New Mexico The Next Right to Work State?

Loss of Tesla factory prompting more New Mexicans to talk about the need for Right to Work freedom according to Albuquerque Journal‘s Marshall Martin:

New Mexico business associations are discussing the state’s need for a right-to-work law, spurred by New Mexico’s courtship of Tesla’s battery factory.

What is right to work?

The National Labor Relations Act applies to most unions other than rail, airline and public-employee unions. The unions excepted from National Labor Relations Act are generally not subject to right-to-work legislation, although state and municipal employees can be made subject to right to work.

The Taft-Hartley Act made several amendments to the National Labor Relations Act that were designed to curb the power of unions. Those include prohibiting “closed shop” agreements between employers and unions and enabling states to enact right-to-work laws. A closed shop is a business with a union agreement that requires that all employees be members of the union. Closely related is the union shop, which gives employees of the unionized business a period of time in which to join the union or be terminated. Union shops are legal.

Right-to-work laws outlaw the union shop and agency shop, blocking non-union members from any obligation to join or to contribute to collective-bargaining costs or any other union costs.

Twenty-four states have right-to-work laws. New Mexico is almost surrounded by states with right to work laws: Texas, Arizona, Oklahoma and Utah. Nevada, Idaho and Wyoming are other western right-to-work states.

Realistically the chances of New Mexico joining the list of right-to-work states are slim under the present political makeup of the New Mexico Legislature.