The US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit [official website] on Friday upheld [opinion, PDF] a Kentucky county’s “right-to-work” ordinance. The court ruled Hardin County was not preempted by federal labor law, particularly section 4(b) of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) [text], from banning agreements between workers and unions requiring workers to join a union, a move which many believe will result in the proliferation of similar local-level laws restricting the role of labor union’s in the workplace. The labor unions challenging the local law had argued only “State” right-to-work legislation was expressly reserved from preemption, but the court found use of “State” within Section 4(b) was inclusive of political subdivisions, including counties. According to one of the challenger’s attorneys in the case, the unions will likely ask for the Sixth Circuit to reconsider the case [Reuters report].

Currently, 25 states have right-to-work laws [JURIST backgrounder]. The US Supreme Court [official website] heard oral arguments [JURIST report] in January on the First Amendment rights of public teachers who do not wish to pay union fees. The Supreme Court split 4-4 [SCOTUSblog] in the case, defaulting to affirming the lower court decision, though the teachers have expressed interest in having the case reheard after the ninth justice is seated. Last year the Wisconsin Senate approved [JURIST report] Senate Bill 44, which provides that employees cannot be required to join a labor organizations. In November 2014 the Indiana Supreme Court upheld [JURIST report] the state’s right-to-work law, stating it did not violate the state’s constitution. In August 2013 the Michigan Court of Appeals ruled [JURIST report] that Michigan’s right-to-work law applies to civil service employees.