My friend VT is probably referring to
Virginia, in particular with this law. Virginia prides itself on being a
non-union state, although the
coal mines in the western corner of the state have had unions for years (Since the mines are about 12 hours from the capital, the pols have sorta looked the other way).
Despite having these laws in place for generations there has not been an explosion of job growth in industrial and manufacturing like their neighbors to the south (North Carolina and Georgia) have experienced.
The majority of the job growth has been in only two areas:
the Tidewater area, in and around the US Naval base and the mulifaceted federal government offices and subcontractors in and around Northern Virginia. The rest of the state looks a like like it did in 1960. So there is some growth, but little of it has to do with this "union bad- open shop good" policy.
Still, the state can have both steady growth, antiunion policies and limited state expenses since the Federal government does such a large amount of their hiring for them. All they get out of it is low unemployment and payroll taxes.
Nice gig