AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka confidently predicted Wednesday that opponents of Missouri’s new right-to-work law, which prevents workers from being forced to join or otherwise financially support a union, will win a popular vote on Tuesday to repeal it. Supporters of the law, meanwhile, privately concede they face long odds in the election.
A union victory against the law would be the first significant setback the right-to-work movement has faced since its revival in 2011. Missouri was the sixth state since then to adopt a version of the law, and a Supreme Court decision last month in the case Janus v. American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees extended a similiar right to public sector workers in all states. The law’s rollback would fuel labor leaders’ arguments that workers themselves don’t support such laws.
“I am going to make a prediction: We are going to win,” Trumka told reporters at a breakfast hosted by the Christian Science Monitor. “It will be proof positive that we are not ceding an inch in the wake of the Janus decision.”
Business and conservative groups pushing to defend law concede that the unions have the edge. Union-backed groups have raised a total of $16 million in their bid to roll back the law, whereas pro-right to work groups have barely raised one million, according to figures released by the Missouri Ethics Commission. Actor John Goodman has also appeared in ads to promote the rollback.
“For every punch you throw, they throw ten back,” said Dan Meehan, president of the Missouri Chamber of Commerce, one of the main groups pushing for the law. “No one in any political race would envy this position.”
Privately, many blame former Republican Gov. Eric Greitens’ decision to resign from office last month following a scandal involving an extramartial affair and claims that he had taken a nude photo of the woman without her permission. Greitens was closely identified with the issue, having campaigned on a right-to-work law in his 2016 gubernatorial bid. That “tainted” things, said one pro-right to work activist who requested anonymity, and it difficult for them to raise funds to match the unions’ spending. Another activist described the effort to defend right-to-work as “disorganized.”
Unions, by contrast, have been organized and effective. After the state legislature passed the law last year, they got the 300,000 signatures they needed from voters supporting a public vote on rolling back the law. The Republican-controlled state legislature set the date for Aug. 7, a move widely seen as an effort to prevent incumbent Democratic U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill from benefiting from a union get-out-the vote effort.
Right-to-work laws prohibit contracts between unions and management that require all workers either to join the union or otherwise pay it a regular fee, a provision commonly dubbed a “security clause” or “fair share fee.” In theory, the fees cover the union’s costs for collective bargaining on the workers’ behalf. Missouri was the 28th state to bar the practice. Critics of fair share fees say it should be a worker’s own choice whether to support a union.
Union leaders hate the laws, which are associated with lost members and depleted treasuries, as workers take advantage of the opportunity to opt-out of paying dues.
