Kentucky Senator Gary Clemmons has filed SB 161 to repeal Kentucky’s 10-year-old Right to Work Act. This common sense Bill comes at a time when many Madison and Fayette countians are looking for ways to survive the current economic climate and reduce the taxpayer burden of funding public assistance.
You can view and follow the active 2026 Senate Bill here: 26RS SB 161
During a recent press conference, Senator Clemmons says, “So we have to get the balance and try to maintain affordability, where people do not get on SNAP Benefits. Where people do not have to stand in line to get food assistance,” Clemons said. “It’s not a system. It’s a broken system, and you should not have to work two, three, or four full-time jobs or three or four part-time jobs to make ends meet.”
Article: Bill filed to make Kentucky no longer a right-to-work state
You can read about former Governor Matt Bevin’s related 2017 enactments here:
Kentucky Becomes 27th Right to Work State; Legislature Repeals Prevailing Wage Law
So how will repealing the Right to Work, work for Kentucky?
Throughout American history, workers have improved their wages, benefits, and safety through collective bargaining—not by chance, but by standing together and negotiating as equals. Many of the workplace standards families now depend on exist because employees had the legal right and financial ability to bargain collectively, such as:
- The 40-hour workweek and overtime pay – Won through union negotiations that pushed back against six- and seven-day workweeks with no extra compensation.
- Employer-provided health insurance – First widely secured through collective bargaining in manufacturing, coal mining, and public-sector jobs, long before it became common elsewhere.
- Pensions and retirement plans – Negotiated by unions to ensure workers could retire with dignity instead of working until they physically could not.
- Workplace safety standards – From protective equipment to limits on hazardous exposure, unions forced employers to address injuries, deaths, and unsafe conditions that were once routine.
- Paid leave and sick time – Bargained into contracts so workers didn’t have to choose between their health and their paycheck.
- Fair scheduling and job protections – Including seniority rules, grievance procedures, and protections against arbitrary firing.
- Higher wages across entire industries – Union contracts raised pay not just for members, but also set wage standards that non-union employers had to match to compete for workers.
Many of the major victories won by labor unions have become the basic standards we now expect from our employers. Yet, as individuals, we struggle to protect and improve these gains so that our work can continue to support a decent quality of life. Over time, we have grown apathetic about our own economic security and complacent in accepting whatever our employers choose to offer. We are told that hard work will be rewarded, but too often the reality is the opposite: we are pushed to work longer hours, give more of ourselves, and sacrifice the time we should be spending enjoying the fruits of our labor.
Right-to-Work laws weaken the system that made these gains possible. By allowing workers to benefit from union contracts without contributing to the cost of negotiating and enforcing them, these laws drain resources from employee representation and weaken bargaining power by discouraging workers from participating.
The result is predictable: lower wages, fewer benefits, weaker safety protections, and less job security for everyone, not just union members. Right-to-Work shifts power away from employees and toward large corporations, reversing progress that helped working families build the middle class.
Working people didn’t gain these protections by accident. They earned them together through blood, sweat, and tears—some even gave their life. Policies that undermine collective bargaining put those hard-won gains at risk.
United we stand, Kentucky, and divided, we are falling.