This document summarizes the history of labor laws in the United States regarding union membership. It discusses the Wagner Act of 1935, which initially allowed for compulsory union membership but did not protect the right to not join a union. The Taft-Hartley Act of 1947 attempted to address this by adding language affirming the right to refrain from union activities, but still permitted compulsory union agreements. The document argues that compulsory union membership violates freedom of association. It also compares economic growth in right-to-work states that prohibit compulsory membership to other states, finding right-to-work states have seen faster growth.

1. A Publication of Hillsdale College
Imprimis Over 1,900,000 Reader s Monthly
May/June 2011 • Volume 40, Number 5/6
The Right to Work:
A Fundamental Freedom
Mark Mix
President, National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation
Mark Mix is president of the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation,
as well as of the National Right to Work Committee, a 2.2 million
member public policy organization. He holds a B.A. in finance from
James Madison University and an associate’s degree in marketing
from the State University of New York. His writings have appeared
in such newspapers and magazines as the Wall Street Journal, the
Washington Times, the Detroit Free Press, the San Antonio Express-
News, the Orange County Register and National Review.
The following is adapted from a lecture delivered at Hillsdale College on January 31, 2011,
during a conference co-sponsored by the Center for Constructive Alternatives and the
Ludwig von Mises Lecture Series.
Boeing is a great American company. Recently it has built a second production
line—its other is in Washington State—in South Carolina for its 787 Dreamliner
airplane, creating 1,000 jobs there so far. Who knows what factors led to its decision
to do this? As with all such business decisions, there were many. But the National
Labor Relations Board (NLRB)—a five-member agency created in 1935 by the Wagner
Act (about which I will speak momentarily)—has taken exception to this decision,
ultimately based on the fact that South Carolina is a right-to-work state. That is, South
Carolina, like 21 other states today, protects a worker’s right not only to join a union,
but also to make the choice not to join or financially support a union. Washington
State does not. The general counsel of the NLRB, on behalf of the International
Association of Machinists union, has issued a complaint against Boeing, which, if
successful, would require it to move its South Carolina operation back to Washington
State. This would represent an unprecedented act of intervention by the federal
government that appears, on its face, un-American. But it is an act long in the making,
and boils down to a fundamental misunderstanding of freedom.
Where does this story begin?
hill sdale.edu

2. Hillsdale College: Pursuing Truth • Defending Libert y since 1844
The Wagner Act and clear principle that the freedom to associ-
Taft-Hartley ate necessarily includes the freedom not
to associate. In other words, the Wagner
In 1935, Congress passed and President Act didn’t protect the freedom of work-
Franklin Roosevelt signed into law the ers because it didn’t allow for them to
National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), decide against union membership. To
commonly referred to as the Wagner be sure, the Wagner Act left states the
Act after its Senate sponsor, New York prerogative to protect employees from
Democrat Robert Wagner. Section 7 of compulsory union membership. But fed-
the Wagner Act states: eral law was decidedly one-sided: Firing
or refusing to hire a worker because he
Employees shall have the right to or she had joined a union was a federal
self-organization, to form, join, crime, whereas firing or refusing to hire
or assist labor organizations, to a worker for not joining a union with
bargain collectively through rep- “exclusive” bargaining privileges was
resentatives of their own choosing, federally protected. The National Labor
and to engage in other concerted Relations Board was created by the
activities for the purpose of collec- Wagner Act to enforce these policies.
tive bargaining or other mutual aid During World War II, FDR’s War
or protection. Labor Board aggressively promoted com-
pulsory union membership. By the end
Union officials such as William of the war, the vast majority of unionized
Green, president of the American workers in America were covered by con-
Federation of Labor (AFL), and John tracts requiring them to belong to a union
L. Lewis, prin- in order to keep their
cipal founder −´ jobs. But Americans
Imprimis (im-pri-mis),
of the Congress [Latin]: in the first place were coming to see
of Industrial compulsory union
Editor
Organizations (CIO), Douglas A. Jeffrey membership—euphe-
hailed this legisla- Deputy Editor mistically referred to
tion at the time as Timothy W. Caspar as “union security”—as
Copy Editors
the “Magna Carta Emily Thiessen a violation of the free-
of Labor.” But in Monica VanDerWeide dom of association.
