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Source URL:https://www.ueunion.org/rtw

Fighting "Right to Work"

With the Supreme Court's decision in Janus v. AFSCME stripping union security from public-sector workers nationwide, and with more and more states enacting so-called "right-to-work" laws that prohibit union security in the private sector as well, UE has put together this collection of resources for doing political education about "right-to-work" and building effective unions in "right-to-work" conditions.

  • Checklist for Fighting RTW and Building Unity [1] (download as a PDF [2])
  • Janus v. AFSCME: UE Officers Statement [3] and Legal analysis [4] by UE General Counsel Irene Thomas, Esq. (download legal analysis as a PDF [5])
  • Five Steps to Maintain Unity and Membership Under Right to Work [6], by former UE organizer Leah Fried
  • Exposing the "Right-to-Work" Fraud [7], a 2012 article by UE Political Action Director Chris Townsend
  • UE Policy: Oppose Right to Work [8]
  • Rebuilding Power in Open-Shop America [9]: a guide from Labor Notes
  • Labor Notes has also organized an online debate about how unions should deal with free-riders [10]. One of the contributors is UE Communications Director Jonathan Kissam.
  • Two important articles on the racist and antisemitic origins of "right-to-work," from the St. Louis Labor Tribune [11] and the Labor and Working-Class History Association [12].

Links
[1] https://www.ueunion.org/rtw/checklist [2] https://www.ueunion.org/sites/default/files/UE_Checklist_for_Fighting_RtW_and_Building_Unity.pdf [3] https://www.ueunion.org/political-action/2018/janus-will-not-stop-workers-from-organizing-unions [4] https://www.ueunion.org/political-action/2018/janus-v-afscme-supreme-court-to-decide-if-the-financial-impact-of-public [5] https://www.ueunion.org/sites/default/files/UE_Janus_v_AFSCME_Analysis_Thomas.pdf [6] http://www.labornotes.org/2017/02/five-steps-maintain-unity-and-membership-under-right-work [7] https://www.ueunion.org/political-action/2012/exposing-the-right-to-work-fraud [8] https://www.ueunion.org/ue-policy/oppose-right-to-work [9] http://labornotes.org/openshop [10] http://www.labornotes.org/exclusiverep [11] https://labortribune.com/the-origin-of-right-to-work-is-a-sad-tale-of-money-racism-bigotry-and-hatred-designed-to-shackle-workers-and-their-unions/ [12] https://www.lawcha.org/2017/01/12/origins-right-work-vance-muse-anti-semitism-maintenance-jim-crow-labor-relations/

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