The West Virginia AFL-CIO announced Thursday it has begun exploring legal options after a local radio station pulled its advertisements challenging right-to-work laws.
The state is currently in a debate over right-to-work. The Republican majority made it a priority since securing the legislature back in 2014. The policy, which has passed in 25 states, outlaws mandatory union dues or fees as a condition of employment. Labor unions tend to be very opposed to it. Now the state AFL-CIO is exploring legal options after the West Virginia Radio Corporation pulled its ad spot challenging the policy.
“I am at a loss to explain it, but absent any response from the company other than a one-sentence email that said the ads are ‘inflammatory,’” West Virginia AFL-CIO President Kenny Perdue said in a statement. “I have to assume the decision was handed down by top management of the West Virginia Radio Corporation, which is headed by Chairman John Raese.”
Raese has interests in several companies and a multitude of radio stations including those owned by the West Virginia Radio Corporation. He also served as chairman for the West Virginia Republican Party but lost in an attempt to become governor of the state. He is an adamant supporter of right-to-work laws. All three union ads were paid for before being pulled.
“If the company executives had some question about the content of the ads, they should have contacted us,” Perdue continued. “That’s the normal practice in communications advertising.”
Right-to-work critics argue reining in union power will hurt the working poor. The union ad claims the policy causes a 54 percent increase in workplace injury and can lower wages as much as $6,000. The problem is, not all economists are in agreement. Right-to-work laws do not ban unions or prevent workers from freely joining them, they simply give workers the choice not pay dues.
“Instead, the company started running the ads, then after about a week of airing them, suddenly ‘declined’ to run all three of them,” Perdue added. “It’s very odd.”
The Heritage Foundation and the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) recently released studies showing different conclusions on whether right-to-work lowers wages. While EPI claims workers in states get paid less on average, Heritage says the assertion is misleading. According, EPI needs adjust for cost of living. Once that is factored in, the difference in disappears. Essentially, states may have lower but it costs less live in them.
It is also not completely true that unions keep safety standards up. The labor movement did indeed help historically bring fundamental workplace protections. Nowadays, though, such protections are provided or required by the government.
The West Virginia Radio Corporation did not respond to a request for comment from The Daily Caller News Foundation.
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