Should Americans Be Compelled To Join Labor Unions?
Abstract
The National Right to Work Committee organized in 1955 to lobby for the state-level enactment of so-called "right to work" laws throughout the country. Under section 14(b) of the federal Taft-Hartley Act passed in 1947, states have the option to pass such laws barring "membership in a labor organization as a condition of employment." As illustrated here, groups in favor of these laws frequently por trayed the issue as one group in favor of individual liberty versus another corrupt group grasping at autocratic power. As the inside of the pictured flyer put it, "compulsory union membership is the source of union officials' excessive political and economic power," while "Right to Work Guarantees a Free Choice." Such sentiment is directly illustrated on the flyer's cover, with the hand of organized labor symbolically crushing the liberty of American workers.