“Right to Work” laws prohibit an employer from requiring workers to pay union dues as a condition of employment. While many view these laws as something which allows employees to freely choose whether they wish to be a dues-paying union member, organized labor considers them to be an anathema. In a right to work state, employees can be “free riders,” meaning they can be covered by a collective bargaining agreement, but not required to pay for the “benefits” of being covered. Without sufficient dues revenue, it can be hard for labor unions to justify the expense of organizing a workplace.
For decades, right to work states have been concentrated in the South and Mountain West. Recently, however, there has been a trend where states with a long history of powerful labor unions have enacted right to work legislation in an effort to attract business. In the past four years, Indiana, Michigan, and Wisconsin – three states with a rich history of manufacturing and workers represented by labor unions – have passed right to work legislation.
On February 12, 2016, West Virginia took action to become the 26th right to work state when the state legislature overrode the Governor’s veto of S. B. 1. The veto was overturned by a simple majority vote in both chambers ( 18-16 in the Senate and 54-43 in the House). Significantly, Republicans control both chambers in West Virginia for the first time in 80 years.
The new law will take effect on July 1, 2016. While it remains to be seen whether the law succeeds in attracting business to the state, the fact that right to work laws can be passed in such traditional hotbeds of labor has to be of concern to labor unions and their supporters.