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Right to Work

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Right to work (RTW) is one of the controversial topics in the history of American labour legislation, which was commenced by the Taft-Hartley act of 1947. Supporters of RTW laws believe worker's freedom is ensured through this legislation, on the other hand opponents of this law believe they are fighting for the lifeblood movement of labour union (Kovach, 1977). Till to date, 23 states of U.S. have adopted RTW laws, whereas other state's legislature (i.e Ohio, Michugan and New Hampshire) debate on this law (Collins, 2012). Since RTW has created different opinion among different people, researches have been conducted widely to find out differences from numerous perspectives (ie. social, economic, employment etc.) among RTW states and union security states. However, research result is inconclusive, since one can gain limited knowledge on the probable insights that a RTW and non-RTW state may provide(Collins, 2012). For a long period of time, anti-union members are applauding RTW laws by claiming this law is providing freedom of choice to the workers, whether they want to join a union voluntarily. In contrast, I find a hidden motive behind this legislation; that is- employers gain the most from RTW laws. Therefore, in this report focus will be given to analyze how employers are gaining the most from this law by depriving the workers.

First of all, in a RTW state employers get advantage in getting works done at owner's terms, since workers cannot raise their voice to oppose those conditions through collective bargaining process. For example, employers enjoy flexibility in recruitment, termination and wage settlement issues without any intervention from the workers. (Collins, 2012). This happens because in a RTW state union organizing declines with the passage of time (Ellwood and Fine, 1987) whereas, in a non-RTW state powerful union has the capability to enhance

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