Kentucky Becomes 27th Right-to-Work State in First Week of Session Using ALEC Model

The Kentucky Legislature passes House Bill 1, an ALEC-inspired right-to-work measure, making Kentucky the 27th right-to-work state just one week into the 2017 legislative session. Governor Matt Bevin signs the legislation swiftly, fulfilling what ALEC describes as “one of the most repeated campaign promises of the election.” The Kentucky House Committee passes HB 1 amid mass protests by labor activists opposing the measure.

The extraordinary speed of passage—achieving right-to-work status within seven days of session opening—demonstrates the pre-coordination characteristic of ALEC campaigns: model legislation is drafted and refined in advance, corporate lobbying pressure is organized before session begins, and legislative sponsors are recruited and briefed on talking points. The rapid passage leaves no time for genuine public deliberation or democratic debate, revealing right-to-work as a pre-packaged corporate agenda rather than responsive legislation addressing constituent needs.

Kentucky’s adoption as the 27th state marks what ALEC itself calls “Right-to-Work’s Watershed Year” in 2017, part of the accelerating cascade of right-to-work states following the coordinated 2010 ALEC summit strategy. Coming one year after West Virginia (2016) and five years after Indiana and Michigan (2012), Kentucky’s passage completes the destruction of union strongholds across the Ohio River Valley manufacturing belt. The systematic elimination of collective bargaining rights in former industrial heartland states represents the culmination of ALEC’s 38-year campaign (since 1979) to impose right-to-work through coordinated model legislation, finally achieving breakthrough success through the Wisconsin template and sustained Koch network funding.