By Nelson Cary, Angela Gibson and Mike Griffaton
Kentucky has become the 27th state in the nation to enact right-to-work legislation. It did so on one of its legislators’ first days back in the office in 2017. The “trifecta” is made up of three different bills, all directed at compulsory union membership and union-scale wages. Read more about Kentucky’s right-to-work law, repeal of state prevailing wage requirements, and limitations on deduction of union dues from employee paychecks here.
Kentucky’s action comes on the heels of a federal court of appeals holding late last year that upheld a Kentucky county’s right-to-work ordinance. That decision, which found that a county ordinance could constitute a “state law” under an NLRA provision giving states the leeway to enact right-to-work laws, has been appealed to the full court of appeals. A copy of that decision is here.