Episode 3 of For A Living focuses on “right-to-work” laws. The podcast is available on iTunes and on SoundCloud.

What are so-called “right-to-work” laws? What is the historical background of these laws? What are their policy implications for the working class? Where are current political and legal battles occurring?

Professor Robert Bruno, Professor Emily E. LB Twarog, and I are joined by Dale Pierson, a Chicago-area labor lawyer who has served as General Counsel of the International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE) Local 150 since 2002, to answer these questions.

Thanks for listening!

For A Living is an educational podcast jointly provided by the Illinois Economic Policy Institute and the Project for Middle Class Renewal at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

More economic research on “right-to-work:”

• Report by Gould and Kimball (2015): “Right-to-Work” States Still Have Lower Wages

• Congressional Research Service (2014): Right to Work Laws: Legislative Background and Empirical Research

• Testimony of Bruno (2015): Before the Committee on Education and the Workforce, U.S. House of Representatives

• Report by Manzo and Bruno (2014): Free-Rider States: How Low-Wage Employment in “Right-to-Work” States is Subsidized by the Economic Benefits of Collective Bargaining

• Article and Report by Manzo and Bruno (2015): Local Right-to-Work Zones Would Weaken the Illinois Economy

• Report by Manzo, Zullo, Bruno, and Dickson Quesada (2013): The Economic Effects of Adopting a Right-to-Work Law: Implications for Illinois