West Virginia Becomes 26th Right-to-Work State, Overriding Governor Veto with ALEC Model

The West Virginia Legislature overrides Governor Earl Ray Tomblin’s veto of the “Workplace Freedom Act,” making West Virginia the 26th state to enact right-to-work legislation prohibiting mandatory union membership or fees. The override follows the coordinated Koch-backed playbook documented by SourceWatch: ALEC provides model legislation, State Policy Network think tanks generate supporting research, and Americans for Prosperity mobilizes “grassroots” pressure campaigns.

West Virginia’s passage represents a significant breakthrough for corporate labor suppression in a historically pro-union state with deep coal mining and manufacturing labor traditions. The state had resisted right-to-work for decades despite corporate lobbying, making the 2016 override evidence of the intensified ALEC-Koch coordination strategy launched at the December 2010 ALEC summit. The override of a Democratic governor’s veto demonstrates the power of coordinated corporate lobbying and ALEC legislative networks to overcome both executive opposition and longstanding labor strength.

West Virginia’s fall to right-to-work signals the accelerating destruction of organized labor in former industrial heartland states, following Indiana and Michigan (2012) and preceding Kentucky (2017). The rapid cascade of right-to-work passages in traditional union strongholds between 2012-2017 reveals these are not organic state-level decisions but rather a nationally orchestrated campaign using identical ALEC model language and coordinated Koch network funding to systematically eliminate union power across manufacturing and industrial regions.