Officials sound off on Right to Work Laws.
Dr. Richard Vedder, a professor emeritus of Economics at Ohio University, recently published a study he says shows Ohio should pass a Right to Work Law, similar to Senate Bill 5.
With midterm elections this fall, Vedder predicts Ohio voters will have to decide on a Right to Work law in 2015. Such a law would effectively keep public employees from joining a union or severely prohibit them from doing so. The law would keep employers and/or labor unions in the public sector from denying non-union workers employment.
“The totality of the federal and state (Right to Work) laws I think, to sum it up, are very neutral towards unions,” said Vedder, a nationally recognized conservative economist who routinely studies trends in higher education and advises political officials. “Right to Work on the whole has a positive effect on the whole economy.”
In 2011, Ohio Gov. John Kasich and the state Republican Party enacted a Right to Work law — through Senate Bill 5 — but the law was overturned by voters in a referendum. “With both our neighbors (Indiana and Michigan) recently adopting Right to Work, it is inevitable for Ohio to pass the same thing,” said Vedder, who worked on Indiana’s legislation. “The trend is in the direction.”
Vedder’s study says, nationally, people working in states with Right to Work laws get paid an average of $3,000 more annually than in states without those laws. Overall, Vedder argues these laws generate higher economic growth in states that enact them.
Sebastien Adams, a senior studying aviation management and a member of OU’s College Republicans, said, “My father was a commercial pilot for Delta Airlines and he had first hand experience with unions. He told me that unions often got in the way and that if a company truly treats their workers well there is no need for a union.”
Tori England, a senior studying education and a member of OU’s College Democrats, said she thinks Right to Work laws ultimately hurt unions, in turn hurting employees and their families. “Unions still make up a significant part of the American workforce,” said England. “We can't just pass laws that could potentially hurt those who work hard for their families to support them.”
As of this year, there are currently only 24 states with Right to Work laws in place, Vedder said. Most of them were enacted after a 1945 federal law made it illegal to be forced to join a union, but within the past two years, Indiana and Michigan were recent states that passed Right to Work legislation.
According to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2013, 35.3 percent of public sector workers were members of unions, more than six times the number of private workers.
“In time, I wouldn't be surprised if it comes to a showdown in Ohio,” said Vedder. “It will possibly be brought up next year after the midterms, and will most likely pass, setting up for a battle that the unions have no choice but to fight.”
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