The Irrelevance of "Right-to-Work" Laws

This is so sad, but so true. As a manager used to leading engineering teams, I took an assignment leading a UAW mfg group. After several techs really got behind our restructuring efforts and helped improve efficiency significantly I tried to reward them with a higher classification position. As soon as I opened the reqs, the union rep told me they would bring in people from outside the company who were highest seniority in the county-wide union to accept these new positions. Since I didn't have the budget for additional people I would have to let some of our existing staff go, including those I was trying to help. I actually got a budget reduction due to some canceled work which gave me a reason to cancel the reqs and keep the staff.