Senate labor committee Chairman Lamar Alexander made the following statement on the National Labor Relations Board’s request for legal briefs to examine the question of whether employees in right-to-work states should be forced to pay union fees, even if they are not a member of their workplace's union:
“I will fight any effort by the NLRB to force workers to support a union and undermine state right-to-work laws. This latest action is an outrageous move that threatens to jeopardize worker rights and job growth.
Over the last 30 years we have seen first-hand in Tennessee how a right-to-work environment has helped to create a competitive automobile industry and higher family incomes while union shop states saw jobs disappear as companies looked for an environment in which they could successfully make and sell cars and trucks in our country and around the world.
"For nearly seventy years federal labor law has expressly given states the right to decide whether or not to have a right-to-work law. Under these laws, union dues are voluntary, meaning that individuals have the right to choose not to pay union dues if they do not wish to support the union. Last week, the NLRB asked for legal briefs on the question of whether employees in right-to-work states who are not union members should be forced to pay grievance processing fees to the union if they work in a unionized workplace. This is an ominous move and one which I will do everything in my power to stop.”