Members Insist They Keep Pro-Right to Work Campaign Promises
Since this story was published, Rep. Wesley Hunt (TX-38) has cosponsored the National Right to Work Act. A full list of current cosponsors is available at nrtwc.org/cosposnors
Roughly a year and a half ago, 26 candidates captured open seats or defeated incumbents in the U.S. House after pledging, in response to the National Right to Work Committee’s Survey 2022, to sponsor or cosponsor legislation abolishing federally imposed forced union dues and fees.
And the vast majority of first-term congressmen and congresswomen who promised then to support forced-dues repeal are now cosponsors of H.R.1200, the National Right to Work Act.
But there is a small group who answered their Committee surveys 100% in favor of Right to Work, such as Wesley Hunt and Morgan Luttrell (both R-Texas) and Kevin Kiley (R-Calif.), but have yet to cosponsor forced-dues repeal.
This summer, the Committee is mobilizing members and supporters in a number of targeted congressional districts and states to convince House members and senators to cosponsor H.R.1200 or its Senate companion, S.532.
Constituents of Reps. Hunt, Luttrell and Kiley Are Strongly Pro-Right to Work
Later this year, the Committee’s mobilization will be geared primarily at urging aggressively pro-forced unionism politicians to reverse course.
As the Committee’s Survey 2024 program unfolds, candidates will be given several chances to return their surveys and answer 100% in favor of American employees’ Right to Work.
Committee President Mark Mix commented:
“This year, as in previous election years, millions of grassroots Right to Work supporters are being enlisted to lobby federal politicians seeking election or reelection to oppose compulsory unionism across the board.
“Wesley Hunt, Morgan Luttrell, and most of the other U.S. representatives who are currently being targeted through the survey program represent some of the most strongly pro-Right to Work jurisdictions in America.
“And while Kevin Kiley hails from forced-unionism California, he has made his name as a fierce opponent of Big Labor oppression of the individual worker.
“There’s no sensible reason why House members whose core constituencies are overwhelmingly and passionately opposed to monopolistic unionism should hesitate to cosponsor H.R.1200.”
‘Workers Should Never Be Forced, or Coerced,’ to ‘Pay Dues to a Union’
Of course, it isn’t just in a subset of congressional districts that public opinion strongly supports the Right to Work principle.
“Poll after poll shows that the American people as a whole recognize that compulsory unionism is wrong,” said Mr. Mix. To illustrate his point, he cited a June 2020 nationwide scientific survey of adults aged 18 and over conducted by SurveyUSA.
The poll found that 87% of adults agree that workers “should never be forced, or coerced, to join a union or pay dues to a union as a condition of employment.”
“Unfortunately,” observed Mr. Mix, “federal labor policy has long been in conflict with the common-sense views of the vast majority of ordinary citizens across the country.
“For nearly nine decades, it has explicitly authorized the termination of employees for refusal to join or pay dues or fees to a union, even if they don’t want it, and never asked for it.”
But all of this would change if H.R.1200/S.532 became law. This legislation would simply repeal the current provisions in the federal code that authorize and promote the termination of employees for refusal to pay money to an unwanted union.
Employment Growth Superior, Real Incomes Higher in Right to Work States
In addition to enjoying the support of the vast majority of Americans, federal Right to Work legislation would almost certainly foster faster job and income growth around the country, based on decades of experience at the state level.
Statistics compiled from independent nonprofit and official government sources confirm the Right to Work economic advantage, as the National Institute for Labor Relations Research has shown again and again.
For example, from 2013 to 2023, the percentage growth in the number of people employed in Right to Work states was 16%, almost double the aggregate rate for forced-unionism states.
Apart from far faster employment growth, Right to Work is strongly correlated with a host of other tangible economic positives.
In 2022, the average share of all income consumed by state and local taxes in Right to Work states was 9.5%, while the same levies ate up 12.5% of forced-dues state residents’ income.
And largely thanks to their lower tax burdens, Right to Work states’ cost-of-living adjusted per capita disposable income as of 2023 was $2,800 higher than that of states where forced union dues are still permitted.
Right to Work has a much greater influence on a state’s climate for overall job and income growth than one might expect.
This is partly because, wherever Big Labor is endowed with forced-dues privileges, it devotes a substantial share of the cash extracted from workers to lobbying for heavier taxation and more intense regulation of business and electioneering on behalf of Big Government politicians.
Ideal Is For All Candidates For Federal Office To Oppose Forced Unionism
While the detrimental impact of forced dues-funded politicians is greatest in Big Labor-dominated states, employees and businesses nationwide lose economic opportunities as a consequence of the actions of union-label U.S. congressmen and senators.
“The bottom line is, Americans find the very idea of compulsory unionism distasteful,” said Mr. Mix.
“And it has been a disaster in practice. The ideal, therefore, would be for all federal candidates to vow to oppose it in the future, regardless of what their records have been up to now.
“Without a doubt, it is the goal of Right to Work members and supporters to get every candidate this November to oppose Big Labor’s monopoly privileges.”
All Major-Party Candidates Are Asked to Respond to Their Right to Work Surveys
All major party candidates, as well as key significant third-party and independent candidates, in every House and Senate race are asked to participate in the Right to Work survey program.
And pro-Right to Work citizens in every House district and every state with a Senate contest are contacted and requested to help turn up the pressure on their candidates to respond to their Committee surveys.
“Of course,” said Mr. Mix, “the Committee reserves the vast majority of its resources and mobilizes far more freedom-loving activists for House and Senate races that are at least potentially close and in which at least one candidate has taken a strong stand in favor of Right to Work.
“In cases where only one of the two principal general-election candidates stands up for the Right to Work, the Committee’s job will be to let concerned citizens know about the contrasting positions of their candidates on the forced-unionism issue.
“I’m confident that, if there is a choice between a strongly pro-Right to Work candidate and a compulsory-unionism candidate, the pro-Right to Work candidate is in a better position to gain public support.”
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