posted at 5:31 pm on February 4, 2017 by Jazz Shaw
You can’t really pin this one on the Trump Effect because it’s been in the works for a while, but Missouri’s legislature sent a new bill to the Governor this week which will be making some big changes on the labor front. If you were somehow able to buy stock in labor unions on Wall Street, this would be a good time to sell it because the Show-Me state is about to show forced unionization to the door. (St. Lois Today)
A moment long dreaded by the state’s labor unions and their supporters arrived on Thursday, as Missouri lawmakers sent a right-to-work proposal to a Republican governor who has promised for months that he’d sign it.
When he does, Missouri will become the 28th right-to-work state, marking the first time in U.S. history that more than half of the nation’s workforce lives in states with right-to-work laws.
The fast-tracked bill, which will prohibit unions from requiring workers to pay dues as a condition of employment, has been deemed both a solution for the state’s stagnant job growth and a thinly disguised effort to weaken union influence.
Assuming the governor makes good on his promise to sign this into law, Missouri will join a growing list of Right to Work states which includes Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Kansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Nebraska, Nevada, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. In fact, we’ve now reached the point where more than half the states have signed on.
In all of these places, unions are not forbidden from operating as some opponents would have you believe. They simply can’t dominate the labor market by making it essentially impossible to get work without joining up and paying them. Also, even if you do manage to land a job as a non-member, in too many states the union can turn around and deduct dues from your paycheck without your consent. And since they use the vast majority of their money making donations to Democrats, if you happen to belong to a different party they basically assign your political speech to people and interests you don’t support.
The other benefit which these states enjoy is that labor costs can be held to manageable levels, so companies are more competitive in landing work. This has the potential to create a positive, upward cycle wherein more people with jobs spend more money, boosting the economy and creating even more jobs. For some reason the unions really seem to hate that.
Welcome aboard, Missouri. And best of luck to you in expanding your economy.
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