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Michigan is poised to become the 24th state to enact a right-to-work law. These laws prohibit agreements between labor unions and employers that require employees to pay union dues as a condition of their employment, whether or not the employees are members of the union.
These laws are a creature of 1947’s Taft-Hartley Act. Before 1947, it was legal for unions and employers to agree, via their collective bargaining agreement, to maintain what is known as a “closed shop.” In a closed shop, unions and employers could require that employees join the union as a condition of employment. The Taft–Hartley Act outlawed closed shops, making it illegal for any employer to force an employee to join a union.
The Taft-Hartley Act, however, did not outlaw “agency shops,” in which employees do not have to join the union, but can be required to pay the union their share of union dues. Right-to-work laws were born out of an exception in the Taft-Hartley Act, under which individual states can pass laws outlawing agency shops.
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