Right to Work is the debate over whether or not an individual can be forced to join, or pay dues, to a company’s labor union in order to work at said company. Many believe that a company should not be able to force an individual to pay or join their organization, just to get a job there. Proponents of Right to Work laws contend that these laws lead to higher wages, create jobs by attracting businesses, improve union accountability, and are morally right because they stop people from having to support a cause in which they do not believe. Opponents of Right to Work laws contend the laws lead to lower wages, hurt unions, lower people’s standards of living, and are morally wrong, because they allow people to receive union representation without paying for it.

Right To Work The Taft-Hartly Act of 1947 is what started most states to adopt the Right to Work laws we see today. There are currently 24 states that have become Right to Work. The Taftt-Hartley Act was enacted in response to the belief that the pro-union Wagner Act of 1935 gave unions too much power. The Wagner Act gave and still gives unions the power of exclusive representation, which allows them to act as the voice of all of a company’s employees if the union can get more than fifty percent of the employees to vote for a union. After a union gains the power of exclusive representation they will often persuade employers to include union security clauses in their collective bargaining agreements.