‘Right to Work’ Law Upheld Again by West Virginia High Court (1)

Labor unions lost a second legal battle in West Virginia’s Supreme Court challenging the constitutionality of a 2016 state law forbidding the collection of union fees as a condition of employment.

The West Virginia AFL-CIO, a collection of labor unions in the state, sought to prove that banning such fee provisions was equivalent to an illegal taking of property. The organization argued that the state must look beyond U.S. Supreme Court precedent on union “fair share” fees in part because the West Virginia Constitution affords additional rights not found at the federal level.

The court disagreed.

“We agree with the ...