‘Right to work’ is a policy failure and a marketing triumph.
“Right to work” sounds like freedom. In practice, it’s a corporate playbook to defund unions, depress wages, and tilt power away from the people who make this country run. The slogan itself sounds as though it embodies “choice”; yet in reality the policy manufactures free riders. These are workers at union locations who benefit from union contracts while paying nothing for the representation that wins them. That oxymoron is the point. It’s not about liberty or freedom or choice - it’s about weakening the only legitimate counterweight ordinary workers have to corporate power = which are unions. Let’s dig into why ‘Right to Work’ is Wrong for Workers.
How Big Business Uses a Myth to Cripple Unions and the Middle Class.
Unions didn’t just negotiate paychecks, they built the modern American middle class. When enough folks organized they turned dangerous, exhausting jobs into careers with living wages, the 8 hour workday, weekends, overtime pay, and safer worksites. Through collective bargaining, workers won health insurance, pensions, and family-sustaining benefits that later became benchmarks even for non-union workplaces. Trade unions also trained generations of skilled workers through apprenticeship programs that fused classroom learning with on-the-job expertise. Literally pouring the concrete, wiring the grids, laying the rails, and assembling the factories that powered U.S. growth. In sectors from construction and auto to public service and education, unions created a ladder of mobility for veterans, immigrants, and working-class families that helped translate productivity into broadly shared prosperity.
‘Right-to-work’ laws undermine that engine. The phrase sounds advantageous to the worker, but in practice these laws let employees benefit from union bargaining without contributing to the cost, draining resources from the very organizations that secure better wages, safer conditions, and due-process protections. Weaker unions mean less leverage at the bargaining table, more precarious work, and a race to the bottom on pay and benefits. Guess who wants these exact outcomes that mainly reward corporate owners and shareholders?
Communities feel it too: fewer apprenticeships, thinner safety training, and less local spending power. Strong unions spread gains across an economy; RTW regimes concentrate them at the top. If we want an America that still builds things and builds broad opportunity, then strengthening workers’ ability to organize and bargain is not nostalgia; it’s a blueprint.
Reality of RTW = Lower Pay | Weaker Benefits | Less Safety
Specifically these laws prohibit union-security clauses in collective bargaining agreements, forcing unions to represent non-members who don’t pay dues. Section 14(b) of the 1947 Taft–Hartley Act explicitly opened the door for states to pass such statutes; business lobbies kicked it wide open. Today, multiple states still enforce right-to-work, though momentum is shifting—Michigan repealed its law in 2023 (effective 2024), the first rollback in decades. Voters in Missouri rejected right-to-work at the ballot box in 2018. These aren’t abstractions; they’re proof that when the public is given a clear choice, they often refuse the anti-union spin.
Decades of evidence show wages are lower in right-to-work states—even for non-union workers—because unions lift standards across entire labor markets. EPI’s research finds pay in RTW states runs about 3% lower, with weaker benefits, controlling for cost of living and worker characteristics. That’s not an accident; it’s the goal of the policy design. Unions’ first line of work is safety—training, enforceable protections, the right to refuse dangerous tasks. When RTW laws shrink unions, workplaces get deadlier. Peer-reviewed studies link RTW adoption to a ~14% increase in occupational mortality, a grim, measurable cost of stripping workers’ collective voice.
The broader project: shrink worker power, swell corporate power
As union density falls, only 9.9% of U.S. workers were union members in 2024, the wage share of the economy sinks, inequality widens, and corporate concentration tightens its grip. RTW is the spear tip: it doesn’t have to ban unions; it only needs to make them poor and outgunned enough to lose. RTW backers pitch “choice” while hiding the reality: unions are legally obligated to represent everyone in a bargaining unit, payer or not. The resulting funding squeeze is precisely what corporations intend. The National Labor Relations Act’s original purpose was to encourage collective bargaining because Congress understood that democracy at work requires organized workers. RTW turns that policy on its head.
The bottom line is that ‘right to work’ is a marketing triumph and a policy failure. An elegantly unethical way for big business to cut workers’ pay, erode safety, and silence collective worker power. All while these same companies are claiming to defend freedom and promote American ideals. Folks are starting to know better. When given the chance at the ballot box in Missouri, in the legislature in Michigan - they’ve moved to restore balance. If we want a middle class worthy of the name, we must retire the myth, rebuild worker power, and make the economy answer to the people who create its value.
What a pro-worker alternative looks like
1) Repeal right-to-work and restore union-security options. Let workers and employers bargain lawful agreements without state-mandated free riding. Michigan’s repeal shows it’s possible.
2) Make organizing fast, fair, and free from retaliation. Modernize the NLRA with card-check/majority sign-up, meaningful penalties for union-busting, and first-contract arbitration to stop delay tactics. (The NLRA’s purpose is explicit: to foster collective bargaining.)
3) Protect the public sector’s voice. After Janus, states can still facilitate stable funding via easy opt-in systems, regular re-enrollment windows, and access rules that ensure workers hear both sides—not just the employer’s.
4) Lift standards for all with sectoral tools. Wage boards and pattern agreements prevent “race to the bottom” competition on pay and safety—precisely the race RTW was designed to accelerate.
5) Tie public dollars to worker outcomes. No subsidies, tax credits, or contracts without neutrality agreements, living-wage standards, apprenticeship pipelines, and safety metrics.
6) Tell the truth about the bargain. Strong unions don’t just win raises for members; they set floor standards that benefit non-union workers and communities—higher pay, better benefits, safer workplaces. That’s why anti-union money fights so hard to keep unions weak.
North Carolina Snapshot for 2025
Status: North Carolina is a statutory right-to-work (RTW) state (since 1947). Key provisions are in N.C. Gen. Stat. §95-78 et seq. (Article 10). Public sector: Collective-bargaining contracts with public-employee unions are illegal under G.S. §95-98.
Union density: 2.4% in 2024—the lowest rate in the nation (U.S. average 9.9%).
Ballot route: North Carolina has no statewide citizen initiative or referendum; statutory or constitutional change must run through the General Assembly.
Why it matters?
Lower pay in RTW states: Peer-reviewed EPI research finds wages in RTW states are about 3.1% lower—about $1,558 less per year for a typical full-time worker—even after controlling for cost of living, demographics, and industry mix.
Coverage effects: With unions scarce (2.4%), NC workers capture fewer spillover gains (higher wage floors, safer worksites, better benefits) that union presence typically delivers to union and non-union workers alike.
What has to change?
Repeal or amend RTW statute: Modify Article 10 (G.S. §95-78—§95-83) to permit union-security clauses by mutual agreement—ending mandated free-riding. (Simple bill; majority vote; governor signature.)
Restore public-sector bargaining: Repeal G.S. §95-98 to allow cities, counties, and the state to negotiate binding contracts on wages, staffing, and safety. (Precedent bills have been filed in prior sessions.) No citizen initiative: Strategy must be legislative (committee path + floor votes) rather than ballot-driven.
Economic case for NC
Wages: Closing a ~3.1% RTW pay gap would lift incomes across regions—from Charlotte and the Triangle to rural counties—without raising public outlays. Workforce quality: Apprenticeship-based agreements reduce turnover and injuries; employers get reliable staffing and productivity gains.
Tax base & Main Street: Higher pay and reduced wage theft boost local spending and stabilize small-business demand. Public services: Allowing public-sector bargaining is the fastest route to solve vacancies in teaching, nursing, EMS, corrections, and child welfare.
Sources:
AACCNational Labor Relations Board
BMJ Open Employment MedicineDuke University Press