Dear Editor,
The Danville-Boyle County Economic Development Partnership posted on its Facebook Page today, “Indiana enacts a right-to-work law, Missouri is predicted to do so as well in the near future. This leaves Kentucky in a precarious competitive position for business development, surrounded by states (particularly to the south of Kentucky) that do not force employees to join a union or pay union dues as a condition of their employment. It’s an issue of workers’ freedom of choice! The EDP and Boyle County Industrial Foundation are on record in support of passage of a right-to-work law here in Kentucky.”
I am not sure who the members of this organization are, but I am part of this community, and I want them to know that they do not speak for me. If Indiana, Tennessee, Alabama and the other states with so-called right to work laws reduced their minimum wage to $1/hour, would you want Kentucky to do the same thing? Is there no “path to competitiveness” that you would not take?
The only reason we have an 8-hour day and health insurance is because of the unions. It’s not so much a matter of economic parity for this group as it is their desire to eliminate workers rights to bargain collectively from our economy.
When unions are eliminated, wages and benefits will tumble at an even faster rate, and the 1 percent will get even richer than they are now, which, I suspect, is the true agenda of the EDP.
Jim Porter
Danville
