On Labor Day 2022, we should celebrate the hard-working working Americans that make our lives better every day.
As a resident of The Bluegrass State, you can celebrate the fact that you live in one of the 27 Right to Work states across the country that are now home to a majority of America’s working people. This means that workers in Kentucky – and most workers in America – can now freely choose whether to join or financially support a union.
When asked in polls, about 8 in 10 of Americans consistently say that they believe all workers should have this freedom. Fortunately, the 2018 Janus v. AFSCME Supreme Court decision, argued and won by National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys, now ensures every public sector employee across the country enjoys Right to Work protections under the First Amendment.
Yet, even amidst all this progress, in 23 states union bosses are still granted the power by law to force every worker in a private sector workplace – even those who don’t want the union and never asked for its so-called “representation” – to fund union boss activities or be fired. Wielding those powers, union officials force workers to pay billions of dollars every year under threat of termination.
Meanwhile, in Right to Work states each worker has the freedom to decide for themselves whether or not to join or fund a union, but Right to Work’s advantages hardly stop there.
According to Labor Department statistics, from April 2011 to April 2021, manufacturing payroll jobs surged in Right to Work states by 9.3 percent, compared to the 0.5 percent decline for manufacturing payroll jobs in forced-unionism states.
That is just another example of Right to Work’s proven track record of job creation. Between 2011 and 2021, Right to Work states saw the total number of people employed grow by 13.2 percent. That’s more than double the 5.7 percent gain in non-Right to Work states over the same period, according to an analysis of federal government statistics compiled by the National Institute for Labor Relations Research.
The NILRR analysis also found that, after adjusting for the cost of living, the mean after-tax household income in Right to Work states was roughly $4,300 higher than households in forced-unionism states in 2019, the most recent year for which household income data is available.
The connection between Right to Work laws and better economic performance is not a surprise. Business experts consistently rank the presence of Right to Work laws as one of the most important factors companies consider when deciding where to expand or relocate their plants and facilities, where they will create new jobs and new opportunities.
Right to Work at its core, however, is a moral case – the economic benefits are just the icing on the cake. No worker should be forced to join or pay money to an organization they have no interest in supporting. Right to Work laws do nothing to impede employees from voluntarily joining or paying dues to a union; they simply ensure that no worker can be forced to hand over a portion of their hard-earned paycheck to union officials just to keep a job.
Union bosses must also adapt and become more responsive to workers under Right to Work. If union officials cannot rely on the law to force workers to subsidize them, union officials must work harder to retain employee support. That’s because workers can withhold their dues from union hierarchies that are ineffective, corrupt, or prioritize divisive politics over workers’ needs.
If you are still unsure where you stand on the Right to Work issue, ask yourself a simple question: Why should union officials not play by the same rules as every other private organization? A labor union that genuinely enjoys widespread employee support should have no difficulty relying on members’ voluntary financial support. Meanwhile, a union that has alienated the rank-and-file or outlived its usefulness should not endure simply because they have been granted the power to legally threaten to have workers fired for nonpayment.
Churches, civic associations, and thousands of other private organizations across the country succeed on voluntary association. Despite the protests of union officials, there is no reason a union – made up of individual workers who freely choose to band together – cannot do the same.
So this Labor Day, there is more to celebrate than just a three-day weekend: Workers in Kentucky are among the majority of American employees that enjoy the protection of Right to Work, and their freedom is worth cheering.
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Mark Mix is President of the National Right to Work Committee.
