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The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

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Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Right to Work, Right or Wrong?

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Monday, April 20, 2015   

FRANKFORT, Ky. - The Bluegrass has become a battleground state over right-to-work legislation with a handful of counties passing local laws and all four Republican candidates for governor supporting the idea.

But, a new economic analysis questions whether right-to-work legislation delivers on its promise of economic growth.

The idea is to stop requiring workers who aren't union members, but are still covered by a union, to pay dues. A report from the Kentucky Center for Economic Policy finds a lack of job growth and lower wages in right-to-work states. Bill Londrigan is president of the AFL-CIO in Kentucky.

"It demonstrates what unions and workers have been saying for a long time, that proponents of right to work have been cookin' the books," he says.

The Republican-controlled Kentucky Senate passed a right-to-work bill during this year's legislative session, but it died in the Democrat-controlled House.

The National Right to Work Committee claims the 26 right-to-work states "enjoy a higher standard of living" and families in those states, on average, "have greater after-tax income and purchasing power." But, Anna Baumann, policy analyst and author of the Kentucky Center for Economic Policy report, says most studies show the law tamps down worker pay.

"It doesn't grow jobs in manufacturing or other sectors," says Baumann. "What it does do is it lowers workers' wages. It decreases the chances they'll have employer-provided benefits. "

Baumann's report finds when it comes to returning to pre-recession employment levels, Kentucky is outpacing neighboring right-to-work states Tennessee and Virginia.

Right-to-work supporters claim allowing workers to decide on whether they want to join a union or pay dues is not anti-union, a stance that rankles union boss Londrigan.

"It's an insult to workers, it's an insult to unions, it's an insult to the general public because we all know that this is an anti-union strategy," he says.


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