Kentucky became the 27th state within the U.S. to pass a Right to Work Act on Saturday, January 7th. On the same day, the Kentucky senate also passed a bill that will eliminate the state’s prevailing wage act for public construction projects.
What is “Right to Work”?
Right to Work is a statute in the United States that prohibits union security agreements, or agreements between labor unions and employers that govern the extent to which an established union can require employees’ membership, payment of union dues, or fees as a condition of employment, either before or after hiring. The National Right to Work Committee, established in 1955, is a nonprofit, nonpartisan citizens’ organization committed to the idea that all American workers should have the right to join a union if they choose, but union membership shouldn’t be required to obtain or keep a job. Under right-to-work, a worker would not be required to pay any membership dues to the union. But whether they join and pay the dues or not, they would still get the benefit of being represented by the union.
The motivation behind the support of the Act wasn’t anti-union as many critics of the Act are claiming. Dave Adkisson, president and CEO of the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce stated, “It’s like putting a sign in your window to say you are open for business. It’s estimated that a third of companies don’t even look at non-right-to-work states. I’m convinced we’re losing thousands of jobs per year in Kentucky by not being a right-to-work state.” The business community in Kentucky wants to remain competitive with neighboring states and bring jobs to Kentucky.
Repeal of Kentucky’s Prevailing Wage Laws
The Kentucky legislature also repealed prevailing wage laws with the passing of House Bill 3, which became effective on January 9, 2017. A prevailing wage is defined as “the hourly base wage and fringe rate paid to workers, laborers and mechanics of each classification when working on public works projects that are estimated to cost more than $250,000.”
The law states that the repeal of the prevailing wage requirements applies to any public works project for which bids have not been awarded as of the effective date. In the case of bids that have been requested but not awarded prior to the effective date. In the case of bids that have been requested but not awarded prior to the effective date, the public authority may elect to request a resubmission of bids to conform to the amended statute.
Source(s): natlawreview.com; wsj.com; nrtw.org
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