Workers Voting With Feet Against Hawley Policies 

Senator Pitches Job-Killing Forced Unionism to GOP Colleagues

Ever since the COVID-19 pandemic — and politicians’ ham-fisted response to it — dealt a cruel blow 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 June confirm that the stampede of breadwinners and their families out of Big Labor’s stronghold states continued in 2023 and 2024, when COVID-19-related restrictions on business activities and school lockdowns were no longer active problems. 

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

Hawley Goal: Deny Pro-Right to Work Voters a Ballot-Box Choice

Unfortunately, virtually all, if not all, Democrat politicians in Washington, D.C., couldn’t care less about that. And an increasingly vocal faction of Inside-the-Beltway Republicans shares their disdain for ordinary citizens’ views regarding labor policy. 

National Right to Work Committee Vice President Greg Mourad commented: 

“Clearly, there is a huge disconnect between union boss-owned Democrats like Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries [both N.Y.] and the vast majority of Americans who get most of their income furnished to them and/ or their loved ones by paychecks from private-sector businesses.

“But the disconnect between rank-and-file workers and pro-union monopoly Republicans like Sen. Josh Hawley [Mo.] is perhaps even more disturbing. 

“Mr. Hawley’s avowed goal is to reconstitute the Republican Party, which is today overwhelmingly supportive of Right to Work, into a party that largely agrees with Democrat politicians’ support for Big Labor special privileges over the individual freedom of the employee. 

“If he gets his way, pro-Right to Work citizens will routinely be denied a meaningful choice at the ballot-box!”

“The reality is, when they have a choice, working-age people prefer not to live in forced-unionism states. U.S. Census Bureau data make that very clear.” 

‘Foot Voting’ Exposes Hollowness of Hawley Rhetoric About What Workers Want

Mr. Mourad continued: “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 yet to adopt and implement a Right to Work law, barring the termination of employees for refusal to pay union dues, fell from 42.28 million to 42.19 million. 

“That represents a 0.2% decline.

“But in the 23 states that had Right to Work laws on the books for the whole decade from 2014-24, there was an overall increase of 2.95 million!” 

The correlation between forced unionism and peak-earning-year population decline is quite robust. 

Among the 46 states that didn’t change their Right to Work status from 2014- 24, eight of the nine states suffering the most severe peak-earning-year losses in percentage terms are forced-unionism. 

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

Had the 23 never-Right to Work states experienced growth equal to the national average, they would have had roughly 1.4 million more residents in their peak-earning years as of 2024.

Breadwinners Favor States Where They Can Provide Better For Their Families

And from July 2020 to July 2024, the last four years for which age-grouped population data are now 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 810,000 “peak earners” to domestic out-migration over this four-year period.

If this trend continues, these states are poised to lose a cumulative net two million breadwinners to Right to Work states from 2020-30!

“The obvious and correct explanation for the 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 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. 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 $61,877, nearly $2,500 higher than the forced-dues state average.

“No one should be surprised,” he said, “that Right to Work states enjoy a purchasing-power advantage over forced-unionism states equivalent to nearly $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 Josh Hawley and other politicians of his ilk do, again and again.” 

Right to Work Committee Is Fighting Back

While Mr. Hawley and the Big Labor Democrats who share his views on key workplace issues 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.

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

As this Newsletter edition goes to press in late July, a total of 125 representatives and senators have signed on to H.R.1232/S.533, otherwise known as the National Right to Work Act. 

This legislation 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. 

“If Mr. Hawley secures a recorded vote on S.844, legislation he is sponsoring that would make it even easier for Big Labor to grab forced-dues privileges over employees, the Committee will seize the opportunity to have S.533 brought up as an amendment,” said Mr. Mourad. 

“I am confident that, if workers and other Americans understand there is a choice between Congress’s authorizing even more forced union dues and abolishing forced union dues, elected officials will get the message that forced-dues abolition is the correct choice.” 

---

This article was originally published in our monthly newsletter. Go here to access previous newsletter posts.

To support our cause and help end forced unionism, go here to

---