South Dakota rejects measure opposing right-to-work

South Dakota voters rejected a ballot measure that would have given labor organizations the right under state law to force all employees at a unionized workplace to pay the union a fee.

The initiative, called Ballot Measure 23, asked voters to make the following change to state law: “Notwithstanding any other provisions of law, an organization, corporate or nonprofit, has the right to charge a fee for any service provided by the organization.” Although the language doesn’t specifically mention unions, it would have given them a legal claim to force workers at a unionized workplace to pay them a fee to compensate the union for its collective bargaining on their behalf.