Local Right-to-Work ordinances could help struggling communities

Promote worker freedom by creating local right-to-work zones.

There’s a seemingly endless stream of political hoops to jump through before Illinois can pass a statewide Right-to-Work law.

But James Sherk at the Heritage Foundation has proposed an interesting workaround: topple the political roadblocks set up by labor lobbyists in Springfield and create pockets of worker freedom by passing local Right-to-Work ordinances.

It’s a novel idea, but it just might work.

There’s a legal case to be made for allowing local Right-to-Work ordinances. It’s based on the idea that a city or a county has as much authority within its borders as state government does, until the state says otherwise. If the Illinois General Assembly has the power to pass a statewide Right-to-Work law, a county commission should be able to pass one for the county.

The policy argument for Right-to-Work ordinances is pretty basic too: nobody should be forced to contribute to a private organization, like a union, that they don’t agree with. The union counterargument – that workers benefit from union representation and therefore should expect to pay for it – just doesn’t hold water when you consider how many unionized workers have lost their jobs in recent years. One can’t assume that all workers automatically come out ahead with a union.

The case for a local Right-to-Work ordinance will be especially strong in communities like Decatur, Danville or Rockville that have been hit particularly hard by the recession. Right-to-Work states are already a proven magnet for companies that are looking to expand or relocate – why can’t a smaller community do the same? Wages and incomes are growing faster in Right-to-Work states too. Protecting workers from forced dues could be just the thing for Illinois communities that are still struggling to recover.

And a local Right-to-Work ordinance could be passed through the same procedure as any other local ordinance under a municipal or county charter.

But this local approach to Right-to-Work legislation is not without risks. Up to now, Right-to-Work laws have mainly been passed at the state level. In the handful of cases where a city or county has tried to bring forced dues to an end, those laws have been struck down in court. But what little case law there is out there isn’t very authoritative – we have yet to see an opinion from the judicial “big boys” in the federal courts of appeal, let alone the U.S. Supreme Court.

The first community that passes a local Right-to-Work measure will need to be ready to litigate. But there’s an argument to be made for them, and if a few communities passed ordinances and banded together, the legal defense would be more manageable. A successful appeal would have the potential to usher in a new era of prosperity for beleaguered local economies.

In short, local Right-to-Work ordinances would be a challenge, but for struggling communities in Illinois, it just might be a risk worth taking.