feudal days’ Droit du Seigneur, the Right of the Lord of the Manor. This gave the feudal lord the right to deflower all of the local girls prior to their wedding night. Droit du Seigneur seems to me perfectly analogous to Right to Work. In both of these rather dubious “rights”, a Boss gets the benefit and a peasant gets screwed.