This is an excerpt of The Huffington Post column "Right-to-Work Laws are Killing the American Dream," by Communications Workers of America (CWA) President Larry Cohen. 

The campaign to make Michigan a so-called "right to work" state is not really about individuals paying union dues. It's all about the 1 percent limiting the ability of working people to work together for a real voice on the job and better wages and conditions.
 
These misleadingly named "right to work" laws—orchestrated by the Koch brothers and Amway heir Dick DeVos in Michigan and moneyed extremists in other states—are really intended to strengthen the top tenth of the 1 percent, the very wealthiest in our country, who don't want working people to have any voice in their workplaces.
 
For the 99 percent, that means a continuation of wage stagnation, and health care and retirement cuts. It means an end to the American dream for the overwhelming majority. And that means no economic recovery, since consumer spending drives roughly 70 percent of our economic activity. Cuts in living standards cut economic demand.

Read the rest of "Right-to-Work Laws are Killing the American Dream."