Under the National Labor Relations Act, states may pass right-to-work (RTW) laws. In jurisdictions without these laws, unions can force workers to pay dues (although they cannot force them to actually join the union). Almost half of all states have passed worker-friendly RTW laws to protect workers from union coercion.
What about the employees in the 26 states with no right-to-work law? Are they out of luck? Not quite.
In a new Heritage paper we conclude that cities and counties in non-right-to-work states have the authority to pass their own RTW ordinances. Many local city councils could protect the freedom of their workers by passing RTW ordinances. This would also attract employers since many businesses will not consider locating in places without a RTW law.
Heh…not much concern for the plight of city and county workers here at IOTW. And apparently not much faith in Heritage’s naive, optimistic assessment of locally elected officials.
My city switched their human resources director from a union to a non-union position a few years back. Basically they told UAW Local 412 to take a long walk off a short pier. The resulting contracts for remaining unionized workers ended up in a significant wage reduction. I wonder how many of these workers will abandon the union when their contracts are up since the gravy train is over.