Last year marked the first time in U.S. history that a majority of states had right-to-work laws on their books, thanks to West Virginia becoming the 26th.
This year is likely to expand that number even further. Missouri is expected to adopt a version in the coming months, and Kentucky did so over the weekend. There is a good chance that New Hampshire will pass right-to-work as well.
The year “has the makings of a historic year for the fight against forced unionism. We’re not counting any chickens before they hatch, but certainly three new right-to-work states in 2017 is a realistic possibility,” said Patrick Semmens, spokesman for the National Right to Work Committee.
The measures would mark a profound and rapid shift in the nation’s labor movement. As recently as 2012, only 22 states had the laws and all but three of those dated to 1963 or earlier. Even more remarkable is that the recent additions include states such as Indiana, Michigan and Wisconsin, where union power was once dominant.
In the November elections, Alabama residents voted to add their right-to-work measure, which they have had since 1953, to the state constitution, while Virginia voters rejected their referendum.
Right-to-work laws prohibit contracts between unions and management that force all workers to join the union or at least pay it a regular fee. Workers have no choice: they pay or are fired.
The requirements, called “security clauses” by unions, are a regular feature in non-right-to-work states and are key to unions’ financial power. In states that prohibit the practice, unions tend to be much weaker because they have a harder time keeping members.
Unions and most liberals argue the provisions are a matter of fairness since collective bargaining benefits all workers. Conservatives counter that the individual worker should have the right to decide whether he wants to back a union. They also argue that states with right-to-work laws have an easier time attracting and keeping businesses.
Missouri attempted to pass a law in 2015 only to have it vetoed by then-Gov. Jay Nixon, a Democrat. Republican Eric Greitens, who won the November election and is a supporter of right-to-work, will replace Nixon. Greitens will take office with a Republican-led state legislature, so it’s highly likely that a new law will be passed.
In Kentucky, Republicans won control of both houses of the legislature in the fall, and Republican Gov. Matt Bevin called right-to-work one of his “top priorities.” The state House and Senate quickly passed it, and he signed the bill into law over the weekend.
Newly elected New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, also a Republican, told the New Hampshire Union Leader in early December that he was “fairly” confident the state would pass right-to-work legislation that he would sign in 2017, though he conceded he was not certain whether it would cover all workers. The Granite State legislature’s lower house passed a right-to-work bill in 2015 that exempted police and firefighters, but it died in the state senate.
