Workers need to question whether right to work laws arepromoting their rights or stripping them away

In March, Wisconsin controversially became the 25th state to adopt ‘right to work’ legislation which bans unions from collecting dues from non-unionized workers. Jonathan E. Booth looks at the history and background of right to work laws, which are often framed by those who support them as being pro-job and pro-growth. He argues that the evidence to support these claims is largely spurious, and that politicians, such as Wisconsin’s Governor, Scott Walker, have tended to use right to work laws in order to further their own political aspirations by weakening unions’ political power.