Workers Voting With Feet Against Harris Policies 

Nominee Trumpets Support For Forced Unionism as Millions Flee It

Ever since the COVID-19 pandemic — and politicians’ ham-fisted response to it — dealt a cruel shock to employees and businesses in early 2020, working-age Americans have been fleeing states where their Right to Work isn’t protected in greater numbers than ever before. 

Data released by the U.S. Census Bureau this summer confirm that the stampede of breadwinners and their families out of Big Labor’s stronghold states continued in 2022 and 2023, when COVID-19-related restrictions on business activities and school lockdowns were already mostly in the past. 

More than ever before, American employees’ “foot voting” is demonstrating they strongly prefer Right to Work over forced unionism. 

Forced-Dues Propaganda Downplays or Ignores Regional Cost-of-Living Differences 

Unfortunately, politicians like Vice President and 2024 Democrat presidential standard-bearer Kamala Harris couldn’t care less about that. National Right to Work Committee Vice President Greg Mourad commented: 

“Clearly, there is a huge disconnect between union boss-owned politicians like Ms. Harris and her running mate this fall, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, and the  majority of Americans who get most of their income from paychecks furnished to them and/or their loved ones by private sector businesses.” 

Mr. Mourad explained: “Just as the Biden-Harris Administration has done for years, the Harris-Walz ticket is trying to justify its support for legislation corralling millions of additional workers into monopolistic unions by loudly claiming that doing so would somehow make those workers more prosperous. 

“Ms. Harris, Mr. Walz, and their campaign propagandists are trying to fool citizens into believing this claim is correct by grossly understating, or altogether ‘forgetting’ about, regional cost-of-living differences when speechifying about 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.” 

‘Foot Voting’ Exposes Hollowness of Harris Campaign Messaging 

“But the fact is,” continued Mr. Mourad, “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.” 

Considered together, Census age-grouped state population data for 2023 released this June and comparable revised data for 2013 tell an important story. 

They show that, over the past decade, the total population of people in their peak-earning years (aged 35-54) for the 23 states that have never adopted and implemented a Right to Work law, barring the termination of employees for refusal to pay union dues, fell from 42.66 million to 41.62 million. 

That represents a 2.4% decline. 

But in the 24 states that had Right to Work laws on the books the whole decade from 2013-23, there was an overall increase of 1.92 million! 

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

Among the 47 states that didn’t change their Right to Work status between 2013 and 2023, four of the five states suffering the most severe peak-earning-year population losses in percentage terms are forced-unionism. Meanwhile, the three top-ranking states are all Right to Work. 

Had the peak-earning-year population in the 23 never-Right to Work states risen as much as the national average, they would have had roughly 1.4 million more such residents as of 2023. 

Breadwinners Favor States Where They Can Provide Better For Their Families

And from July 2020 to July 2023, the last three 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 658,000 “peak earners” to domestic out-migration over this three 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 to 2030! 

“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. Mourad. 

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

Mr. Mourad 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 $59,329, over $2,800 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 $11,000 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 Kamala Harris et al. do claim, again and again.” 

Right to Work Committee Is Fighting Back 

While Big Labor politicians like Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, and Tim Walz appear to be completely incapable of dealing with reality regarding the economic impact of forced unionism and Right to Work, more and more other public officials have come to see the light on labor policy.

Prompted primarily by persistent requests from pro-Right to Work citizens of the states and congressional districts in which they are seeking office, well over 200 U.S. Senate and House candidates on the ballot this November have cosponsored or pledged support for federal forced-dues repeal legislation. 

Regardless of what their past records, if any, on labor policy are, federal candidates across the country are feeling the pressure this year to support Right to Work thanks to the Committee’s Survey 2024. This program asks politicians to take a clear stance against compulsory unionism and mobilizes ordinary citizens to sway them to do so. 

“Thanks to Survey 2024, most American voters have before them a clear and compelling alternative to the Biden Harris-Walz squad’s tunnel-visioned promotion of monopolistic unionism,” said Mr. Mourad. 

“Survey 2024’s goal is to ensure all citizens have at least one clearly pro-Right to Work choice when they cast their votes for every office, from the presidency on down. The closer we come to achieving that goal, the lower the odds that Big Labor’s agenda will prevail.”

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