'Right to Work' Wins Out in Kentucky

Labor unions were dealt another blow in Kentucky after the state supreme court upheld its right to work law.

The state's highest court upheld a lower court judge's ruling dismissing the lawsuit filed by Teamsters Local 89. The 4-3 majority affirmed that the law, which prohibits mandatory union fees as a condition of employment, passed state constitutional muster and was appropriate under federal labor law.

"We hold that the Unions' constitutional challenges to the Act are without merit," the majority ruling in the 4-3 case says. "In this area of economic legislation, the legislature and the executive branch make the policy, not the courts."

The union argued that right to work illegally denied it the employee dues and fees in violation of the state constitution. The legal challenge said the law would create a free rider problem in which non-dues paying workers benefit from union-negotiated wages, grievance procedures, and work rules, but do not have to pay for that representation. Local 89 did not respond to request for comment.

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