The Trump administration overtly supports so-called “right-to-work” laws, state laws that disallow unions from requiring membership dues, thus undermining their ability to survive. Shortly after the president took office, then-press secretary Sean Spicer said: “The president believes in right to work. He wants to give workers and companies the flexibility to do what’s in the best interest for job creators.” Yet extensive research shows that these laws, far from granting flexibility to workers and helping state economies, only serve to weaken unions and lower the pay of workers in states that have them relative to workers in states that don’t.
