Labor reform continues to gain popularity

Labor law reform has been popular in a lot of neighboring states, with Wisconsin passing an overhaul of its government union law, and Michigan and Indiana adopting right-to-work. The move toward greater union accountability could pick up again if Missouri sets up a referendum on right-to-work, as it might as early as next year. Labor...

Labor law reform has been popular in a lot of neighboring states, with Wisconsin passing an overhaul of its government union law, and Michigan and Indiana adopting right-to-work. The move toward greater union accountability could pick up again if Missouri sets up a referendum on right-to-work, as it might as early as next year.

Labor reform is popular outside of the U.S., too. Mexico just rewrote its education labor law. The new law establishes that teachers will be hired after proving their competence in a nationwide test. Current teachers will be expected to take the same exam, and can be moved into administrative posts or forced into retirement if they fail. Up to now, prospective teachers had to go through the union just to get a job, and teaching posts often were sold or even inherited.

The law should improve education results in Mexico. With schools effectively run by the unions, their performance was atrocious: Mexico’s spending on public schools was among the world’s highest, while graduation rates nationwide were less than 50 percent. Schools were not helped by a system in which $100 million annually went to school staff who worked full-time as union organizers.

Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto deserves kudos for taking on a radical, well-entrenched, and destructive union. And Illinois lawmakers have another example to consider.