Bluegrass Institute provides intellectual ammunition for historic county right-to-work campaigns
Right-to-Work logo
Bluegrass Institute president Jim Waters made the following statement to the Warren County Fiscal Court just prior to Thursday’s historic 6-1 vote approving the nation’s first countywide right-to-work ordinance:
Good morning ladies and gentlemen.
I am very pleased to be here as the president of the Bluegrass Institute for Public Policy Solutions – which began just a couple of blocks from here – over on Fountain Square in September of 2003.
The Bluegrass Institute is a state-based public policy think tank dedicated to offering free-market solutions to Kentucky’s greatest challenges. Our policy solutions are based on the principles of economic prosperity, individual liberty, personal responsibility and a respect for the lives and properties of others.
As a 501c3 nonprofit, nonpartisan, research-and-education organization, our mission is to offer and support economically sound, long-term common-sense policies that will benefit all Kentuckians while avoiding policy decisions based on emotion and designed to achieve short-term effects while benefiting only a few.
In our 11-year history, the Bluegrass Institute has achieved a strong reputation of taking positions based on ideas and policies rather than politics. We do not take positions on issues based on political partisanship. Rather, our policy positions are based on credible data, dispassionate observation and just plain ol’ Kentucky common sense.
Looking at the issue that way, it’ s no wonder that based on a poll released by the Institute this past summer, 80 percent of Kentuckians answered “absolutely” to this single question: “Should employees have the right to decide, without force or penalty, whether to join or leave a labor union?”
I’m not really surprised, considering that 40 percent of Kentuckians live in counties that border another state, and they see every day the results of unfriendly business policies – including the lack of a right-to-work law.
But it’s not just polling that suggests support for the right to choose to join or not to join a labor union; so does credible data that comes from the National Institute for Labor Relations Research, the U.S. Census Bureau and the Bureau of Economic Analysis, which together show that:* Growth in real manufacturing GDP grew by 87 percent from 2002 to 2012 in the 22 states with right-to-work laws during that decade but fell by 2 percent in states without right-to-work policies.
* Employment, incomes and populations grew by 42.6 percent, 209.3 percent and 39.8 percent respectively in states with right-to-work laws between 1990 and 2011.
* During the 35-year period between 1977 and 2012, nationwide total employment grew by 71 percent. But right-to-work states significantly outpaced this average, with employment growing by 105.3 percent. Non-right-to-work states lagged behind both, with an employment growth of only 50 percent.
* The national average of growth in personal income was 123 percent between 1977 and 2012. However, right-to-work states experienced substantially higher growth – at a rate of 165 percent – indicating that inflation-adjusted total personal income in those states was about 2.8 times higher in 2012 than in 1977.
* Conversely, non-right-to-work states saw below average growth of 99 percent, meaning that real total personal income did not quite double in those states during this same period.
* The impact that right-to-work has on population growth – particular in demographics involving young adults … is very telling. The Census data makes it clear: more people – primarily younger adults – are moving into right-to-work states. Between 2000 and 2009, more than 4.9 million native-born Americans moved from non-right-to-work states to states where union membership is a choice and not a mandate. That’s an average of more than 1,450 persons per day.
I hear it all the time across our commonwealth, including right here in our area: it’s ‘slim pickins’’ for young people getting out of college and looking to begin careers. Between 2002 and 2012, the population among 25-t0-34 age group grew by more than 11 percent in right-to-work states while non-right-to-work states saw only 2.5 percent growth. Kentucky lost 1.1 percent of its population in that age group. (note: some sources claim it’s only a 0.1 percent loss. Either way, the commonwealth lost population in this age group.)
Wouldn’t you like to have such a booming economy in Warren County and across Kentucky that our best and brightest Hilltoppers would find it impossible to leave because the opportunities were so plentiful and so attractive and so prosperous? It can happen.
Don’t let the petty political squabbles of Frankfort prevent you from making your decisions on this issue based on the data, based on common sense, based on our important Kentucky principles of individual liberty and economic opportunity, based on the best interests of your constituents and this community.
There is credible evidence to show that economic activity is greater in counties in right-to-work states versus those in states without such laws.
In my statewide Bluegrass Beacon column, which ran in Friday’s Bowling Green Daily News, I noted research revealing that Tennessee’s three most-populated counties bordering Kentucky experienced nearly 16 percent growth in private-sector employment between 2002 and 2012, while employment in the three most-populated Bluegrass State counties along that same Kentucky-Tennessee border by less than 4 percent during that entire decade.
