GEORGETOWN, Del.—The Sussex County Council on Jan. 2 postponed its vote on a bill to ban the union shop in the county,
after most of the four dozen people who spoke opposed the measure, and protesters outside put a picture of Councilmember Rob Arlett, its sponsor, on a large inflatable rat. “Right to work is about defunding, dividing and destroying the ability of the unions to negotiate on behalf of the worker,” said United Food and Commercial Workers member Jermaine Johnson. The bill would exempt the county from a state law that allows union contracts to require workers who are not members to pay “fair-share fees” for representation. Both the state Attorney General’s Office and the county attorney have said that’s not legally possible, and two of the five Councilmembers—all Republicans—told the Wilmington News Journal that they were inclined to vote against the bill on those grounds. “Right to work is a Republican issue,” Carol Bodine, secretary of the state GOP, told them. “My guess is that all these pro-union people here did not support any of your candidacies. The right-to-work people did.” Arlett said he hopes to have a vote as soon as Jan. 9.
