Key Votes

This bill lets just 10% of registered voters sign a petition to freeze local government and school district budgets at prior-year levels, blocking tax revenue increases above inflation plus 3%. The petition mechanism includes no protection for wages and benefits already negotiated in collective bargaining agreements, meaning a successful petition could prevent a school district or city from funding raises it already agreed to pay teachers, public employees, and other union workers. The bill also provides government-funded petition infrastructure by embedding signature pages in tax notices mailed to every property owner.

This bill creates a government-funded petition process that allows just 10% of registered voters to block school districts, cities, and counties from raising property tax revenue above the prior year's level. There is no protection for wages and benefits already negotiated in union contracts — meaning a successful petition could prevent a public employer from funding raises it already agreed to pay. The bill also embeds petition signature pages directly into tax notices mailed to every property owner at taxpayer expense, giving anti-tax groups a built-in organizing tool that labor has no equivalent way to counter.

This bill eliminates mandatory fire sprinkler systems in new townhouse construction of four units or fewer and prohibits cities and counties from requiring them locally. It directly reduces work hours for UA sprinkler fitters who install these systems, removing a key source of building trades employment in residential construction. The bill also strips local governments of the authority to set their own fire safety standards — the same preemption approach used to block local wage protections.

SB 521 gives employers a 75% tax credit for paying child care expenses for their workers, setting up on-site child care programs, or pooling resources with other employers to expand community child care availability. Affordable child care is one of the biggest barriers working families face, and this credit changes the economics at the bargaining table by making it significantly cheaper for employers to offer child care as a workplace benefit. Labor supports this bill because employer-provided child care is a real compensation issue for union members with families, and the collaborative investment provision opens new doors for smaller employers to participate.

This massive rewrite of Kansas unemployment insurance law touched dozens of provisions governing who qualifies for benefits, how long they last, and what counts as "suitable work." While early versions contained real wins for workers — including protections against midnight budget cuts to UI and guarantees that union-negotiated supplemental unemployment pay wouldn't reduce state benefits — the final version that came out of conference committee drew unanimous opposition from Democrats, signaling that critical worker protections were gutted or that harmful restrictions on eligibility and benefits were added. Labor opposes the bill as passed because the final product failed to protect the provisions that mattered most to working families who depend on unemployment insurance during layoffs.

SB 452 makes it a crime to come within 25 feet of a first responder — including federal immigration agents — after being told to back away, even during lawful picketing where police are present. It also shields state and local officials from civil lawsuits when they help enforce federal executive orders, including immigration raids at workplaces. Together, these provisions threaten workers' ability to picket freely and create a chilling effect on organizing at meatpacking plants, farms, and construction sites where immigrant coworkers could face enforcement actions.

This amendment to the five-year state budget penalizes school districts financially when staff "encourage, facilitate, or enable" student walkouts — language broad enough to punish a teacher for simply not blocking a door. Public school employees face an impossible choice between exercising professional judgment and exposing their district to funding cuts that hit salaries, staffing levels, and working conditions. The amendment attacks the principle of collective action itself: penalizing institutions for failing to suppress organized protest sets a precedent that could extend to worker actions.

This bill lets just 10% of registered voters in a community block local governments and school districts from raising property tax revenue — even when increases are needed to fund negotiated wage agreements. Protest petition forms would be mailed directly to every property owner at taxpayer expense, giving anti-tax groups a powerful new tool to squeeze the budgets that pay public employees. There is no protection for existing union contracts, meaning a successful petition could make it impossible for employers to fund already-negotiated raises for teachers, firefighters, and other public workers.

SCR 1616 proposes amending the Kansas Constitution to cap annual increases in assessed property values at 3%, rolling the baseline back to 2022 levels. Despite being marketed as property tax relief, the cap does not limit actual tax bills — local governments retain full authority to raise mill levies to meet budget needs, simply shifting the burden onto new homeowners, new construction, and commercial property. The result is squeezed revenue for cities, counties, and school districts whose budgets fund the wages, benefits, and jobs of thousands of union-represented teachers, firefighters, road crews, and public safety workers. The cap also penalizes new construction by taxing it at full market value while capping existing properties, directly undermining housing affordability and construction trades employment — contradicting the Senate's own vote the same week to encourage new home building. The Senate adopted the resolution 30-10 on Emergency Final Action.

This bill creates statewide electrician licensing with an 8,000-hour experience requirement for journeyman electricians — a standard that matches union apprenticeship programs — and explicitly recognizes completion of a U.S. Department of Labor registered apprenticeship as a qualification for licensure. It replaces the old patchwork of city and county licensing with a single portable state license, ensuring consistent quality standards and making it easier for skilled electricians to work across Kansas. A YEA vote supports strong training standards that protect both workers and consumers.

This bill requires the Department of Insurance to produce cost reports on health coverage bills — but the reports only count premium increases, not the savings workers get from better coverage. Even worse, the underlying data submitted by insurance companies is kept secret from the public, making the reports impossible to verify or challenge. The result is a tool that can be used session after session to kill coverage mandates that protect working families' health benefits.

