Tyranny Triumphs in the Great Lakes State
Ignoring ample evidence of forced unionism’s unfairness and its damaging impact on jobs and incomes, Big Labor Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed Right to Work destruction in 2023.
Fred Barnes, in The Weekly Standard, has an insightful take on the comparative economies of Right to Work state Alabama and forced-unionism state Ohio.
. . . When the U.S. Air Force awarded a $40 billion contract for 179 new aerial refueling tankers, Ohio wasn’t in the running as a site where the aircraft might be built. Instead, they’ll be built in Alabama outside Mobile.
Why? The answer is simple: Alabama’s business climate is good and Ohio’s isn’t. When major business projects are looking for the best site, job-hungry Ohio is rarely considered. And NAFTA has little or nothing to do with it. . . .
Ohio was once an economic powerhouse, but now it lags behind Alabama in almost everything that might lure new business to the state. “Ohio has raced past 41 other states and now ranks 5th in state and local taxes measured as a percentage of income,” David Hansen, president of the Buckeye Institute, wrote last year. Alabama, in contrast, ranks 46th in tax burden.
In economic competitiveness, Ohio has fallen to 47th in the nation, according to the American Legislative Exchange Council. Alabama is 18th. “The cost of doing business makes us very competitive,” says Bob Sisson, vice president of the Mobile Chamber of Commerce. Relative to Ohio, it certainly does. . . .
One more thing. Ohio is a highly unionized state. The Wall Street Journal called this “Ohio’s most crippling handicap” in job creation. Alabama is a right-to-work state in which union organizing is difficult.
This, of course, gives Alabama an important talking point. After all, other things being equal, would a large corporation prefer to locate a new factory in a union state or a right-to-work state? Would it rather hire a union workforce or a non-union one? Those questions answer themselves. . . .
Ignoring ample evidence of forced unionism’s unfairness and its damaging impact on jobs and incomes, Big Labor Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed Right to Work destruction in 2023.
On average, forced-unionism states are 23.2% more expensive to live in than Right to Work states. And decades of academic research show that compulsory unionism actually fosters a higher cost of living.
Strong employment gains in Right to Work states are the reason more Americans are working now than pre-COVID.