Most employment-based laws (such as wage-and-hour, fair-employment and the like) are applied according to the state in which an individual works. According to the Illinois Public Labor Relations Act, public employees have the right to form or join labor unions or refrain from doing so.Not all states have "right to work" laws. Learn what these laws mean, how they impact unions, and whether your state has a 'right to work' law at FindLaw. MRA's core states are split: Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, and Wisconsin have "righttowork" laws; Illinois, Minnesota, and Ohio do not. What are right-to-work states? Right-to-work is a term describing state legislation that prohibits employees from being required to join or financially support a labor union. Click on a Right to Work state below to read that state's Right to Work law. (Links are to the current active Right to Work provisions in state law. Under federal labor law and the state's Right to Work law, you have the right to resign from membership in a union at any time.