by Mark Mix
Any successful business enterprise has to earn their customers’ trust every day. That’s how it should be.
But labor union officials think it’s too much trouble to try and earn the trust of workers they claim to represent. They want to gut Virginia’s longstanding Right to Work Law so that they can force every worker to pay union dues and fees to them or be fired.
The fact is, good unions don’t need to raise money by threatening the jobs of the workers they represent. They can attract members like every other voluntary organization does.
The only unions that need forced-dues powers are the ones that spend their money promoting political agendas that are loathsome to their own members or waste it on a limousine lifestyle for union bosses. Not only are compulsory dues unjust, but they’re also horribly destructive to jobs and the economy.
Michigan just learned that lesson painfully. Michigan’s Right to Work repeal took effect last year, and all 83 counties in that state saw their unemployment rates rise in a year when the country as a whole added two million jobs. By contrast, Virginia’s long history as a Right to Work state has helped us secure CNBC’s rating as the Best State for Business in the entire country three of the last six years.
Just compare our achievements with the neighboring state of Maryland: According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, employment over the last decade has grown almost twice as fast in Virginia as it has in Maryland.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Commerce found that in 2023 the average Virginian’s cost of living-adjusted disposable income was $7,784 higher than that of the average Marylander.
Rather than building on the success Virginia has enjoyed, many Virginia Democrats want to follow the example of forced-unionism states like Maryland that have utterly failed their working class citizens. Or, like Abigail Spanberger, they try to obfuscate, hiding their support for forced union dues under the guise of “reform.”
Neither Spanberger nor any other Democrat candidates running for the General Assembly have been willing to unequivocally pledge their support for Virginia’s Right to Work Law. That is utterly unacceptable.
Right to Work used to be a bipartisan issue here in Virginia.
It’s disappointing that the Democratic candidates in this year’s elections have refused to stand up to Big Labor, even if that means discarding the most basic protections for workers and sabotaging the sound economic policies that have made Virginia more successful than our less-prudent northern neighbor. Whatever differences Virginians have on other issues, we need to make it clear that we expect both parties to respect the right of workers to join a union or not to join. Virginia needs our elected officials to make it easier for Virginians to get jobs, not harder.
Virginians should expect that politicians won’t torpedo our state’s economy just because union fat cats demanded it.
Just like every businessperson must earn the trust of customers, union officials should have to earn the trust of their members. Our politicians also have to earn the trust of their constituents. If Abigail Spanberger and her fellow Democrat candidates are serious about earning Virginians’ trust, they should ignore their union boss benefactors and tell voters clearly that if they’re elected, they won’t mess with our Right to Work.
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Mark Mix is the president of the National Right to Work Committee.
