Right-to-work laws make it illegal for unions or employers to compel workers to join a union and financially contribute to the union as a condition of employment. Starting in the 1930s, the federal National Labor Relations Act sanctioned various types of company positions on unionization: closed shops (union membership required), union shop (eventual union membership required), agency shop (union dues but not membership required), and open shop (neither union membership nor dues required). States may individually outlaw union and agency shops, and states that enact such legislation are known as “right-to-work” states. In right-to-work states even if a worker is included within a bargaining unit of a unionized workplace and legally represented by the union, the employee still has an individual choice on whether to join the union and pay dues. Unions, of course, are adverse to right-to-work laws. For example, see the AFL-CIO website article Deceptive Right to Work Laws Hurt Everyone.
Florida was one of the first states with a right-to-work law pursuant to a constitutional provision passed in the 1940s. On January 7, 2017, Kentucky became the 27th right-to-work state. Right-to-work initiatives have picked up steam in recent years with Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, West Virginia, and now Kentucky legislating right-to-work since 2012. As a consequence of Republican victories in November 2016 it is anticipated that more states will climb on the right-to-work bandwagon; such laws are pending in Illinois, Missouri, New Hampshire and New Jersey. The driver for the expansion of right-to-work legislation is economics. Although right-to-work laws do not a bar unionization, industry and business typically view right-to-work states as more favorable economically, believing that there is a better opportunity to avoid unionization and the constraints that typically accompany union contracts.
Whether a political subdivision of a state may enact its own right-to-work law in the absence of state legislation remains an open question, with federal appellate courts split on the issue. Discuss with your Ally Law member firm labor and employment lawyers how right-to-work impacts your business and where your state stands on this seeming legislative trend. For more information about Ally Law member firm services and outstanding lawyers, contact us at team@ally-law.com.
Click here for the original article by John M. Hament of Ally Law member Williams Parker Harrison Dietz & Getzen.
