Question of the Month
February
2003
What states in the
Midwestern region have right-to-work legislation?
Five Midwestern states — North
Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas
and Iowa — have right-to-work laws that date
primarily from the 1940s and 1950s. South Dakota, Nebraska and Kansas
adopted constitutional amendments that conferred right-to-work status,
while Iowa and North Dakota adopted legislative statutes to that
effect. In Indiana, right-to-work laws since 1995 have applied
to school workers, but not to other public- and private-sector
workers. The remaining five Midwestern states — Illinois,
Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin and
Minnesota — have no right-to-work laws.
In 22 states nationwide, statutory
legislation or popular referenda have created right-to-work laws.
Opponents of such measures often dub them
"right-to-work-for-less" laws. By prohibiting employers and
unions from negotiating a union security agreement, which requires
workers to pay union dues, these laws weaken unions and lower wages,
opponents argue. Proponents, though, say right-to-work laws
appropriately shield workers in unionized industries from compulsory
union membership, adding that the measures stimulate business
investment and encourage flexible labor policies.
Many of the states that lack
right-to-work legislation have pro-union constitutional language that
could be overturned only by a legislative supermajority or popular
referendum. In other states, heavily unionized workforces (and union
leadership) have kept right-to-work bills from succeeding in the
legislature.
In 2001, Oklahoma became the first
state since Idaho in 1985 to adopt right-to-work laws. Oklahoma voters
approved a constitutional amendment with right-to-work language by a
54 percent to 46 percent margin after a fierce advertising campaign
often described as a proxy war between entrenched business and labor
interests. The effort emboldened right-to-work activists elsewhere,
who have promised more such campaigns in other regions of the country.
More information on this issue is available on the Web sites of the
National Right to Work National Legal Defense Foundation (www.nrtw.org)
and the Center for Policy Alternatives (www.cfpa.org).
For
more information on this or any other public policy issue, please call
630-925-1922 or complete the online
form for research services.
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