This bill eliminates mandatory fire sprinkler installation in new townhouse construction of four units or fewer and bars cities and counties from requiring sprinklers on their own. It directly reduces work hours for UA sprinkler fitters who install these systems, while removing a key fire safety protection for Kansas families. The bill also sets a troubling precedent by using state law to override local building and safety standards — the same preemption strategy that has been used to block local wage protections.

This bill makes it a criminal misdemeanor for public employees to use any government resources — including work time — to communicate about constitutional amendments or ballot questions. It removes an existing legal safe harbor that allowed public workers to respond to citizen inquiries and share neutral information, leaving school communications staff, city clerks, and agency employees exposed to prosecution for routine job duties. The bill also imposes new restrictions on how local governments can inform voters about bond issues, making it harder for school districts and cities to explain construction bond proposals — threatening the publicly funded building projects that put trades workers on the job.

SB 375 imposes new legal burdens on proxy advisory firms — the companies that union pension funds and retirement plans hire to research and recommend how to vote their shares on corporate issues like executive pay, workplace safety, and governance. By requiring a narrow type of "written financial analysis" for any recommendation that goes against company management, the bill makes it harder and more expensive for these advisors to recommend votes on labor, environmental, and governance proposals that workers' retirement funds depend on. This is part of a national campaign to weaken the tools unions use to hold corporations accountable as shareholders.

This bill requires "NONCITIZEN" to be printed on the driver's licenses of lawfully present green card holders, visa workers, and other immigrants. Because driver's licenses are used for employment verification and everyday workplace identification, this marks immigrant workers — many of whom are union members in Kansas meatpacking and agriculture — in ways that make them more vulnerable to employer intimidation and less likely to report safety violations, wage theft, or participate in organizing.

This bill requires legislative approval before any state agency can seek federal waivers to expand Medicaid eligibility or make changes to services for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. It creates a major barrier to federal funding that could raise wages for Kansas's roughly 10,000 direct support professionals — chronically underpaid workers who provide daily care to some of our most vulnerable neighbors. By adding political hurdles to routine federal waiver requests, this law makes it harder for the state to bring home federal dollars that support healthcare jobs and working families' access to care.

This bill requires legislative approval before any state agency can seek federal waivers to expand public assistance programs like Medicaid or make changes to services for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. It creates a new bureaucratic barrier that can block federal funding for healthcare coverage and delay rate increases for the roughly 10,000 direct support professionals who care for Kansans with disabilities — workers already among the lowest-paid in the state. By adding a legislative veto over routine program improvements, this law makes it harder to expand healthcare access for uninsured working families and harder to raise wages for direct care workers.

This bill removes the authority of local health officers to prohibit public gatherings during infectious disease outbreaks, downgrading that power to a non-binding recommendation. For nurses, meat-processing workers, corrections officers, and other frontline employees, this eliminates a critical legal backstop — when a health officer could only "recommend" against gatherings, workers who stay home to protect themselves have no legal protection from being fired. The veto override vote stripped away public health enforcement tools that essential workers depend on during emergencies.

This bill removes the authority of local health officers to prohibit public gatherings during infectious disease outbreaks, replacing it with the power to merely "recommend against" them. Without enforceable closure orders, essential workers — nurses, teachers, corrections officers, and food processing employees — lose a critical legal backstop that protected them when employers ignored public health guidance during disease emergencies. The bill also adds new barriers to state-level disease response and gives legislative leaders the power to override health orders, politicizing future outbreak decisions.

This bill prohibits Kansas courts and administrative hearing officers from deferring to state agency expertise when interpreting laws and regulations. That means when the Department of Labor, Workers' Compensation Board, or Public Employee Relations Board rules in a worker's favor, employers can now relitigate those decisions from scratch in court — with no weight given to the agency's interpretation. The result is a playing field tilted toward employers who can afford lengthy court battles to overturn worker-protective rulings on wages, unemployment benefits, workplace safety, and public sector bargaining rights.

Nine senators voted to force SB 216 — the Kansas Paid Sick Time Act — out of committee and onto the floor for debate. The bill would guarantee every private-sector worker in Kansas earns paid sick leave, a core labor standard that Kansas currently lacks entirely. Thirty senators voted to keep it buried in committee, refusing to allow even a floor vote on a policy that directly affects the health and economic security of working families.

Nine senators voted to force SCR 1609 — a proposed constitutional amendment to repeal Kansas\'s right-to-work provision — out of committee and onto the floor. Kansas is one of the few states where right-to-work is enshrined in the constitution itself, requiring a two-thirds supermajority plus a statewide vote to change. Thirty senators voted to prevent the people of Kansas from even having the chance to vote on this question.

HB 2160 creates the Kansas Municipal Employee Whistleblower Act, making it illegal for supervisors to fire, demote, suspend, or retaliate against city, county, and school district employees who report unlawful or dangerous conduct. Workers can report problems to any agency, organization, or person — including the press or their union — without first going through their boss. This law covers tens of thousands of public-sector workers represented by AFL-CIO unions and gives them the right to sue for damages and attorney fees if they face retaliation for speaking up.

