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| Union members rallied in Jefferson City, Mo., March 26 against right-to-work-for-less legislation. |
Union members rallied in Jefferson City, Mo., March 26 against right-to-work-for-less legislation.
“Huge win for working families,” House Minority Leader (and St. Louis Local 1 member) Jacob Hummel tweeted Wednesday. “They couldn’t get a constitutional majority to move right-to-work out of the House!”
Bill proponents were trying to put right-to-work on a statewide ballot later this year. They received backing from Washington, D.C. – based right-wing organizations like Grover Norquist’s Americans for Tax Reform and the Koch brothers-funded FreedomWorks, which organized a lobbying campaign in support of the legislation.
Hummel was quoted by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch as saying during the floor debate that out-of-state interests were trying to put profits and corporate executives ahead of the interests of workers in Missouri.
While unable to match the bank accounts of the anti-labor lobbyists, the state’s labor movement organized a strong grassroots campaign to defeat right-to-work, staging a major demonstration in Jefferson City March 26.
“We as union members need to do our best to educate ourselves as voters and inform family members, friends, neighbors, etc. exactly what the bottom line of right-to-work is,” Local 257 member Mike Winemiller posted on theIBEW Facebook page after the event. “Without the bargaining power of our unions, job security will dwindle.”
Nineteen members of the House Republican caucus broke with their party over the bill, including GOP Rep. Anne Zerr.
“As a Republican and pro-business, you might think that I would be anti-labor, but you know what? Working with labor is good business,” she told attendees at the March 26 rally.
As we wrote Feb. 6, study after study shows that right-to-work legislation results in lower wages and weaker benefits. It also hurts overall living standards.
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