Right to work

[Ghoulish Delight]

We were watching the new season of Robot Chicken last night (source of all of my employment legality knowledge) and the term "Right to Work State" was used in a bit where someone was fired.

It was used in the sense that I've always heard it used in, to mean that in a "Right to Work State", employers have the right to terminate an employee without cause.

I've always thought it was a strange, Brave New World-ish term. "Right to Work" means I can be fired for no reason? WTF?

So I looked it up. It doesn't mean that at all. It means that you can't be required to join a union as a condition of employment.

I have NEVER heard it used like that. What gives? How has that been corrupted so badly?

And I've always heard that California is a Right to Work state. But now that I know the actual definition, I wondered how the grocery workers' union got around it and required my sister and brother-in-law to join. So I looked, and no, California is not. Man, people have NO idea what they're talking about on this subject, do they?