Workers Not Buying What Joe Biden Is Selling

President Doubles Down on Forced Unionism as Millions Flee It

The U.S. Census Bureau has released new updated data showing that the net outflow of working-age Americans from forced-unionism states to Right to Work states is now more than twice as great as it was, on average, from 2010-20.

Meanwhile, union-label President Joe Biden’s Democrat Party allies on Capitol Hill have rammed through the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee — in an 11-10 straight party-line vote — a Big Labor power grab that would impose forced union dues on all 50 states.

National Right to Work Committee President Mark Mix commented: “Clearly, the disconnect continues to grow wider between union boss-owned politicians like Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders [Vt.] and the vast majority of working-age Americans who get most of their income from paychecks furnished to them and/or their loved ones by private sector businesses.”

Mr. Mix explained: 

‘Foot Voting’ Exposes Falsity of Team Biden’s Propaganda Campaign

“Mr. Biden, Mr. Sanders, and other Big Labor politicians try to justify their relentless efforts to pass legislation corralling millions of additional workers into monopolistic unions by loudly claiming that doing so would somehow make those workers more prosperous.

“Again and again, they try to fool citizens into believing this claim is correct by grossly understating, or altogether ‘forgetting’ about, regional cost-of-living differences when debating living standards in Right to Work states vs. forced-unionism states.

“Downplaying or ignoring this key issue enables them to conceal, or so they believe, the proven economically disastrous effects of compulsory unionism.

“But the fact is, fewer and fewer Americans are being fooled. U.S. Census Bureau data show that, when they have a choice, working-age people prefer not to live in forced-unionism states.”

Correlation Between Forced Dues, Out-Migration Is Robust

Considered together, Census age-grouped state population data for 2022 released a few weeks ago and comparable revised data for 2012 tell an important story.

They show that, over the past decade, the total population of people in their peak-earning years for the 23 states that have yet to adopt and implement a Right to Work law, barring the termination of employees for refusal to pay dues or fees to an unwanted union as a condition of employment, fell from 43.04 million to 41.45 million.

That represents a 3.8% decline.

But in the 22 states that had Right to Work laws on the books the whole decade from 2012-22, there was an overall increase of 1.48 million!

And the correlation between forced-unionism states and peak-earning-year population decline is quite robust.

Forced-Dues States on Track to Lose 2.2 Million Net Breadwinners This Decade

Among the 46 states that didn’t change their Right to Work status over the past decade, the nine states suffering the most severe peak-earning-year losses in absolute terms are all forced-unionism. (See chart below.) 

Meanwhile the three top-ranking states are all Right to Work.

Had the decline in the 23 states that still don’t have Right to Work today beenonly as severe as  the national average, they would have had roughly 1.29 million more residents in their peak earning years as of 2022.

And from July 2020 to July 2022, the last two years for which age-grouped population data are available, the trend of “foot voting” against forced unionism by people who have families to support has gotten much stronger.

Census figures indicate forced-dues states lost roughly 450,000 “peak earners” to domestic out-migration over this two-year period. If this trend continues, these states are poised to lose another net 2.2 million breadwinners to Right to Work states from 2020-30!

Breadwinners Favor States Where They Can Provide Better For Their Families

“The obvious and correct explanation for this accelerating population shift is that breadwinners, along with their families, are fleeing forced-dues states in droves,” said Mr. Mix.

“Working men and women find again and again that they cannot provide as well for their families in such states as in Right to Work states, with their generally higher real incomes.”

Mr. Mix pointed to a recent analysis by the National Institute for Labor Relations Research, which shows that the average cost of living-adjusted disposable income per capita in Right to Work states last year was $54,465, nearly $2,600 higher than the forced-dues state average:

“No one should be surprised that Right to Work states enjoy a purchasing-power advantage over forced-unionism states equivalent to more than $10,000 a year for a family of four.

“It simply defies common sense to claim that people who get the vast majority of their income from their jobs would lopsidedly favor living in states where they are worse off over states where they are better off.

“Yet that’s effectively what Joe Biden et al. do claim, again and again.

“Moving to another state isn’t something people do lightly. People choosing where to live know their decisions have real consequences, and therefore they generally don’t act without considering all the key facts.

“That’s why we should trust ‘foot voters’ to know what’s best for their families. And they are telling us they are better off in Right to Work states than in forced-unionism states.”

While Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, and other politicians of their ilk appear to be completely incapable of dealing with reality regarding the economic impact of forced unionism and Right to Work, other elected officials have a clear-eyed perspective on labor policy.

Right to Work Committee Is Fighting Back

And with the Committee’s assistance, a number of them are fighting back.

One stellar example is Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), the lead sponsor of his chamber’s version (S.532) of the National Right to Work Act, which would reform federal labor law by removing all provisions that authorize and promote the extraction of forced union dues and fees from employees as a job condition.

On June 21, as Mr. Sanders was preparing to ram the viciously anti-Right to Work “PRO” Act (S.567) through his HELP panel, Mr. Paul brought up and secured a recorded vote on an amendment to substitute the one-page S.532 for the entire power grab.

“While Rand Paul’s amendment was narrowly blocked in the HELP Committee, it offered American voters a clear and compelling alternative to the White House’s tunnel-visioned promotion of monopolistic unionism,” said Mr. Mix.

“I am confident that, if voters have the same choice presented to them in races from the presidency on down in 2024, the Big Labor agenda will not prevail.”

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