We need a National Right to Work Act, making payments to unions voluntary

It’s hard to find agreement on anything in the realm of politics, but polls consistently show that more than eight in 10 Americans support the Right to Work principle — namely, that union dues should always be voluntary.

In a recent survey conducted by the Rasmussen Media Group, 82 percent of registered voters agreed that “workers should never be forced to join a union or pay dues to a union as a condition of employment.”

That includes 79 percent of those who said they are currently members of a union.

Twenty-six states have Right to Work laws, which allow workers to pay union dues if they choose to, but ensure they will never be fired for refusing to give money to union bosses.

These state-by-state Right to Work laws are a great start, but they still leave millions of workers unprotected.

Forced union dues are authorized by language in two federal laws, the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) and the Railway Labor Act (RLA).

The NLRA was amended to give individual states the option to pass Right to Work laws, protecting workers from forced union dues. No such option exists for the RLA, meaning railway and airline workers can be forced to pay union dues even in Right to Work states.

To protect every worker in all 50 states, we need to pass the National Right to Work Act, a bill introduced in the House by Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) and the Senate by Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.).

It’s a one-page bill that doesn’t add a single word to federal law. It simply repeals the forced dues authorization language in the NLRA and the RLA.

The National Right to Work Act would make union financial support strictly voluntary for every worker in America. That’s good news for workers currently trapped under the monopoly control of a union that doesn’t deserve their money.

Seven top union officials from the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers union were indicted in August for embezzling $20 million in workers’ dues money, a scandal that mirrors one that landed several United Autoworkers union bosses in federal prison from 2017 to 2022 and triggered oversight of the union by a federal monitor that will likely last until 2027.

The federal monitor is currently probing allegations that the leadership of the UAW embezzled union money for personal purposes. It should be up to each individual worker to decide whether the union has rebuilt enough trust to deserve a part of their paycheck.

Right to Work states give workers the option to withhold dues from union officials they do not support — non-Right to Work states force them to pay no matter what.

It should come as no surprise that people prefer to live and work in Right to Work states.

In the decade since 2013, forced unionism states lost 2.4 percent of their residents aged 35 to 54, while Right to Work states saw a 5 percent increaseamong that age group in the prime of their working years.

Right to Work states outpace their forced unionism counterparts in almost every aspect of economic growth.

The number of people employed in the private sector has grown at nearly double the rate in Right to Work states compared to forced-unionism states, according to an analysis of government data by the National Institute for Labor Relations Research.

In the critical field of manufacturing, Right to Work states have grown employment nearly five times as fast as their forced-unionism counterparts.  

Right to Work is a simple, popular policy that’s good for the economy and provides vital protections to American workers. It’s time for Congress to make union membership and dues payment voluntary for everyone in the country by passing the National Right to Work Act.

Mark Mix is president of National Right to Work Committee.