Right-to-work building interest in Missouri Capitol

Right-to-work legislation has been proposed for several years in Missouri without gaining much traction. But last year, Indiana and Michigan both passed right-to-work laws, giving the effort a potential boost here.

A month into the state Legislature’s session, hearings on bills that aim to make Missouri the latest right-to-work state have been held in House and Senate committees, drawing standing-room-only crowds.

In Missouri and the 25 other states that don’t have right-to-work laws, labor groups can negotiate on behalf of all workers — even those who are not in unions. Employees who are not union members don’t have to pay dues, but they must pay fees to cover the cost of representation — essentially tying them to the groups, even if they want no affiliation.

“I’ve seen a momentum building around the country, and I don’t think it’s an issue that Missourians or our Legislature can simply ignore or avoid,” said House Speaker Tim Jones, Republican from Eureka who has signed on as a co-sponsor of right-to-work legislation here. “It may be a multiyear process because this is the first time — in a long time — these issues have been debated with this much attention.”

Several lawmakers have said it will be a difficult battle to get the bill through, even though Republicans have veto-proof majorities in both chambers. The bill remains controversial and would draw opposition, including from national labor groups.

But Michigan’s adoption of a similar measure in December largely came as a surprise, so proponents and opponents appear to be keeping a close eye on the issue.

Some of the proposals, so far, would leave the measure for Missouri voters to decide, rather than relying on Gov. Jay Nixon, a Democrat, who opposes the effort.

Missourians overwhelmingly defeated a right-to-work law in 1978 after a bitterly fought campaign.

“I think everything needs to be on the table,” Jones said. “We’ll see where the debate goes.”

Sen. Dan Brown, R-Rolla, is sponsoring one of the three proposals so far in the Senate.

“I think at some point we have to have this discussion,” he said.

Unions are still legal in right-to-work states, but the change is seen as a blow to their power because workers can opt out without paying fees and still receive the union-negotiated benefits and protections. Labor groups call those who benefit without paying “freeloaders.”

“Unions are good for this state — they’re good for workers,” said Robert Soutier of the Greater St. Louis Labor Council AFL-CIO. “We keep up the wages and benefits, and we should be having more unionized workers in this state — not less.”

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, about 224,000 Missouri workers are union members — less than 10 percent of the state workforce.

Political clout has been a key factor in the national push toward right-to-work. Organized labor has been a centerpiece of the liberal movement, with many labor groups giving to Democratic candidates and causes. In Missouri, several high-ranking Democrats cut their teeth through organized labor efforts. Such deep ties nationally between labor and the Democratic Party have given way to increased political scorn from the Republican ranks.

The right-to-work effort has strong backing nationally from conservative activists and groups. Several people from other states spoke in favor of the legislation during the Missouri House’s committee hearing.

Jared Rodriguez of the Michigan Alliance for Business Growth, which pushed for right-to-work legislation there, met with Republican lawmakers the night before the House hearing and gave legislators tips for building support. Legislation proposed here resembles model legislation distributed by the American Legislative Exchange Council, a conservative lobby group based in Washington.

In the debate over right-to-work laws, proponents and opponents often tout data that they say back their positions, but there are few impartial studies to turn to.

Most states’ right-to-work laws were adopted in the 1940s and ’50s, when the effort spread across the southeastern and plains states.

According to labor statistics, wages are lower — on average — in right-to-work states, but those states also tend to have lower costs of living and lower unemployment rates.

Business groups and others who support right-to-work laws point to anecdotal evidence of states’ attracting new businesses and more jobs, while union supporters tend to highlight wage reports, training data and workplace safety records.

The trends have stayed true here, where labor groups characterize the effort as an attack on workers and Republican lawmakers consider it a component of economic development efforts.

“A large majority of Missourians who have contacted me have told me that it is the time to move forward and create jobs like many of our other sister and brother states have, whether it’s Michigan or Indiana or Kansas,” Jones said. “If you look at where the job creation is in this country, it’s in states that have right-to-work laws enacted.”

But few of the arguments from either side of the right-to-work debate manage to separate right-to-work from other factors, such as tax rates, education, geography and business regulations.

During the House hearing, Democratic Rep. Stephen Webber of Columbia argued that the prevalence of air conditioning should be considered as a factor of job growth in the South, rather than pinning it on the region’s right-to-work laws. “To narrow it down to one thing, it just doesn’t work,” he said.

In 2011, economists Ozkan Eren of the University of Nevada-Las Vegas and Serkan Ozbeklik of Claremont McKenna College in California studied the effects of right-to-work legislation on Oklahoma and Idaho, which adopted their laws in 2001 and 1985, respectively. Idaho saw a positive impact after adopting its right-to-work law, while Oklahoma saw none. Neither saw an impact in per capita income.

The union leaders who spoke out against the proposal during recent House and Senate hearings said they saw the effort as an attack on their associations, which some characterize as a way of life for generations of Missouri families.

Scott Ramshaw of the Plumbers & Pipefitters Local 562, based in St. Louis, said he thought the Legislature should focus on other economic development efforts. “It’s important to us for our workers to make good wages and have good benefits and retirement,” he said.

James Coyne, president of the Midwest Missouri Patriots, a group that advocates for limited government, said he thought unions would better serve their members under right-to-work laws because “they have to earn your support.”

“A forced monopoly doesn’t have to care about you,” he said.

It’s too early to tell the impact such legislation has had on unions in Indiana and Michigan. But in Oklahoma, the next most recent state to adopt, union membership trends haven’t shown deep declines.

In 2000, the year before right to work was adopted, about 6.9 percent of Oklahoma workers were union members. In 2012, the state reported union membership was 7.5 percent.

Union membership in Missouri has been on a slow but steady decline over the past two decades, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In 1989, when the bureau first began collecting the data, union membership in Missouri was 15.5 percent. The number has since dropped to about 8.9 percent.