Attorney General Aaron Ford said he would push to repeal the state’s longstanding “right-to-work” law that allows workers to choose if they want to join and pay dues to a union in their workplace if he’s elected as Nevada’s next governor.

“I’m getting rid of it,” the Democrat told the GangboX Podcast in December, an official broadcast from the Southern Nevada Building Trades Unions.

“The moment you send it to me — first term — I ain’t waiting,” said Ford, noting that the law can be repealed through the Legislature or a ballot initiative.

“They can send me a bill, and if they send it to me, I’m signing it,” he said. “It’s happening.”

Ford reiterated this week that repealing the law would be one of his first steps to restore workers’ rights and strengthen their ability to organize and negotiate better pay and benefits.

“I’ve been a longtime champion of protecting and expanding workers’ union rights,” he said in a statement. “As Senate Majority Leader, I fought to extend collective bargaining rights to Nevada state employees. Nevada’s world-class workers built the middle class — and I will honor their hard work for our state by being the most pro-worker Governor in our state’s history.”

On the issue, Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo holds the opposite stance.

“I wholeheartedly support Nevada’s right-to-work policies,” he said in a statement. “My administration remains focused on protecting workers’ right to choose, supporting job and wage growth, and keeping Nevada open for business.”

Proponents of Nevada’s right-to-work law — which went into effect in 1953 through a ballot initiative — argue that it allows freedom of choice and attracts outside industries that then help diversify the state’s economy. Opponents say it weakens unions and collective bargaining.

‘Right to freeload’

In an interview with the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Culinary Local 226 Secretary-Treasurer Ted Pappageorge described the law as “the right to freeload.”

Meanwhile, the influential Nevada Resorts Association and the Vegas Chamber that represents about 4,000 members support “right to work.” Last year, the chamber described keeping the law in place as one of its most important legislative priorities, noting that workers should continue having the right to decide whether a portion of their check goes to union dues.

“Nevada’s right-to-work laws are important for protecting Nevada employees,” the chamber said in a statement. “The Vegas Chamber believes this policy has worked well for decades because it is fair and balanced for both employers and employees.”

The resorts association echoed the point.

“We support the law that has been in place for more than 70 years,” said association President Virginia Valentine in a statement. “It has proven effective in preserving employee choice.”

Pappageorge described the arguments as “company gobbledygook.”

“This is a right to freeload,” he said about the law, “about weakening unions and weakening workers’ bargaining power.”

Union representation and benefits also uplift non-union workers, he said. About 90 percent of Culinary-represented employees pay dues.

Filings with the U.S. Department of Labor from 2023 show that Culinary members’ monthly fees ranged from about $16 to $49.50.

‘If you ain’t paying, you ain’t working’

In findings published in 2022, The National Bureau of Economic Research determined states that most recently approved right-to-work laws saw a drop in unionization rates of 4 percentage points within five years of adoption, and about a 1 percent decrease in wages.

Construction, education and public administration unions were the most affected, the bureau added.

Should Nevada repeal the law, union-covered workers in the private sector would not be forced to join a union but could be forced to pay union fees, at least partially, said National Right to Work Committee President Mark Mix.

“If you ain’t paying, you ain’t working,” he said, mocking Ford’s remarks.

Not all union-covered workers approve of their union’s outside activities such as supporting political causes, Mix explained. “It is a fundamental individual liberty to do with your labor what you want to do or to speak to your employer the way you want to.”

Right-to-work states lead the U.S. in manufacturing job growth in the private sector, he said. “Aaron Ford is putting the economic vitality for the State of Nevada in jeopardy, too.”

AFL-CIO is the largest U.S. federation of unions. A statement on the national AFL website said that while supporters of right-to-work laws say they protect workers against being forced to join a union, the reality is that federal law already makes it illegal to force someone to join a union.

“The real purpose of right to work laws is to tilt the balance toward big corporations and further rig the system at the expense of working families,” the statement said.

Gubernatorial race

Pappageorge criticized Lombardo’s position, claiming the governor would side with corporate entities over workers. The Culinary regularly endorses Democratic candidates and is in the process of putting together its 2026 election choices.

“Aaron Ford is shaping up to be the real choice for working-class people,” he added.

Ford hasn’t said whether he would personally introduce a bill to repeal the right-to-work law and hasn’t featured his position on his campaign website. Based on Lombardo’s veto record, it’s unlikely that he would sign similar legislation.

In the podcast interview, the hosts said they learned that former Gov. Steve Sisolak had expressed wanting to do away with the law on his second term, which he didn’t get to do after being defeated by Lombardo in 2022.

Washoe County Commissioner Alexis Hill, who’s running against Ford in the Democratic primary, said that she, too, supports repealing the state law.

“To be clear, I do not think that anyone should be required to make political contributions to union PACs against their will,” her campaign website said. “But people who benefit from a union’s advocacy for salary, safety, and benefits should have to chip in, and not be allowed to freeload off others.”

The Ford and Lombardo campaigns didn’t make their candidates available for interviews.

Decades-old law

Twenty-six U.S. states have adopted right-to-work laws since the 1947 Taft-Hartley Act allowed them.

The laws mandated “open shop” states, meaning that union membership or paying dues were outlawed as conditions of employment. Similarly, workers can’t be fired because they joined a union.

Nevada voters defeated three initiatives to repeal the law within the first decade of its approval, the Nevada Legislative Counsel Bureau said in a report.

“Since 1959, the Legislature has considered and rejected at least ten measures to amend or repeal the law,” the 2016 report said, “and in 1994, an initiative to repeal the law did not gain enough signatures to be placed on the ballot.”

The Culinary Union has led some of those efforts and said that a 1958 measure backed by business entities raised signature requirements to amend the constitution, hampering the attempts.

Nevada’s Libertarian spirit

Sondra Cosgrove, College of Southern Nevada social sciences professor, said the Nevada law coincided with the state’s century-long goal to diversify the economy.

At the time of its passing, there was a strong mining union, and unions for gaming businesses were flourishing, said Cosgrove, who also serves as executive director of Vote Nevada, a civic engagement nonprofit.

“As a manufacturer, I don’t know if I want my business here,” she said about the thinking back then. They didn’t want to abolish unions, they just wanted a choice, the professor added.

And it wasn’t just politicians and business leaders who supported the law, Cosgrove said. “It was, kind of, the people who asked for it.”

She noted that the law hasn’t taken center stage because it’s a contradictory issue.

“You have really strong unions, how do you have ‘right-to-work,’ as well?” she asked rhetorically.

Cosgrove is not surprised Ford brought it up, noting frequent unions support for Democrats.

“This is why I don’t like closed primaries,” she said. “It forces them to say things in the primary that they don’t want to say in the general.”

Workers who refuse to pay dues might do so because of the political candidates the unions support, she noted.

Repealing the law would be an uphill battle either way, because Nevada is still trying to diversify the economy and attract new industries, she said.

Cosgrove could also see average voters being against doing so due to the state’s libertarian leanings.

“The Nevada ‘don’t tell me what to do’ vibe,” she said.

Contact Ricardo Torres-Cortez at rtorres@reviewjournal.com.