Forming, joining, and participating in private organizations has been a regular part of American life since its founding. Alexis de Tocqueville, who famously chronicled 19th-century America, described this most American pursuit: “I have often admired the extreme skill with which the inhabitants of the United States succeed in proposing a common object for the exertions of a great many men and in inducing them voluntarily to pursue it.”
Voluntary associations, Tocqueville argued, are at the center of a healthy civil society. Today such organizations continue to flourish in America, funded by hundreds of billions in voluntary contributions each year.
Unfortunately, one type of private organization has increasingly rejected the American principle of voluntarism. Though it wasn’t always this way, unions in America have long dispensed with convincing workers to join voluntarily, favoring government coercion to secure affiliation and financial support.
At the center of federal labor law — the Railway Labor Act (RLA) and National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), passed in 1926 and 1935, respectively — are forced representation and forced union dues. Both laws grant union officials monopoly power over all employees in a bargaining unit, even those who oppose the union and are harmed by one-size-fits-all union-dictated contracts.
Adding insult to injury, both laws authorize union bosses to threaten workers with termination if they don’t pay union dues or fees. Later in 1947, despite vigorous Big Labor opposition, Congress passed the Taft-Hartley Act, amending the NLRA to authorize states to pass Right to Work laws that let states protect most workers from forced union dues.
Today, even as Right to Work laws have spread to 26 states and the Supreme Court has ruled in the 2018 National Right to Work Foundation-won Janus v. AFSCME case that all public employees enjoy Right to Work protections under the First Amendment, union bosses continue to reject voluntarism and double down on coercion.
Take the top legislative priority of national union bosses in Congress: the “PRO Act.” Among its new coercive powers for union officials, it would wipe out all 26 state Right to Work laws, allow government bureaucrats to impose forced dues contracts, and even block workers from holding votes to remove unions they oppose.
This government-backed coercive power over employees, many of whom want nothing to do with the union, flies in the face of America’s traditions of voluntarism and free association.
Believe it or not, Big Labor officials weren’t always so opposed to voluntarism. Samuel Gompers, founder and eventually president of what is now the AFL-CIO, wrote in 1916: “The workers of America adhere to voluntary institutions in preference to compulsory systems which are held to be not only impractical but a menace to their rights, welfare, and their liberty.”
Despite the opposition from today’s union bosses, American workers still believe unions should be organized around voluntarism, not coercion. A nationwide poll conducted in 2024 found that 79% of union members agree with the statement: “Workers should never be forced to join a union or pay dues to a union as a condition of employment.”
That commonsense statement is the principle behind Right to Work laws: workers should be free to voluntarily join and pay dues to a union if they choose, but union financial support should never be compulsory.
The National Right to Work Act (H.R. 3824) would end forced dues in the private sector once and for all, protect employee choice, and revive the spirit of voluntarism in the workplace.
This simple bill fits on one sheet of paper and repeals the federal authorization of forced union dues, including for Railway Labor Act-covered rail and airline employees who currently cannot enjoy the protection of state-level Right to Work laws.
For too long, union officials have enjoyed special privileges and government-backed power beyond any other private organization in the country. And while union membership has been declining for decades, the voluntary groups and associations that make up our civil society continue to thrive.
It’s time we followed Samuel Gompers’ advice and rejected compulsion as the basis of union power. It’s time to pass Right to Work and make unions voluntary again.
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Mark Mix is president of the National Right to Work Committee.
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