NILRR research shows that Right to Work states surpass Forced-Unionism States in 14 major economic indicators.

Stan Greer, senior research associate for the National Institute for Labor Relations Research, appears on NPR’s News & Notes with Ed Gordon to discuss labor issues in light of the Labor Day holiday, and the thousands left jobless in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Click here.

Recently released U.S. Census Bureau data show that, as of 2003, more than two million young people aged 25 to 34 were missing in the 28 states that do not have Right to Work laws barring the exaction of compulsory union dues and fees as a condition of employment.

Banning forced union dues spurs productivity growth and weakens rationale for ‘outsourcing.’ The record indicates that, by adopting national Right to Work legislation that is now pending (as H.R. 500 and S. 370) in both the U.S. House and Senate, Congress would help preserve and create millions of good domestic manufacturing jobs and brighten America’s economic future.

Project labor agreements, or PLAs, have been around since the 1930s. But they have become an increasingly common means for unions to exercise, directly or indirectly, monopoly power over labor markets since the U.S. Supreme Court gave them the green light in 1993 – in a ruling involving another massive Boston project. Less than 15% of America’s private-sector hardhat labor force currently belongs to a union, but PLAs ensure that many of the most lucrative projects are effectively union-only.