Republicans are reviving efforts to spur the manufacturing sector in Delaware by preventing unions from requiring all workers at a plant to pay dues.

Known as “right-to-work” legislation, this specific proposal would allow the head of the state economic development office to create certain zones where that law would be applicable. Companies building there would also be exempt from the gross receipts tax for five years.

Senate Minority Whip Greg Lavelle (R-Sharpley) says something needs to be done to reverse the downward trend of manufacturing in the First State.

“25 states have put in right-to-work laws and many of those have successfully encouraged and landed manufacturing jobs,” Lavelle said.

But the issue has been a nonstarter for the Democratic majority.

Top lawmakers – some former union members themselves – have said it's a union killer.

A spokeswoman for Gov. Jack Markell (D) says studies on right-to-work legislation are “inconclusive at best.”

The number of Delaware manufacturing jobs heavily contracted during the 2008 recession, though that number had been dropping since 2000 according to the U-S Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The industry carried about 45,000 jobs around the new millennium. Now, just under 26,000 people work in manufacturing in the First State.

Should Democrats stymie the proposal, Lavelle says he may look at encouraging Delaware’s three counties to adopt similar laws.

“If New Castle County government doesn’t want it, maybe Sussex County does," he said. "You have the old Seaford nylon plant down there that could be utilized and I would hope that we could look at it as a [statewide solution].”

Senate Labor and Industrial Relations Committee members will consider the bill first, where it failed to get a hearing last year.