Union propaganda touts compulsory unionism as a “tonic” for a wide array of economic ills. But Kentucky workers are choking on this “tonic.”

A decade ago, the share of Kentucky private-sector employees who were compelled to accept a union as their “exclusive” bargaining agent in contract negotiations was equal to the national average. By 2003, the share of private-sector workers subject to union monopoly bargaining was 10% above the overall average.

The national AFL-CIO’s PR department, therefore, obviously has no interest in painting an unduly bleak picture of how Kentucky employees and their families are faring relative to residents of other states. But the economic news from Kentucky conveyed in a “fact sheet”2 posted on the AFL-CIO web site in June is very bleak indeed.

Citing several recent U.S. Census Bureau reports, the AFL-CIO hierarchy’s “Show Us the Jobs” project charges that the number of Kentuckians with employer- provided health-insurance coverage fell by 188,000, or 7.6%, between 2000 and 2002. Furthermore, the Bluegrass State’s real median household income fell by $554 between 2000-2001 and 2001-2002. Over the same period, the number of Kentuckians in poverty rose by 69,000.