HB 2160 creates the Kansas Municipal Employee Whistleblower Act, making it illegal for supervisors to fire, demote, suspend, or retaliate against city, county, and school district employees who report unlawful or dangerous conduct. Workers can report problems to any person or agency — including their union, the press, or law enforcement — without first going through their boss. This law directly protects AFSCME, IAFF, IBEW, and Teamsters members working in public service, giving them a legal right to speak up about corruption, safety hazards, and misuse of public funds without fear of losing their jobs.

HB 2160 creates the Kansas Municipal Employee Whistleblower Act, making it illegal for supervisors to fire, demote, suspend, or retaliate against city, county, and school district employees who report unlawful or dangerous conduct. Workers can report problems to any outside agency, the press, or their union without going through their boss first — and can sue for damages and attorney fees if they face retaliation. This law directly protects AFSCME, IAFF, IBEW, KNEA, and Teamsters members working in public service across Kansas.

This massive rewrite of Kansas unemployment insurance law touched dozens of provisions governing who qualifies for benefits, how long they last, and what counts as "suitable work." While early versions contained real wins for workers — including protections against midnight budget cuts to UI and guarantees that union-negotiated supplemental unemployment pay wouldn't reduce state benefits — the final version that came out of conference committee gutted critical worker protections and added harmful restrictions on eligibility and benefits. Labor opposes the bill as passed because the final product failed to protect the provisions that mattered most to working families who depend on unemployment insurance during layoffs.

SB 241 rewrites Kansas law to make employer non-solicitation agreements "conclusively presumed enforceable" against workers — with no income floor — flipping the burden so employees must hire a lawyer and go to court to challenge restrictions on where they can work. The bill also strips judges of the power to throw out overreaching agreements, instead requiring courts to save them by trimming them down, removing any incentive for employers to write fair contracts. The broad language covering anyone who "interferes with the employment relationship" could even be used to threaten former employees who help their old coworkers organize a union.

This bill bars state agencies from requiring college degrees for most government jobs and promotions, replacing them with experience-based criteria. While skills-based hiring sounds good on paper, state employee unions raised serious concerns that removing degree requirements without safeguards could lead to wage compression, downgrading of job classifications, and lower pay for experienced workers. The bill also lacks any enforcement mechanism, leaving state workers with no way to hold agencies accountable if they misapply the law.

This constitutional amendment would abolish Kansas's merit-based system for selecting Supreme Court justices and replace it with partisan elections, while also allowing justices to raise campaign money and participate in party politics. The Kansas Supreme Court is the final word on workers' comp appeals, public employee bargaining rights, and wage enforcement — and partisan elections would open the door for corporate donors to spend unlimited money electing judges friendly to their interests. Labor opposes this measure because the court that decides whether injured workers get compensated and whether public employees can bargain should not be beholden to the biggest campaign contributors.

This constitutional amendment would let the legislature revoke any state regulation — including workplace safety rules, workers' comp standards, and wage enforcement procedures — through a simple concurrent resolution that the governor cannot veto. A catch-all provision allowing revocation whenever the legislature decides a rule is "not beneficial to the public good" gives lawmakers unlimited power to gut protections with no executive branch check. Because it amends the constitution, this change would be permanent and could not be reversed by a future governor or legislature without another statewide vote.

This bill creates the Kansas Municipal Employee Whistleblower Act, making it illegal for supervisors to fire, demote, suspend, or retaliate against city, county, and school district employees who report unlawful or dangerous conduct. Workers can report problems to anyone — the media, a state agency, or their union — without first going through their boss. This is a direct win for AFSCME, IAFF, IBEW, and Teamsters members in public employment, giving them real legal protections when they speak up about corruption, safety hazards, or misuse of public money.

SB 222 prohibits courts and administrative hearing officers from relying on state agency expertise when interpreting the law — even inside workers' comp hearings, unemployment appeals, and wage claim proceedings where most working people's cases are actually decided. This means employers with deep pockets can re-litigate settled questions from scratch at every level, dragging out cases and discouraging workers from pursuing their claims. Kansas would go further than any other state or even the federal standard by reaching inside the administrative process itself, weakening enforcement of every labor protection on the books.

SB 76 dictates the exact words every school employee — including custodians, bus drivers, and cafeteria workers — must use when addressing students, and creates a new parent-triggered complaint process to discipline workers who don't comply. This complaint pipeline bypasses union grievance procedures and collectively bargained due process protections, letting school boards investigate and punish employees with no right to representation, no evidentiary standard, and no appeal. Labor opposes this bill because the government should not be mandating workplace speech for public employees or creating discipline systems that go around the contracts workers fought to win.

SB 161 requires a full act of the legislature before any state agency can adjust Medicaid reimbursement rates for disability services or expand public assistance programs. For Kansas's roughly 30,000 direct support professionals — care workers already earning poverty-level wages of $13-15/hour — this hands a historically hostile legislature veto power over the only realistic path to pay increases. Labor opposes this bill because it freezes the administrative flexibility that agencies need to raise care worker wages and capture available federal matching dollars.