The Missouri Senate voted Thursday to become the 28th state to adopt a right-to-work law prohibiting workers from being forced to support a union as a condition of employment. The state’s new Republican governor, Eric Greitens, has vowed to sign it.
The Senate vote was 21-12. The measure would grandfather in existing union-management contracts that require workers to become union members or pay it a regular fee — provisions dubbed “security clauses” by unions. But all new union contracts will forbid this practice.
There was little suspense in the vote. The Missouri statehouse had passed an identical bill in 2015 that was vetoed by then-Gov. Jay Nixon, a Democrat.
Thursday’s vote was the latest in a major comeback for right-to-work laws. Several states adopted them in the 1940s and 1950s but the movement for it mostly stalled afterward. As recently as 2012, only 22 states had the laws and all but three of those dated to 1963 or earlier. Since then, Indiana, Michigan, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Kentucky have all adopted versions.
Labor leaders hate the laws, which are associated with declining membership and depleted treasuries as workers opt out of union membership. Fans of the laws counter that that should be the individual worker’s right to decide whether they want to back a union. They also argue that the states with right-to-work laws have an easier time attracting and keeping businesses. Seven of the eight states that border Missouri now have the laws.
