Right To Work The Taft-Hartly Act of 1947 is what started most states to adopt the Right to Work laws we see today. There are currently 24 states that have become Right to Work. The Taftt-Hartley Act was enacted in response to the belief that the pro-union Wagner Act of 1935 gave unions too much power. The Wagner Act gave and still gives unions the power of exclusive representation, which allows them to act as the voice of all of a company’s employees if the union can get more than fifty percent of the employees to vote for a union. After a union gains the power of exclusive representation they will often persuade employers to include union security clauses in their collective bargaining agreements.