(WASHINGTON) – Kentucky Republican state lawmakers pushed through three bills this weekend designed to attack working families by driving down wages and weakening labor unions. Gov. Matt Bevin has already signed the bills into law. The Republican majority in both chambers made these destructive bills a top priority, holding a rare weekend session to push through the controversial legislation while hundreds of working men and women protested in the statehouse.

House Bill 1 will officially make Kentucky the 27th right-to-work state, undercutting the bargaining power of union workers. House Bill 3 repeals the state’s prevailing wage law that ensured workers on public projects received good pay and benefits. Republican lawmakers also passed ‘paycheck deception’ legislation (SB6), making it more difficult for union members to pay dues to their labor organization.

“With three strokes of his pen, Gov. Bevin has gutted worker protections in the state of Kentucky,” said Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa. “The governor and the state’s Republican state legislators are leading the state down a road to ruin by passing right-to-work. There is no disputing the facts – wages and benefits are significantly lower in right-to-work states than in free bargaining states while poverty rates are higher. Right-to-work laws only enrich corporations while working families are left behind.”

Founded in 1903, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters represents 1.4 million hardworking men and women throughout the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico. Visit www.teamster.org for more information. Follow us on Twitter @Teamsters and “like” us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/teamsters.

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