By Mark Hansel
NKyTribune Contributor
The Boone County Fiscal Court appears poised to approve a controversial right-to-work ordinance at Tuesday’s regularly scheduled meeting.
Boone County Judge-executive Gary Moore said he has been told by economic advisors for years that right-to-work states have an advantage in attracting new businesses and development projects.
“When you look at Wisconsin just becoming the twenty-fifth state to have some type of right-to-work legislation, it clearly is a movement that is sweeping across the country,” Moore said. “It appears to be, for the most part, for the promotion of future economic growth and job creation.”
Right-to-work allows people who don’t pay union dues or fees to work in a union environment. It also requires unions to represent those workers in the same manner as union workers in order to maintain their right to enter into collective bargaining with businesses.
Supporters on both sides of the issue are expected to fill the Fiscal Courtroom Tuesday and union leaders have requested and received permission to demonstrate prior to the meeting.
In drafting its ordinance, Boone County followed the wording of a bill that was being considered by the State Legislature in Frankfort during the current session. Right-to-work at the state level died in a House committee, but several Kentucky counties have passed or are considering local ordinances.
That is where the controversy comes in.
Opponents of right-to-work say not only does it weaken unions, it is illegal to legislate at the county level.
An opinion issued by Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway in December supports that position. The opinion states that only a state, through state legislation, may prohibit union security agreements:
“In summary, local governments have no power to enact right-to-work ordinances, as they are preempted by the (National Labor Relations Act).”
Bill Londrigan president of the Kentucky State AFL-CIO said right-to-work allows non-union workers to receive union representation and precludes the people providing those services from collecting a fee.
“I haven’t quite figured out yet which part of this is really pro union,” Londrigan said. “You limit our resources, you undermine our solidarity, you hurt our public image and make us spend money fighting this so we can’t promote positive change.”
Supporters of Right-to-work, however, say County Home Rule legislation, approved by the Kentucky General Assembly in 1978, gives counties the authority to promote economic development and regulate commerce.
Retired Kentucky Supreme Court justices Joseph Lambert and Will Graves are among those that say this interpretation of the Home Rule legislation permits right-to-work at the county level.
Londrigan, said supporters of right-to-work are cherry-picking the Home Rule legislation to suit their legal argument.
“They completely left out some of the controlling language which states that anything they pass at the county level has to be consistent with state law,” Londrigan said. “How can you have a right-to-work law that is consistent with state law when there is no legislation at the state level?”
In January a group of labor unions filed a lawsuit against Hardin County in Federal Court in an effort to prevent the right-to-work law from going into effect there.
Londrigan said there is another flaw in the argument of counties that support Right-to-work in Kentucky.
“They are arguing that because the federal law does not specifically exclude cities and counties, they are somehow included in the language that refers to states and territories,” Londrigan said. “That’s just not true.”
To date, 10 Kentucky counties have passed right-to-work legislation and six others, including Boone and Kenton counties in Northern Kentucky are considering it.
Most of those counties are on or near a border with Tennessee or Indiana, which have right-to-work legislation. Moore said border counties are at a distinct disadvantage when competing with counties in neighboring states that have Right-to-work.
“We’ve had companies that we’ve competed for that eliminated us because they want to be in a right-to-work community,” Moore said. “What I have seem mostly is on the international front with a company that wants to set up a U.S. operation and they are very supportive of being in a right-to-work community.”
If the legislation were to be approved in all of the counties considering it, about 800,000 people, or roughly 20 percent of the state’s population would live in Right-to-work communities.
Moore said Boone County will abide by any legal decision, but should not wait for a resolution of the pending litigation to pursue its right-to-work ordinance.
“We, as best we can, explored the legal question and considered everything from the AG opinion to the two former Supreme Court justices feeling that it is allowed under the Home Rule statute,” Moore said. “The conclusion to all of that is that the court will decide it in the Hardin County case and that it could go either way. If we always based our decisions on the potential of being sued or losing in court, we probably would never pass anything.”
Dan Tobergte, president and CEO of the Northern Kentucky Tri-County Economic Development Corporation (Tri-ED) said the organization has a longstanding position that Kentucky should be a right-to-work state.
“We are always looking to improve our business climate and this is one solid way to do that,” Tobergte said. “We talk to a lot of site selection consultants and corporate real estate brokers and executives on a regular basis and many times right-to-work is a pass/fail element. Without having the opportunity to compete we don’t (compete), and it hurts us.”
The Tri-ED board voted to support the state right-to-work legislation in November and voted again to support it at the local level in January.
Moore said the legislation is about economic development and is not an attempt to weaken labor unions.
“This is about attracting new jobs and new companies, period,” Moore said. “We have to continue to be aggressive in the economic development job creation arena because you are going to have gains and losses and a perfect example is Toyota leaving with 1,600 jobs. If we ever get to a point where we are sitting on our laurels and become complacent that could be very dangerous.”
Tim Donoghue, Northern Kentucky AFL-CIO Labor Council president, said counties should focus on developing a local workforce for the advanced manufacturing jobs that continue to go unfilled in the region.
“They can’t keep enough skilled workers to fill the jobs they have now,” Donoghue said. “If they can’t fill the jobs we have now and Northern Kentucky is continuing to grow economically, there is no need for right-to-work here.”
Donoghue organized the rally that is scheduled prior to Tuesday’s Fiscal Court meeting and hopes to have more than 100 supporters on hand. He said outside interests, such as the pro-right-to-work group, My Check My Choice, are influencing counties to support local ordinances in Kentucky.
Moore, however, said Boone County made this decision on its own, without any outside influence or support.
“We have not enlisted any right-to-work organization, local or national, to work with us or for us on this issue,” Moore said. “This is us following the movement that is taking place and putting it on an agenda to decide whether we want to be part of that.”
If the ordinance is passed as it was introduced, it would go into effect immediately, but it does not allow the county to impact current contracts. It would only apply to existing companies with regard to new contracts and to any new companies that choose to locate in the county in the future.