Three months ago, the New Hampshire House of Representatives voted against becoming the 29th “Right to Work” state, which would have made it the first “Right to Work” state in New England. Despite support from Gov. Chris Sununu and the state Senate, it was not able to break the necessary threshold to get out of the house.

Good news came out of the West Virginia legislature this past Thursday, as bills regarding Right-to-Work and repealing the prevailing wage were passed in the House and Senate, respectively. Both of these bills mean that workers will no longer be tethered to barriers to business caused by the state, and the West Virginia economy will be allowed grow free from government inefficiencies.

The phrase “Right to Work” has traditionally been used to describe a system of voluntary union membership, as contrasted with the mandatory membership practice that are still common in many states. Now, the term is getting an update as people realize that unions are only one way of keeping hard working Americans out of a job. In fact, the government has all manner of schemes to protect their favored interests, while shutting out many of the people who need work the most.

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.

Big labor has always predicated its efforts on an appeal to “workers’ rights,” claiming to fight against exploitation and unfair treatment of employees by powerful corporations who care more about their bottom line than about the safety and well-being of workers.

Earlier this year, a ballot initiative was filed in Oregon to place a measure on the 2014 ballot to allow public sector union members to opt out of mandatory deduction of dues from their paychecks.

On Thursday, September 5, an evening seminar was held in Vancouver, Washington to discuss Right to Work legislation and how it could benefit the states of Washington and Oregon. The seminar, co-hosted by the Freedom Foundation of Olympia and the Cascade Policy Institute, featured Vincent Vernuccio of the Mackinac Center and Harry Beck of the Supreme Court Case, Beck v CWA. Participants paid $10 each to hear how Michigan beat the odds to enact Right to Work legislation and how it's changed the state.

Right to Work is sweeping the rust belt! Workers are free to choose whether or not they would like to join a union in Michigan and Indiana, in the heart of the rust belt, as well as in its further reaches such as Iowa.

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.