| Prior to the enactment of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) of 1935, employees were not guaranteed the right to join unions or to have a union collectively bargain for them. The NLRA changed that by requiring employers to negotiate with unions that were properly selected by the majority of their workers. The 1947 Taft-Hartley Act, which amended the NLRA, makes "closed shops," under which employers may only hire union members illegal. The Act allows, however, "union shops," where new employees are required to join a union shortly after their start date. Under a "union shop" model, employees who do not wish to join a union may not pursue jobs with employers that operate under a collective bargaining agreement.
Right-to-Work Laws
Nearly half of the states in the United States have passed some form of law to prevent this result. Tabbed "right-to-work" laws, these statutes generally provide that employees have a right to work, whether or not they join a union. A handful of states have passed constitutional amendments dealing with the issue. Several variations of right-to-work laws exist.
Open Shop Structure
Under most right-to-work statutes, "open shops" are required. Under an open shop structure, employees are free to choose whether or not they wish to join a union. Unions may not require non-membets to pay union fees. In a few "right-to-work" states, an "agency shop" is permitted. Under the agency shop structure, employees are not required to join a union as a condition of their employment; however, they may be required to pay fees to the union for collective bargaining services. These fees are typically less than the standard union dues.
Under an agency shop or an open shop structure, non-union employees are still considered part of a union's bargaining unit. Wages and other working conditions negotiated by the union apply to non-union employees as equally as they apply to union employees. The non-union employees are covered by the collective bargaining agreement protections in the same way as union employees. For this reason, opponents of the agency or open shop structure argue that right-to-work laws allow "freeloading" by the non-union employees. Proponents of right-to-work laws argue that employees who oppose unions and what they stand for should not be required to support them. They contend that it is a civil rights issue. Copyright 2010 LexisNexis, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. |