A union at The Dallas Morning News? We don’t miss the irony

Who created “right to work” as a phrase and and a key concept of the anti-union movement?

We did.

Or more accurately, an editorial writer for our newspaper, The Dallas Morning News.

William B. Ruggles published a Labor Day editorial in 1941 that launched major restrictions on the American labor movement. It may well be one of the most important editorials our newspaper ever published.

William Ruggles (Photo courtesy of American Enterprise Institute

Of course, our staffers who signed union authorization cards in recent weeks can’t help but see the irony as we attempt to become the first newspaper newsroom in recent Texas history to unionize.

It may well be worth a moment to look at our  legacy.

Ruggles’ proposed a 22nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that protected those workers who did not want to join a union but still wanted the job.

He coined the term “right to work” meaning employees had a right to work without being forced into a mandatory union or to pay dues in what’s called “a union shop.”

After that, Texas came to be known, along with many others, as a right-to-work state.

Ruggles never got his amendment, but the right-to-work concept is now state law in about half of the 50 states. And six years after Ruggles’ piece, Congress passed the Taft-Hartley Act over President Harry Truman’s veto.

Among its many provisions, it protected unions’ right to organize and bargain. It also established the right-to-work concept in federal law.

We recognize our legacy. And let’s just say we’re glad that Mr. Ruggles isn’t around to write an editorial on our current efforts. But if he were, we’d tell him the following:

We want to help protect the 135-year-old family legacy of America’s top regional newspaper. We want to make sure Dallas and North Texans keep getting local news that they need to make informed decisions about schools, business, sports, housing, the arts and everything else that matters to Texans and their families. We want to help build our community for the 21st century.

So forgive us, Mr. Ruggles. We mean no harm. We only want to help.