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	RTW Issue in the New Millennium

On a Saturday edition of CNN’s heavily watched Capital Gang in January 1997, syndicated columnists Robert Novak and Mark Shields, the show’s cohosts, were discussing the biggest political news item of the week: the unexpected conclusion of the race for the chairmanship of the Republican National Committee (RNC).

The day before, the 165 RNC members had chosen Colorado GOP Chairman Jim Nicholson to replace retiring RNC Chairman Haley Barbour. The outcome was a bitter disappointment for former New Hampshire Gov. Steve Merrill, who had emerged in late 1996 as the clear front-runner in the contest. The chief cause of Mr. Merrill’s defeat was the intense grass-roots opposition of National Right to Work Committee members.

Mr. Novak was well aware why Right to Work members and supporters had opposed Mr. Merrill and urged RNC members to do the same. The former governor, argued Mr. Novak, “got in trouble because he hadn’t supported Right to Work laws in New Hampshire. It’s … a very big issue in the Republican party.”

As a dyed-in-the-wool apologist for forced unionism, Mr. Shields naturally couldn’t agree. Instead, he implied that the Right to Work cause had seen its day. But Mr. Novak countered that six decades after Congress had passed the Wagner Act and thus imposed forced unionism on the nation, the Right to Work movement was stronger than ever before.

“It’s so old-fashioned, ” Mr. Novak concluded, “it’s a brand new idea.”

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	RTW Issue in the New Millennium