Last month, Rep. Phil Roe (R-Tenn.) introduced H.R. 2723, the Employee Rights Act (ERA). Perhaps the largest labor law reform in the US since the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947, the legislation would significantly increase work privacy, promote dialogue between workers and bosses, protect freedom of conscience, and expand legal rights protections. Having garnered support from Heritage Action and Americans for Prosperity, this vital legislation is a crucial step for worker freedom.

In recent years, the topic of unionization and right-to-work laws has been raised as a fairly contentious issue. As state legislatures sought to recoup the costs incurred due to lost revenue following the Great Recession, de-unionization policies, at least at the public sector level, were floated as cost-cutting measures. But nearly as often, right-to-work laws at the private sector level were also explored and implemented, perhaps most infamously in the case of the state of Wisconsin under Governor Scott Walker.

The average Ohio Education Association (OEA) employee was paid $43,838 more than Ohio’s average teacher in 2012, as OEA staff and officers raked in an average of $100,553 while the teachers forced to pay received an average of $56,715.Statewide average annual pay was $44,253 in 2012, per the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. From 2003-2012, the gap between OEA employee pay and pay across all industries in Ohio grew from $45,002 to $56,300.