Can nurses employed in right-to-work states organize?
Not all sociopolitical climates are conducive to collective bargaining. However, the fact that a state has enacted so-called “right-to-work” legislation does not preclude such activities. This type of legislation merely means that a state may prohibit collective bargaining agreements that make union membership a condition of employment. In effect, such laws create a compulsory “open shop” in which a union must represent everyone in the bargaining unit, but no one is compelled to belong to the union. Currently, twenty-one states have enacted right-to-work laws. These states are: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nebraska, Nevada, North Carolina, North Dakota, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia and Wyoming.
