Any day now, Illinois will be surrounded by right-to-work states. The Missouri governor is expected to make his state the sixth to adopt such a law in the last few years.
Right-to-work means even if employees get the pay and benefits of a union contract, they don’t have to pay union dues.
What does that mean for the economy in big labor states that become right-to-work? The experts say … they don’t know.
Gary Burtless is a labor economist at the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC. He says you find weaker unions where there are right-to-work laws -- but it’s not clear which leads to which.
“Whether they’re weaker because they were weaker to begin with, and the right-to-work law just is the proof that they’re weak politically as well as economically weak is the question.”
The political ramifications are more cut and dry. Unions are among the main financial backers of the Democratic Party.
