The right to work without being required to pay dues to a labor union is one of the basic rights Americans enjoy. Or it should be.
But federal laws still allow compulsory unionism, which violates that basic right. The National Labor Re-la-tions Act authorizes private-sector contracts forcing employees to pay union dues as a condition of em-ploy-ment.Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, is joining 37 other members of Congress to co-sponsor a bill to repeal the federal law. It's long overdue.
Some states have passed laws overriding the federal policy, and those states are prospering. Residents of all states should have the same right, guaranteed by federal law. The National Right to Work Act of 1995 would do that.
According to the U.S. Labor Department, between 1960 and 1993 the 29 states subject to federally imposed forced union dues lost 10.6 percent - 1.36 million - of their high-paying manufacturing jobs.
During the same period, the right-to-work states (Utah is one of them) had a 77.6 percent increase in new high-wage manufacturing jobs. Average per capita income, adjusted for cost of living, is almost $1,100 higher in right-to-work states. Compulsory unionism is a negative factor when companies decide where to expand or relocate their operations.
Requiring employees to pay union dues when they have no interest in being a member of the union is simply unfair. Organized labor spends millions of dollars in dues - often demanded from unwilling workers - on campaigns of politicians who in turn support pro-union legislation.
Workers, then, are forced to pay dues and as a result are further forced to subsidize candidates and causes they do not always support.
Workers have long been abandoning unions - and for good reasons. Some unions have a history of corruption and scandal. Union policies - including the forced payment of dues - rankle today's workers who are more independent and better-educated than workers who made unions strong more than 50 years ago.
Since the early 1950s, union membership has dropped from 35 percent of the work force to less than 20 percent, and many of those are forced into membership.
For decades polls have shown Americans believe it is wrong to force an employee to pay union dues in order to work. A 1995 survey shows 76.6 percent oppose laws allowing forced unionism. Support for forced union dues comes mainly from labor unions and Congress members who receive large campaign donations from unions.
Employees should be free to join labor unions but must not be required to do so as a condition of getting work. It only makes sense in a nation where freedom is a basic value.