If what’s happened in right-to-work states is any indication of what could transpire in Kentucky counties with such a policy, growth in manufacturing, incomes and population would all be significantly greater than in non-right-to-work counties while welfare rates would drop. And all of this just from allowing each individual worker to say “yes” or “no” to union membership without losing their jobs.
But I would note that neither should right-to-work be considered an anti-union policy.
Put aside emotions for a moment and look at the facts. What you will find is a very interesting – and little-known – connection between right-to-work and union membership:
In information cited by Kentucky Chamber of Commerce president Dave Adkisson, the five states where labor-union membership grew the fastest in America in 2013 – every single one of them were right-to-work states, including Tennessee, which was at the very top of that list. Union membership in the Volunteer State grew by 31,000 members – a whopping 25 percent – in one single year.
Union membership increased by more than 19 percent in Georgia, Alabama and South Carolina, and by more than 13 percent in Virginia – another of Kentucky’s neighbors.
As Mr. Adkisson noted: “this is not a union-busting bill to try to get rid of unions or union membership. It actually is for economic prosperity. After all, a growing economy means more companies moving into the area, which means more opportunities – not just for jobs and growth, but also for unions to organize and add to their ranks”
But the unions must do it the right way –through persuasion, not coercion.
In a recent Bluegrass Institute video, we went to Russell County, Kentucky, which this year lost one-third of its manufacturing base when the Fruit of the Loom plant there announced it was closing.
Like most Kentucky communities, Jamestown is a close-knit community. Generations of family members worked at that plant. Families were raised, college tuitions paid and paychecks were spent in that community. But suddenly, 600 people were facing the loss of those jobs.
Claude Morrison has worked there for 30 years – many of those years with perfect attendance. His wife, Terry, worked their previously but had since left and earned her Master’s Degree in psychology. These are not people who want to sit back and collect a check. But they also are people who love their families and communities and who don’t want to leave.
Despite her educational achievements, Terry Morrison has finally found a job – abut it’s two hours away and it’s for barely more than minimum wage.
Because of the distance, Terry is gone from home three consecutive weeks each month. This has very real consequences. Terry tells about how that when her father died on July first and her sister passed away on July 10th, she wasn’t able to be there to help out like she would have been had she found employment opportunities in her community.
August 21st was the first birthday of Claude and Terry’s granddaughter. She missed her first teeth arriving; her first steps; and her first birthday party because the only employment opportunity she could find was two hours away.
The Morrisons said: we don’t want to sit around and wait on a check to arrive on the first of the month. We want – and we should have – the right to work.
Their judge-executive agrees.
On our video, Russell County Judge-Executive Gary Robertson explains how Fruit of the Loom’s closing will shrink annual tax revenues in his small county by nearly $200,000. The county will plug that gap this year by not filling a vacant road-department position, forgoing a 1.5 percent raise for employees and using $130,000 in additional rainy day funds.
But what about next year?
Judge Robertson – a Democrat – told our camera: “this should not be a political or party-line issue. This should be about what’s best for our fellow Kentuckians who are looking for – and will take advantage of – opportunities when they have them. A right-to-work law could help us get more people working locally for good money rather than having to leave and try and find jobs elsewhere.”
The issue is not Fruit of the Loom leaving. Fruit of the Looms come. Fruit of the Looms go.
The question is: will we as a county do everything we can to make ourselves a mecca for economic development and capital investment so that the Claude and Terry Morrisons in communities across Kentucky – including right here in Warren County – have the opportunity to prosper where they are planted.
Only a person who doesn’t understand how important families and communities are to Kentuckians would be so crass as to suggest that they should just move to where the jobs are. But what if the jobs could be in Jamestown? What if the jobs could be in Warren County? What if the jobs could be in Kentucky?
This is one of the greatest days for me in the 14 years I have lived in this community. I couldn’t be more proud of our leadership today. I commend you for your foresight, your courage and your commitment to serve the long-term interests of all warren Countians and not just the short-term interests of a few.
Thank you and oh, by the way: Democratic Judge-Executive Gary Robertson, who took a stand for right-to-work in his community and on the Bluegrass Institute’s video was reelected – proving once again that good policy is not only the right thing to do, but it can be very good politics, too.