Prop A: Right-to-Work (For Less) Bill Defeated in Missouri Published: Aug 8 2018 11:08AM
Voters in Missouri delivered a strong defeat to Proposition A Tuesday, a scab bill designed by corporate fat cats intended to defund unions and decrease worker wages and benefits.
Missouri voters, by a 2-to-1 margin, crushed the bogusly-called “right-to-work” law, because the majority of people in the state saw through the company greed. BMWED members joined the fight, volunteering their time – along with thousands of other Union members from the Teamsters, the AFL-CIO, IBEW, CWA, AFT, SEIU, and countless others – to canvass voters throughout Missouri. They knocked on strangers’ doors, explained the worthless proposal, and asked the people of Missouri to vote against it. They talked to voters they often did not know, and because the Union brothers and sisters were informed and because they were authentic, they were convincing. Prop A “right-to-work” is dead in the Show-Me State.
State Republicans in February 2017 approved the right-to-work bill, which would allow people to work a Union-represented job, reap all the benefits of the Union-negotiated contract, but decline to pay dues. Most people call this “freeloading.”
Missouri’s RTW legislation was initially signed into law by now-former governor, Eric Greitens. A Republican backed by the Koch brothers and various “dark money” groups, Greitens served only 16 months as governor before resigning earlier this year amid a series of scandals.
The RTW law was supposed to take effect last August, but a coalition of labor groups gathered 310,567 hand-written petition signatures to block its implementation and force a statewide referendum on the legislation—Prop A.
“This is what can – and will – happen when the people, the people who work for an honest day’s living, stand together and demand it,” BMWED President Freddie N. Simpson said. “This anti-union law got beat down in Missouri. It got stomped. Missourians of all political stripes stood up for the working class and delivered a message to corporate greed.”
“I am proud that the BMWED played a part in making the lives of Missourian workers better,” Simpson added. “That’s what unionism is all about. It’s about sticking together to get a piece of the pie. It’s about solidarity and lifting all of us up. That’s what happened in Missouri and that’s what will continue to happen as we all go forward together as a group.”
