Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens signed legislation Monday to make his state the 28th in the nation and the sixth in five years to adopt a right-to-work law, which prohibits workers from being forced to join or otherwise support a union as a condition of employment.
“Today, I signed Right to Work. This is about more jobs — Missourians are ready to work, and now our state is open for business!” Greitens tweeted. He had the signing event at an abandoned former warehouse in Springfield. He has two other signing ceremonies scheduled for the day.
The law will prohibit union-management contracts that require workers to join the union or pay it a regular fee as a condition of employment. Union leaders argue that such provisions, dubbed “security clauses,” are fair because collective bargaining covers all workers, not just members. Critics like Greitens argue that it should be the individual worker’s choice whether they belong to a union.
They also argue that the laws attract businesses to the state. Seven of the eight states that border Missouri now have right-to-work laws and many state advocates thought they needed one to stay competitive.
Right-to-work laws are associated with declining membership and depleted treasuries as workers opt out of union membership. In Missouri, 8.8 percent of workers are members of a union, according to Labor Department figures, a figure below the national average of 10.7 percent. However, 9.8 percent of workers in the state are in unionized workplaces, meaning that one in ten of those union-represented workers have declined to become members and are likely paying security clause fees instead.
The Missouri version of the law will grandfather in existing union-management contracts with security clauses, but all new union contracts will forbid this practice.
Republicans had been pushing the legislation for years. The Missouri statehouse had passed an identical bill in 2015 but it was vetoed by then-Gov. Jay Nixon, a Democrat.
