Right to Work

“Right to work” is the name for a policy designed to take away rights from working people. Backers of right to work laws claim that these laws protect workers against being forced to join a union. The reality is that federal law already makes it illegal to force someone to join a union.

The real purpose of right to work laws is to tilt the balance toward big corporations and further rig the system at the expense of working families. These laws make it harder for working people to form unions and collectively bargain for better wages, benefits and working conditions.

 

36%

Percent higher the average number of discrimination charges the EEOC receives from right to work states.

In our glorious fight for civil rights, we must guard against being fooled by false slogans, such as ‘right to work.’ It is a law to rob us of our civil rights and job rights. Its purpose is to destroy labor unions and collective bargaining...”

  • Martin Luther King Jr.
Did You Know

In “right to work" states, 24% of jobs in 2019 were in low-wage occupations, compared to 14.5% of jobs in other states without right to work laws.

3.1

The percent a worker's pay drops on average when right to work laws are passed.

What We’re Doing

Media Hit

Shuler Discusses the New Wave of Unionization in America (PBS)

We Are America's Unions
Infographic

Right to Work Is Wrong
Speech

Trumka to Massachusetts AFL-CIO Convention: Workers Are Rising

At a time when our politics and our culture wants us isolated and bitter and ready to blame, working people are, instead, turning to each other.
Speech

Trumka: Organizing is the Lifeblood of Unionism

Janus might have sucked the air out of the room for awhile. But now that we’ve put on our own mask, we are ready to assist others. And that starts with going after the 60 million workers who say they would vote to join a union today if given the chance.
Speech

Trumka Highlights Labor's Ascension in Land of Janus

This is the year of the worker. We’re rising together to reject an economy that only works for a handful of elites. We rising together to demand better.