As Twitter battles and cabinet confirmation hearings dominate the news cycle this week, one state has been following a different story: the passing of new so-called “right-to-work” legislation.
Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin signed legislation this past weekend that allows workers in that state to choose not to pay union dues to unions that represent them — delivering a blow to the collective bargaining rights of those unions. A piece of legislation that has long been in the works, this new law was passed by a newly-Republican legislature and takes effect immediately.
Reid Wilson at The Hill explains:
Kentucky is the 27th state in the country to adopt right-to-work legislation, and the last state in the South to pass such a law.
Republicans who took control of the Kentucky state government have plotted an aggressive assault on unions, abortion rights and other pillars of the Democratic coalition.
The GOP-led House and Senate also passed a ban on abortions after 20 weeks, which Bevin said he would sign this weekend.
The legislature is also considering measures to roll back a law requiring construction companies to pay workers prevailing wages for public works projects.
In a statement, Kentucky AFL-CIO President Bill Londrigan called the right-to-work and prevailing wage measures “some of the most extreme anti-workers bills in the nation today, slashing wages and silencing working people across the Commonwealth.”
Aside from Kentucky, labor groups are playing defense in such states as Missouri and Iowa, where Democrats suffered losses in November.
