In response to a handful of Kentucky counties passing right-to-work ordinances, Marshall County has become the first in the commonwealth to approve an anti-right-to-work resolution.
The measure was drafted by Kentucky AFL-CIO president William Londrigan and Marshall County union member Howard “Bubba” Dawes and approved unanimously Tuesday by the Marshall County Fiscal Court.
Dawes, a member of the state AFL-CIO's Committee on Political Education, said the resolution was also a tribute to late Marshall County judge-executive Mike Miller, a champion of unions.
“There’s been a labor management conference held, I don’t know how many years, over 20 years, and it’s held at the Kentucky Dam state park and Mike promoted that," Dawes said.
Dawes said he thinks more Kentucky counties will follow suit with similar resolutions against right-to-work efforts.
“I think that some of the commissioners in counties that adopted right-to-work legislation in the counties [were] not given the correct facts and they’re even reconsidering in some of those counties that they might have done something that was illegal already," Dawes said.
The Kentucky AFL-CIO filed suit last month in federal court against the right-to-work ordinances, which would prohibit mandatory union membership or the paying of union dues for certain jobs. Right-to-work legislation passed the state Senate last month but has not gained any ground in the Democrat-controlled state House of Representatives.
