Iowa Court: Bosses Can Fire 'Irresistible' Workers

[Jim Lane]

72. That's "employment at will" not "right to work"

Employment at will is the law in most of the U.S. It means that the employee can be fired for a good reason, a bad reason, or no reason at all, unless one of the exceptions is applicable.
*One exception is for certain bad reasons that are forbidden, notably race, sex, religion, ethnic origin, and, in a handful of enlightened jurisdictions, sexual preference.
*Another exception is for contracts: a collective bargaining agreement, an individual contract between the employer and the employee, or an employee manual that describes reasons and/or procedures for dismissal and functions as a contract.

A "right to work" law is really an "abridgment of the right of contract" law. It means that collective bargaining agreements may not contain provisions under which employees who aren't union members make payments to support the union activities that benefit them. These provisions are illegal even if the contracting parties freely agree to them.