Freedom of Association and Collective Bargaining

The rights to freedom of association and collective bargaining relate to the right to join a labor union. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, a labor union is “a group of two or more employees who join together to advance common interests such as wages, benefits, schedules and other employment terms and conditions.” Labor unions have been shown to increase wages, reducing wage gaps especially for women and BIPOC workers. They also reduce health and safety incidents and promote access to paid sick leave and retirement plans. 

Under the National Labor Relations Act, employers can neither interfere with nor coerce employees to join a union. The NLRA provides for union-security agreements, by which non-union workers may have to pay a “fair share fee” to cover the union’s costs of representing them. States with legislation prohibiting fair share fees are known as “right to work” states. This type of legislation has roots in white supremacist ideology and continues to perpetrate economic inequality. In fact, in 1961, Martin Luther King Jr. called such right to work laws “false slogans” that “rob us of our civil rights and job rights.”

Unions in right to work states are still required to represent non-union members, which creates a “free rider” problem. As a result, right to work states generally have weaker unions and lower rates of unionization. Employees’ wages are also usually lower, health and retirement benefits are more difficult to access, and discrimination and safety violations are more prominent. 

Historically, the automotive sector has had strong unionization representation. In 2021, unions represented 17% of employees in the automotive industry, compared to only 9.3% in the broader manufacturing sector. The unionization of the Big Three automakers – Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler (now Stellantis) – has greatly contributed to the growth of the middle class, thereby cementing the automotive industry as integral to the US economy. 

As the US transitions to EVs, the traditional unionization model is being challenged by new EV automakers and anti-union states. Tesla, a leading EV manufacturer, is the only major US auto company without any union representation. Earlier this year, the company was accused of retaliatory firing of employees trying to unionize in its Buffalo, NY gigafactory. Similarly, Toyota, Nissan, Hyundai, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Volkswagen, and Honda have fought against unionization efforts. Moreover, as automakers form joint ventures with foreign tech companies to produce EV batteries, the ability to form unions in these plants will likely be more difficult, as battery manufacturing lacks an established practice of unionization. The Ultium battery plant in Ohio, a joint venture between General Motors and LG Energy Solution, was the first one to unionize. However, this outcome is less likely in right to work states. 

Over the past eight years, 86% of EV-related investments in the US have been concentrated in ten states: Michigan, Tennessee, Georgia, Nevada, Kentucky, South Carolina, Ohio, North Carolina, Indiana, and Kansas. Eight of these states (i.e. all but Ohio and Michigan) have right to work laws in place, presenting significant barriers to labor rights as EV infrastructure expands.