In today’s Freeman article, Professor Charles Baird examines the argument that has recently been used by opponents of right to work statutes that Milton Friedman opposed them. Friedman was a freedom of contract purist and RTW does infringe, at least potentially, on the freedom of employers to insist on all-union shops. But if you read further, you find that he thought that if we could not have contractual freedom (which is not the case under the National Labor Relations Act), RTW was a second-best option. Baird also critically examines the argument against RTW that it allows some workers to free-ride on the dues payments of others, an argument he shows to be unpersuasive.