Union States: Uneven Playing Fields

The battle continues for unions as the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is accusing one of America's biggest companies, Boeing, of illegally retaliating against union workers.Boeing is trying to open a new plant in South Carolina - a right- to-work state - to build more planes with a thousand new jobs. But the NLRB wants it to expand its plant in Washington - a forced-union state - instead.Now to be clear, Boeing is not threatening to close its plant in Washington or take any jobs away—this would be an entirely different plant.According to the Wall Street Journal, this would be the first time an agency like the NLRB would tell an American company where it can do business in the U.S. While this battle plays out across the country, the authors of "Return to Prosperity," Art Laffer and Steve Moore, have outlined why Boeing is even considering South Carolina over Washington.There are 22 right-to-work states and 28 union states. Comparing the two it's clear right to work states grow faster than those that force unions onto its workers. In those 22 states, gross state product increased nearly 55% over the last decade - versus only about a 40% increase in union states.The same holds true for personal income - right to work states fairing much better. Stretching back to 1977, incomes increased $27,000 hundred dollars more per-person in right to work states than the others.Even the population is growing much faster in those states, up almost 12% since 2000. A Cato Institute study last year found between 2000 and 2008 nearly five million people moved from a union state to a non-union state. That's one person every minute!Also Boeing is willing to pay more in taxes by going to South Carolina - an income tax state - instead of staying in Washington, where there's zero income tax.They just want to be rid of lawsuits and work stoppages, which Boeing says has occurred every few years in Washington.Unions have had a place in this country for decades - and when they were created they were desperately needed. Now they do more to hurt the economy than help the worker.And they leave an uneven playing field for the rest of us.

Be sure to catch the Willis Report on the FOX Business Network every weekday from 5-6pm ET.