The Missouri state legislature failed to muster the votes necessary Wednesday to overturn Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon’s veto of a state “right to work” bill. The vote in the House was 96-63, 13 votes shy of the number needed.
The Republicans pushing the bill had conceded that the vote would be a toss-up. They got 92 votes when the bill first passed in May and would have had to get 17 members to switch their votes. Their Senate colleagues would have needed two more votes.
The outcome was a victory for Nixon and state labor groups who had fought bitterly to sustain the veto. Had it been overridden, it would have made Missouri the 26th state to adopt the law and the first time that a majority of states had one.
Republicans and business groups led by the state Chamber of Commerce said it was a matter of boosting the business climate. Missouri is 42nd in the nation in job creation. Supporters argued that right to work would have enticed businesses to relocate there.
“At the end of the day, we’re creating more jobs,” Rep. Eric Burlison, R-Springfield, said as he brought the right-to-work bill up for debate.
Democrats and union groups said the bill would have undermined organized labor in the state, ultimately hurting workers. “I do not understand this anti-worker climate,” said Rep. Genise Montecillo, D-St. Louis.
Right-to-work laws say a person cannot be forced to join or otherwise financially support a union as a condition of employment. Specifically, the laws ban so-called “security clauses,” a common part of most labor-management contracts meant to ensure that all workers back the union, regardless of whether they agree disagree with its actions. Right-to-work proponents argue that the workers themselves should decide whether they want to be in a union.
Critics argue that security clauses are fair because all workers benefit from the union’s collective bargaining and workers can demand refunds on union costs unrelated to bargaining. However, workers typically only have the unions’ word on what the collective bargaining costs are and often find getting dues refunded difficult and time-consuming.
Right-to-work laws are associated with membership declines by unions draining them of funds and political clout as workers use them to opt out. Wisconsin’s public-sector unions were hit with steep losses after Republican Gov. Scott Walker changed state law in 2011 to effectively extend right-to-work to state and local government employees.
“In failing to override the governor’s veto, Missouri lawmakers lost a chance to make history and dealt a devastating blow to worker freedom in favor of special interests and Big Labor,” said Trey Kovacs, a labor policy expert for the Competitive Enterprise Institute.
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton issued a statement applauding the outcome: “I’ve been disturbed by repeated state-level attacks on basic protections that unions have fought hard for over the years, like a prevailing wage, union dues deductions, binding arbitration, and collective bargaining,” she said.
