As Americans celebrate Labor Day this weekend, workers should be thinking about the right to work without being forced into a union, a leader of the right-to-work movement said.
"Labor Day union officials try to say that Labor Day is all about union workers and big labor," National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation President Mark Mix told Fox News. "That's not true. Labor Day is a day to celebrate the American workforce."
Mix believes support for the right-to-work, or the ability to opt out of a union, is on the rise despite a recent setback in Michigan. He said it's more appropriate to celebrate workers’ freedoms than big unions this Labor Day.
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Currently, 27 states and Guam have active right-to-work laws that allow workers to opt out of union membership. The cohort will lose a member in March 2024 when Michigan’s right-to-work repeal takes effect. In the remaining states, laws vary, but most can force workers to pay dues as a condition of employment in the private sector.
Opponents to right-to-work argue that those laws weaken unions and hinder benefits for workers.
"We believe that every worker must have the right to join a union and that right should be protected, but we also believe that no worker should be compelled as a condition of employment to pay union dues or fees just to get or keep a job," Mix said.
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"I think we're gaining momentum," he added. "I think the idea of forcing workers to pay union dues or fees in order to work is an antiquated antique of the 1930s."
The history of right-to-work begins in 1947 with the passage of the Taft-Hartley Act, which allowed states to enact right-to-work legislation.
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"This law was in response to a 1935 law that passed under the Roosevelt administration that gave union officials dramatic powers over individual workers," Mix said. "They tried to balance that power."
"They didn't really balance it at all, but what they did do is they allowed states to get out from under the federal jurisdiction of forced unionism," he continued.
The United States had a union workforce of about 14.3 million dedicated wage and salary earners in 2022, constituting approximately 10.1% of the total labor force, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This marks a decline from 2000, when union membership was over 16.3 million.
Four states have adopted right-to-work laws over the past 11 years: Indiana in 2012, Wisconsin in 2015, West Virginia in 2016 and Kentucky in 2017. Tennessee and Alabama also amended their constitutions in 2022 and 2016, respectively, to include right-to-work even though they already had laws on the books.
A 2022 Gallup poll found that 58% of non-union workers said they are "not interested at all" in joining a union, while 11% said they are "extremely interested." It also showed that 71% of Americans approve of labor unions — the highest since 1965.
"Labor Day is a day to remind individual employees and employees across the nation that no organization should be able to force them to join them," Mix said.