fact it was far from a Art Director
Angela Lashaway
Furthermore, the non-
charter of liberty for Marketing Director chalance with which
working Americans. Fred Hadra union bosses like John
Section 8(3) of the Production Manager
Lucinda Grimm
L. Lewis paralyzed
Wagner Act allowed Circulation Manager the economy by call-
for “agreements” Wanda Oxenger ing employees out on
between employ- Staff Assistants
Robin Curtis
strike in 1946 hard-
ers and officers of Kim Ellsworth ened public support
Kathy Smith
a union requiring Mary Jo Von Ewegen for the right to work as
union membership opposed to compulsory
“as a condition of Copyright © 2011 Hillsdale College unionism. As Gilbert
The opinions expressed in Imprimis are not
employment” if the necessarily the views of Hillsdale College. J. Gall, a staunch pro-
union was certi- Permission to reprint in whole or in part is ponent of the latter,
hereby granted, provided the following credit
fied or recognized line is used: “Reprinted by permission from acknowledged in a
as the employees’ Imprimis, a publication of Hillsdale College.” monograph chroni-
Subscription free upon request.
“exclusive” bargain- cling legislative battles
ISSN 0277-8432
ing agent on matters Imprimis trademark registered in U.S. over this issue from
of pay, benefits, and Patent and Trademark Office #1563325. the 1940s on, “the huge
work rules. On its post-war strike wave
face, this violates the and other problems of
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3. May/June 2011 • Volume 40, Number 5/6 hillsdale.edu
reconversion gave an added impetus to
right-to-work proposals.” An audio version of Imprimis
When dozens of senators and con- is available online at
gressmen who backed compulsory hillsdale.edu/imprimis
unionism were ousted in the 1946 elec-
tion, the new Republican leaders of
Congress had a clear opportunity to But they could still be forced to join, on
curb the legal power of union bosses to threat of being fired, within a few weeks
force workers to join unions. Instead, after starting on the job.
they opted for a compromise that they
thought would have enough congres-
sional support to override a presidential Boeing’s Interest,
veto by President Truman. Thus Section and Ours
7 of the revised National Labor Relations
Act of 1947—commonly referred to as It cannot be overemphasized that com-
the Taft-Hartley Act—only appears at pulsory unionism violates the first princi-
first to represent an improvement over ple of the original labor union movement
Section 7 of the Wagner Act. It begins: in America. Samuel Gompers, founder
and first president of the AFL, wrote
Employees shall have the right to that the labor movement was “based
self-organization, to form, join, upon the recognition of the sovereignty
or assist labor organizations, to of the worker.” Officers of the AFL, he
bargain collectively through rep- explained in the American Federationist,
resentatives of their own choosing, can “suggest” or “recommend,” but they
and to engage in other concerted “can not command one man in America
activities for the purpose of collec- to do anything.” He continued: “Under
tive bargaining or other mutual aid no circumstances can they say, ‘you
or protection, and shall also have must do so and so,’ or, ‘you must desist
the right to refrain from any and all from doing so and so.’” In a series of
such activities. . . . Federationist editorials published during
World War I, Gompers opposed various
Had this sentence ended there, government mandate measures being
forced union membership would have considered in the capitals of industrial
been prohibited, and at the same time states like Massachusetts and New York
voluntary union membership would have that would have mandated certain provi-
remained protected. Unfortunately, the sions for manual laborers and other select
sentence continued: groups of workers:
…except to the extent that such The workers of America adhere to
right may be affected by an agree- voluntary institutions in preference
ment requiring membership in a to compulsory systems which are
labor organization as a condition of held to be not only impractical but a
employment as authorized in sec- menace to their rights, welfare and
tion 158(a)(3) of this title. their liberty.
