Unions have greater difficulty organizing and maintaining power in “right-to-work” states because those states bar unions from collecting dues from workers they represent in front of management. Right-to-work states, which are almost all outside the pro-union Northeast and West Coast, have wages that are, on average, 3.1% lower than pro-union states, according to a 2015 study by the liberal Economic Policy Institute. Virginia, where elections earlier this month handed Democrats unified control of the state government, gets particularly low marks when it comes to workers’ rights. Jennifer Carroll Foy (D), a public defender representing the outermost suburbs of Northern Virginia, still hopes to pass legislation overturning the right-to-work law. To those familiar with Northam, a business-friendly physician who says he voted twice for President George W. Bush, Monday’s indication that he would not rescind the state’s right-to-work law was not altogether surprising.

Source: Huffington Post November 26, 2019 21:22 UTC