A Harsh Winter for Compulsory Unionism

The Foundation is tracking announcements of expansions, relocations, and greenfield investments published on Area Development‘s website. Founded in 1965, the publication “is considered the leading executive magazine covering corporate site selection and relocation. … Area Development is published quarterly and has 60,000 mailed copies.” In an explanation to the Foundation, its editor wrote that items for Area Development‘s announcements listing are “culled from RSS feeds and press releases that are emailed to us from various sources, including economic development organizations, PR agencies, businesses, etc. We usually highlight ones that represent large numbers of new jobs and/or investment in industrial projects.”

In February, of 20,775 projected jobs, 13,441 — 64.7 percent — were slated for right-to-work (RTW) states:

The results for non-RTW states were better than usual last month, but employment was boosted by two investments planned to create 2,000 jobs each: Amazon in California and Blue Apron in New Jersey.

As for the sub-metrics the Foundation scrutinizes:

* Ten domestic companies based in non-RTW states announced investments in RTW states. Five announcements went the other way.

* RTW prevailed in foreign direct investment, too. Eight projects are headed to RTW states, with three to occur in a non-RTW state.

Marquee RTW investments included:

* Intel announced its intention to complete its Arizona-based “Fab 42, which is expected to be the most advanced high-volume semiconductor factory in the world” (3,000 jobs)

* Nestlé’s American headquarters fled California for Virginia, choosing to spend $39.8 million on the relocation (748 jobs)

* Connecticut-based Pratt & Whitney picked an existing facility in Georgia to “increase the production of parts and maintenance services and reduce costs for new and existing engine programs” (500 jobs)

Methodological specifics:

* All job estimates — “up to,” “as many as,” “about” — were taken at face value, for RTW and non-RTW states alike.

* If an announcement did not make an employment projection, efforts were made to obtain an estimate from newspaper articles and/or press releases from additional sources.

* If no job figure could be found anywhere, the project was not counted, whether it was a RTW or non-RTW state.

* Non-border-crossing relocations were not counted, border-crossing relocations were.