This qualification, placing federal
policy firmly on the side of compulsory This argument applies as much to
union membership, left workers little compulsory unionism—or “union
better off than they were under the security”—as to the opposite idea that
Wagner Act. Elsewhere, Taft-Hartley unions should be prohibited. And in
did, for the most part, prohibit “closed a December 1918 address before the
shop” arrangements that forced work- Council on Foreign Relations, Gompers
ers to join a union before being hired. made this point explicitly:
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There may be here and there a worker Employees International Union, was even
who for certain reasons unexplain- more blunt. When it comes to union
able to us does not join a union of organizing campaigns, he told the Wall
labor. This is his right no matter how Street Journal, “We don’t do elections.”
morally wrong he may be. It is his Under a decades-old political com-
legal right and no one can dare ques- promise, federal labor policies promoting
tion his exercise of that legal right. compulsory unionism persist side by side
with the ability of states to curb such com-
Compare Gompers’s traditional pulsion with right-to-work laws. So far, as
American view of freedom to the con- I said, 22 states have done so. And when
temptuous view toward workers of labor we compare and contrast the economic
leaders today. Here is United Food and performance in these 22 states against
Commercial Workers union strategist Joe the others, we find interesting things.
Crump advising union organizers in a For example, from 1999 to 2009 (the last
1991 trade journal article: “Employees are such year for which data are available), the
complex and unpredictable. Employers aggregate real all-industry GDP of the 22
are simple and predictable. Organize right-to-work states grew by 24.2 percent,
employers, not employees.” And in nearly 40 percent more than the gain reg-
2005, Mike Fishman, head of the Service istered by the other 28 states as a group.
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5. MAY/JUNE 2011 • VOLUME 40, NUMBER 5/6 hillsdale.edu
Even more dramatic is the contrast if ago: “We have the ability, in a sense, to
we look at personal income growth. From elect our own boss.”
2000 to 2010, real personal incomes grew How this works is simple, and explains
by an average of 24.3 percent in the 22 the inordinate power of union officials
right-to-work states, more than double in so many states that have not adopted
the rate for the other 28 as a group. But right-to-work laws. Union officials funnel
the strongest indicator is the migration a huge portion of the compulsory dues and
of young adults. In 2009, there were 20 fees they collect into efforts to influence the
percent more 25- to 34-year-olds in right- outcomes of elections. In return, elected
to-work states than in 1999. In the com- officials are afraid to anger them even in
pulsory union states, the increase was only the face of financial crisis. This explains
3.3 percent—barely one-sixth as much. why states with the heaviest tax burdens
In this context, the decision by Boeing and the greatest long-term fiscal imbal-
to open a plant in South Carolina may be ances (in many cases due to bloated public
not only in its own best interest, but in employee pension funds) are those with
ours as well. So in whose interest is the the most unionized government work-
National Labor Relations Board acting? forces. California, Illinois, Massachusetts,
And more importantly, with a view to Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, New York,
what understanding of freedom? Ohio and Wisconsin represent the worst
default risks among the 50 states. In 2010,
Public Sector an average of 59.2 percent of the public
employees in these nine worst default-risk
Unionism states were unionized, 19.2 percentage
points higher than the national average
As more and more workers and businesses of 40 percent. All of these states except
have obtained refuge from compulsory Nevada authorize compulsory union dues
unionism in right-to-work states in recent and fees in the public sector.
decades, the rationality of the free market
has been showing itself. But the public sec- ***
tor is another and a grimmer story. Fortunately, there are signs that
The National Labor Relations Act taxpayers are recognizing the negative
affects only private-sector workers. Since consequences of compulsory unionism
the 1960s, however, 21 states have enacted in the public sector. Just this March, leg-
laws authorizing the collection of forced islatures in Wisconsin and Ohio revoked
union dues from at least some state and compulsory powers of government union
local public employees. More than a dozen bosses, and similar efforts are underway
additional states have granted union in several other states. Furthermore,
officials the monopoly power to speak the NLRB’s blatantly political and un-
for all government workers whether they constitutional power play with regard to
consent to this or not. Thus today, govern- Boeing’s South Carolina production line
ment workers are more than five times is sure to strike fair-minded Americans
as likely to be unionized as private sector as beyond the pale. Now more than ever,
workers. This represents a great danger it is time to push home the point that
for taxpayers and all American work-
consumers of govern- ers in all 50 states
ment services. For as should be granted
Victor Gotbaum, head the full freedom of
of the Manhattan- association—which
did yOu knOW?
based District 37 of the includes the freedom
two hundr e d eight y-si x s tudent s
American Federation graduated from hillsdale college on not to associate—in
of State, County and May 14. author and journalist Mark the area of union
helprin delivered the commencement
Municipal Employees address, entitled “churchill and the membership. I
union, said 36 years Presidency.” this address can be viewed
online at hillsdale.edu/helprin.
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