Idahoans Target Big Labor Collection Racket
“Idaho prospects are better this year than in 2021, thanks to significant turnover in the Republican primaries last year in both chambers of the Idaho Legislature,” said Mr. Kalb.
Right to Work Winning by More Than 2:1
Employment in Right to Work States up by 10.1 Million Since 2014
Data from the U.S. Labor Department (USDOL) show that, over the past decade, employment growth in the 23 states that continuously had Right to Work protections for employees from 2014 to 2024 greatly outpaced growth in states that continue to deny employees such protections.
Over the course of the decade, according to the USDOL household survey, the number of employed people in those 23 states grew by an impressive 16.4%, despite the harrowing COVID-19 recession in early 2020 and the increasingly hostile national environment for job-creating firms under ex-President Joe Biden.
Meanwhile, aggregate employment in the 23 states that have never enacted and implemented Right to Work laws grew by less than half as much.
Nearly Half of All Employees Now Live in Right to Work States
National Right to Work Committee Vice President Greg Mourad commented: “For decades, Right to Work states have greatly outpaced forced-unionism states in employment growth.
“By 2011, 40% of America’s employed population resided in Right to Work states, then 22 in number. That was nearly double the Right to Work share of U.S. employment back in 1955, the year the National Right to Work Committee was founded.
“Since 2011, grassroots activists, assisted by the Committee, have increased the number of Right to Work states to 26.
“That’s one key reason why, in 2024, roughly 48%, or nearly half, of U.S. workers were employed in Right to Work states.
“A second key reason is far superior job growth in Right to Work states. “From 2014 to 2024, the total number of people employed in states with Right to Work laws on the books throughout the decade grew by 10.1 million.
“That’s 46% higher than the employment gain in the 23 states where forced union dues and fees as a job condition are still permitted.”
Right to Work States’ Edge in Real, Spendable Income Per Capita: $2,900
Mr. Mourad continued:
“In addition to being correlated with faster job growth,” continued Mr. Mourad, “Right to Work is correlated with higher real, after-tax incomes.
“U.S. Census Bureau data, adjusted for interstate cost-of-living differences according to an index calculated by the Missouri Economic Research and Information Center, a state government agency, show that the average after-tax income per person in Right to Work states in 2023 was $60,323.
“That’s more than $2,900 higher than the forced-dues state average, according to the same analysis, which was carried out last year by the National Institute for Labor Relations Research.”
Forced Dues Pour Salt In Wounds of Workers Already Hurt by Big Labor
Today, 26 states have Right to Work protections for employees.
While federal law has authorized forced union financial support as a job condition since 1935, state Right to Work laws protect the individual employee from being fired or denied a job opportunity for mere refusal to join or bankroll an unwanted union.
Right to Work laws promote fairness and accountability as well as prosperity. There is simply no credible justification for forcing employees to bankroll a union if they choose not to belong to it.
The fact is, even a number of academic apologists for Organized Labor make no bones about the fact that workers whose productivity is above average typically get paid less when they are unionized.
A case in point is Richard Rothstein, now a distinguished fellow with the union-boss-founded Economic Policy Institute.
In a brief survey of union-friendly academic literature on the impact of “exclusive” union bargaining on the pay of employees with diverse levels of skill and industriousness, Mr. Rothstein has written:
“[I]n unionized firms, wages of lower paid workers are raised above the market rate, with the increase offset . . . [in part] by reducing pay of the most productive workers.”
Despite the lack of any economic or moral grounds for their stance, Big Labor Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (both N.Y.), along with the vast majority of their fellow Democrat politicians in Congress, want to prohibit states from protecting employees’ Right to Work.
In other words, they want to make it permissible for union bosses across America, and not just in states that currently lack Right to Work protections, to add insult to the injuries of the workers they hurt through monopoly bargaining by extracting forced fees from them as well.
Their vehicle of choice in the current Congress is H.R.20, the so-called “PRO Act,” which, as this Newsletter edition went to press in early April, was already cosponsored by 211 House members, all but 2 of them Democrats.
Right to Work Support Growing on Capitol Hill
The core provision of this smorgasbord of special privileges for union bosses would nullify every state Right to Work law on the books, and prohibit the spread of Right to Work protections to new states, by making forced union fees as a job condition permissible nationwide.
“The anti-Right to Work PRO Act is extremely unpopular with the public,” said Mr. Mourad.
“In fact, public distaste for this scheme is an important reason why Big Labor Democrat politicians, after controlling both chambers of Congress during the first two years of the Biden presidency, today no longer wield operational control over either chamber.”
‘Union Bosses Don’t Get to Decide Which Policies Are “Pro-Worker”’
Mr. Mourad continued:
“According to the warped perspective of powerful union bosses and politicians who cater to them, ‘pro-worker’ and ‘pro-forced unionism’ are the same thing.
“But the reality is that union bosses don’t get to decide which policies are ‘pro-worker.’ A scientific nationwide poll conducted for the Committee last year by RMG Research showed 82% of all registered voters, 80% of all working-class voters, and 79% of actively employed union members support the Right to Work principle.
“When the current session of Congress convened in January, more members than ever before had either previously cosponsored or pledged to cosponsor legislation [H.R.1232 and S.533] that would put an end to Big Labor’s federally authorized power to force workers to pay union dues or fees as a condition of employment.
“In the 119th Congress, every politician in Washington, D.C., faces a simple decision: Will you side with the union bosses in their attempts to shackle more workers to forced unionism, or will you stand up for the rights of workers across America by cosponsoring H.R.1232/ S.533, the National Right to Work Act?
“The National Right to Work Committee will be mobilizing its 2.8 million members and supporters to call on their elected officials to make the right decision. The Committee’s path is being eased by the fact that GOP elected officials who are not beholden to Big Labor now hold leadership positions in the Senate and House.”
Small Band Of Anti-Right to Work GOP Politicians Are an Obstacle
Mr. Mourad concluded: “Unfortunately, a small but vociferous band of renegade Republican politicians who oppose Right to Work, led by Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley, is now actively trying to undo everything that Committee members and supporters have achieved in recent years.
“Mr. Hawley even has the nerve to propagate the absurd lie that rank-and-file Republican voters support monopolistic unionism!
“I am confident Mr. Hawley and Co. will ultimately fail in their quest to reconfigure the GOP as the ‘forced-unionism lite’ party. But they could still do a lot of damage.”
This article was originally published in our monthly newsletter. Go here to access previous newsletter posts.
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