For Immediate Release: Friday, May 15

Contact: Jim Waters (270) 320-4376

(BOWLING GREEN, Ky.) — Join the Bluegrass Institute, Kentucky’s first and only free-market think tank, and several other national and statewide groups and representatives at the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green (Exit 28 @ I-65) on Monday, May 18, from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. (central) for a town hall meeting on the local right-to-work movement.

“In an effort to accomplish what the political gridlock in Frankfort has thwarted, local officials in several counties have passed their own right-to-work laws in a bipartisan manner for the good of their constituents,” Bluegrass Institute president Jim Waters said. “Right-to-work policies attract businesses and grow economies by giving individual workers the freedom to say ‘no’ to union membership without losing their jobs.”

Monday’s event, which is being hosted by the Americans for Tax Reform’s Center for Worker Freedom, will include a panel discussion of lawmakers and experts to assist workers, business owners, manager and all Kentuckians interested in learning more about how right-to-work policies work and how employees can exercise their freedoms concerning union membership and dues.

“What Kentucky counties have done is only the beginning of a nationwide movement by local governments to advance their own prosperity and freedom by bypassing the gridlock in their state capitals, Matt Patterson, executive director of the Center for Worker Freedom, said. “This path to right-to-work is open in many states, but Kentucky's strong and very clear home rule statute made it the best place to begin this effort.”

Rep. Jim DeCesare, R-Bowling Green, will lead the panel discussion, which will include Ron Bunch, president and CEO of the Bowling Green Area Chamber of Commerce, Matt Patterson, executive director of the Center for Worker Freedom, and Jon Crosby, field representative for Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky. Louisville attorney Jason Nemes of Fultz Maddox Dickens PLC, co-counsel for Hardin County in UAW v. Hardin County will address the legal rationale for county right-to-work policies.

Since Warren County’s Fiscal Court on December 19 voted overwhelmingly to become America’s first-right-to-work county, Judge-Executive Mike Buchanon reported that the community now has made it on the site-selection lists of around 50 companies looking to expand or relocate. These companies represent more than 5,000 new jobs and more than $800 million in capital investment.