For years, Republicans in Kentucky have attempted to make the state Right to Work (for Less) only to be thwarted by Democrats who have historically held a majority in the state House of Representatives. After the 2016 election, Republicans have finally taken control of the House and are now pushing two anti-labor bills.

Just hour after being sworn in, the House committee approved a Right to Work (for Less) bill that would also strip public employees of the right to strike and repeal the states prevailing wage law. Kentucky is the only state in the South that isn’t Right to Work (for Less). About 11% of their workforce is in a union. As union members rallied, they were kept outside of the hearing room by the Koch Brothers funded group Americans for Prosperity who held a private breakfast in the meeting room before the hearing to ensure that all seats within the hearing room would be occupied. As Kentucky Governor Matt Bevins, who has close ties to the Koch Brothers, entered to room to testify in favor of Right to Work (for Less) he was met with chants of “suits in there, boots out here” from the union protestors.

In another piece of legislation aimed at unions, the House Committee also passed a bill to repeal the prevailing law in the state. Prevailing Wage laws set a minimum wage for companies bidding on publicly funded projects. These laws are geared towards preventing contractors from bidding so low that they drive down wages in the local economy. While opponents of Prevailing Wage say that it raises the cost of doing business, a 2001 study by the Kentucky Legislative Research Commission found that “prevailing wage has no statistically significant effect on construction cost.” Other studies have found that thanks to prevailing wage laws, workplace accidents are reduced and the workforce is better trained and more skilled. By repealing the prevailing wage law, wages for construction workers are expected to drop. In a study done by the National Bureau of Economic Research, it found that overall salaries will drop 2-4% for construction workers following the repeal of prevailing wage laws, but for union trades members, they will drop 10%.

This attack on prevailing wages is part of a nationwide attack on prevailing wage. In the Republicans Party Platform, they called for repealing Davis Beacon, the act that guarantees a prevailing wage for all federally funded projects. While millions of blue collar construction workers and public sector union members in Kentucky and across the country bought into the act of Trump and his cohorts, billionaires like the Koch Brothers have been waiting in the wings to destroy their unions take protection away from the very people who elected them. It is sad that union members who voted for Trump didn’t see this coming, but at least they got their guns… kidding.