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 US President Joe Biden speaks alongside US Vice President Kamala Harris (Photo by SAUL LOEB/AFP via ... [+] Getty Images) 
 
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New York, California, Illinois, and other blue states have experienced an exodus of employers and people who have moved to Right to Work states in recent years and decades. Now, in addition to the billions in federal aid they’ve received over the past year, which has been used to paper over preexisting budget deficits, these depopulating blue state might now get further help from President Joe Biden.  
 
The White House and congressional Democrats are now seeking to relieve blue states of a significant competitive disadvantage by imposing a national prohibition on state Right to Work laws, which prevent workers from being forced to join a union as a condition of employment. Some thought Amazon 
 
 AMZN 
 workers’ early April rejection of unionization would cause the White House and Hill Democrats to reconsider this approach, but such thinking has been sorely mistaken.  
&#34;If Amazon workers in Alabama — a strong anti-union state — vote to form a union, it'll be a shot heard around the world,&#34; Senator Bernie Sanders proclaimed in a March 1 tweet in which he shared President Biden’s statement in favor of unionization. &#34;If they can negotiate higher wages &amp; better working conditions in the South, it'll benefit every worker in America.” 
 
Amazon warehouse workers in Bessemer, Ala. subsequently voted against unionization on April 9. 1,798 workers voted to reject the proposal to join the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, while 738 votes in favor of unionization. With their vote against unionization, Amazon workers strongly rebuked not only union leadership, but also President Joe Biden and other leading progressives like Bernie Sanders. 
 
Yet, whereas Senator Sanders claimed that a vote in favor of unionization in Alabama would be a “shot heard around the world,” it seems as though workers’ ultimate rejection of the union is a shot that some in Washington either can’t or refuse to hear. The takeaway from union rejection in Bessemer for leading Democrats is that workers should not have the ability to decide whether or not to join a union. That’s not only what Democrats are effectively saying, it would be the real world outcome of enactment of either the PRO Act labor law overhaul, or the White House’s infrastructure proposal, which includes the PRO Act within it.  
 
Right to Work laws, which most states have enacted, protect workers from being forced to join a union as a condition of employment. The PRO Act and the White House “infrastructure” plan including it would deprive people of the ability to decide whether or not to join a union by federally preempting state Right to Work laws, which are currently on the books in 27 states.  
There has been a more than 22% increase in the number of Right to Work states over the past decade. The legislators who enacted the five new Right to Work laws in recent years, despite the hyperbolic opposition they faced when passing the law, have been reelected and seen their legislative majorities reaffirmed by voters. Despite that, all such state laws could be overturned with the stroke of President Biden’s pen if he gets a chance to sign either the PRO Act or his new infrastructure proposal.  
At the same time that President Biden, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) are moving to enact federal law that will deprive workers of the freedom to decide for themselves whether or not to join and fund a union, two states — Tennessee and North Carolina — are poised to enshrine Right to Work in their state constitutions.  
On March 8, the Tennessee Senate gave its final sign off on SJR 2, a resolution that would add Tennessee’s Right to Work law to the state constitution. SJR 2 is sponsored by Senator Brian Kelsey (R-Memphis), who shepherded the measure through his chamber, and Representative Chris Todd (R-Jackson), who is leading the effort to get it approved in the Tennessee House. Once SJR 2 receives final approval on the House side, which is expected to occur before the session ends this spring, the proposal will go to the November 2022 ballot for voters to decide.  
Many Democratic politicians and other opponents of Right to Work laws portray them as “anti-union.” “Right-to-work is a false slogan,” Tennessee Senator Sara Kyle (D-Memphis) claimed when her chamber was taking up SJR 2 in February. “The true effect of this legislation is to destroy the freedom and power of collective bargaining.” 
Supporters of Right to Work laws meanwhile make the case that workers should have the ability to organize, but that union membership and financial support should be based on worker consent.  
“Under right to work, if a person wishes to join a union and pay dues, he has every right to do so,” said Justin Owen, president of the Beacon Center, a Nashville-based think tank. “If a worker wishes to remain independent and not contribute her hard earned money to union dues, that is also her right.” 
Seeking to follow Senator Kelsey and Representative Todd’s lead in Tennessee, on April 6 North Carolina Senators Carl Ford &amp; Jim Burgin introduced Senate Bill 624, which would enshrine Right to Work in North Carolina’s constitution. As with the proposal heading toward Tennessee’s 2022 ballot, SB 624, if referred to the ballot and approved by voters, would provide a state constitutional guarantee that people cannot be forced to join and fund a union as a condition of employment in North Carolina.  
“North Carolina has had such a ‘right-to-work’ law in place since 1947, but it could be repealed by a future General Assembly,” Andrew Dunn writes for the Carolina Journal. “Putting this language in the state constitution would all but guarantee that North Carolina would remain a right-to-work state for the foreseeable future.” 
SB 624 needs to pass with a three-fifths super-majority in both chambers of the North Carolina General Assembly in order to be referred to the November 2022 ballot. Should SB 624 achieve such a super-majority vote, the 2022 midterm elections will see voters from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mississippi River deciding whether or not to constitutionally enshrine Right to Work in the same election in which Democrats who voted to federally overturn all Right to Work laws are seeking reelection.  
Former Congressman Joe Cunningham (D-S.C.) warned his colleagues that the PRO Act, which has now been tucked into President Biden infrastructure plan, “would simply overturn our state’s right-to-work laws, it would force workers into one-size-fits-all union contracts and deprive workers of flexibility and independence.” Congressional Democrats ignored Cunningham’s advice, which helps explain why he’s no longer in office, just as they’re now ignoring the message sent by workers in Amazon. 
 
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Amazon workers in Alabama overwhelmingly rejected unionization in early April despite President Joe Biden's support for the proposal. The White House & congressional Democrats are now moving to repeal state laws that give workers a say in whether or not to join a union.

在亚马逊遭到工会拒绝后，白宫敦促终止工人对工会会员的同意