Right-to-work states do not have policies and laws that compel employees to be members of a labor union (Eren & Ozbeklik, 2015). In essence, individuals who are in a unionized workplace have the sole discretion to join or not to join the union. Also, employees are not expected to pay dues to the labor unions. Further, an employer does not have the jurisdiction of firing a worker for canceling their (worker) union membership.
Nevertheless, such employees have a right to fair representation in the union. Eren and Ozbeklik (2015) assert that right-to-work states do not support policies and laws that discriminate against non-union members. Instead, the states champion for such employees to be represented under the “bargaining unit” factor. The concept implies that non-union members share a workplace, roles, working hours, and even conditions with their counterparts in the organization’s union.
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"Policies and Laws that May not Apply in Right-To-Work States".
Despite the merits enjoyed by employees in right-to-work states, the individuals do not have full financial immunity. According to Eren and Ozbeklik (2015), non-union members may have to pay a certain amount for representation in cases such as dispute over wages. The scholars note that the federal law has a provision that allows union officials to exploit the compulsory union representation. The officials take advantage of the legal provision to demand payment from employees, even in right-to-work states, even if the workers did not seek for such representation. Such policies and laws call for a review of maximizing employees’ independent decision-making in right-to-work states.
All in all, other factors such as religious beliefs may give non-union members some level of financial immunity. Fundamentally, if one’s religious beliefs hinder them from paying any dues to the union, regardless of the factor of representation, the individual is at liberty not to make any payments.
- Eren, O., & Ozbeklik, S. (2015). What Do Right‐to‐Work Laws Do? Evidence from a Synthetic Control Method Analysis. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 35(1), 173-194. doi:10.1002/pam.21861
