Unions in Missouri are breathing a sigh of relief now that the controversial issues of right to work and paycheck protection have all but expired.
Right to work, the more well-known of the two, failed a month ago. It would have prohibited organized labor from bargaining for the security clause, which requires new hires to join the workplace union.
In April, the House finalized the language for House Bill 1770, sponsored by Rep. Eric Burlison, R-Springfield, but the chamber was four votes shy of the necessary 82 to move the legislation on to the Senate. Since then, right to work hasn't been brought up for a final House vote.
Paycheck protection, however, narrowly passed the House by a single vote, 83-69. It was poised for a final vote in the Senate until early Tuesday morning, when Senate Republicans and Democrats reached a compromise, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Republicans agreed not to pursue the paycheck deduction and voter identification bills in return for a guarantee from Democrats not to filibuster bills related to early voting and an expanded abortion waiting period.
Although "right to work" measures have been around since 1947, "paycheck protection" is a relatively new piece of legislation, said Clark Brown, a lobbyist for the Service Employees International Union.
The bill, sponsored by Rep. Holly Rehder, R-Sikeston, would have required public sector unions to get annual written authorization from its constituents to retain their membership and use their money for political campaign contributions. It would have appeared as a ballot measure this fall.
Rehder said in an interview that she disliked that unions use members' dues to advocate for political candidates. She said she thought money should go toward representation and settling grievances, pointing to a 2012 list of endorsements by the National Education Association as evidence of how she thought members' money was used inappropriately.
Rehder said one of her constituents had a difficult time leaving their union, partly due to the stigma it brought. The paycheck deduction bill would allow people to get out more easily and quietly, erasing some of that pressure, the representative said.
Don Bruemmer, a business manager for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 257 based in Jefferson City, thought Rehder's points couldn't be further from the truth.
"It's a mini-right-to-work bill," he said.
For starters, he said, donations to the union's political action committee, or PAC, are completely voluntary and not related to dues at all.
About half of the IBEW's members are in the fund, Bruemmer added.
Secondly, Bruemmer said, public sector union members are already making the choice to be a part of their union.
Those organizations already operate under laws similar to right to work, meaning if they choose to drop out, they no longer have to pay the union agency fees, the amount to cover representation.
Regarding political endorsements, Bruemmer said the IBEW mainly follows a list assembled by the AFL-CIO, but it sometimes makes recommendations based on what people the union thinks would most benefit its members.
The AFL-CIO list is made of suggestions submitted by local labor clubs and councils whose members decide which candidates best represent their interests, Bruemmer explained. After the list is compiled, the AFL-CIO distributes it.
Brown, a service union lobbyist, said about one third of Missouri service union members work in the public sector. When one drops out of the union, he'll check up with that person to ask why.
Of course, it's no good yelling at them, he said. Many times, his members have gone through a divorce and can't afford to pay their dues anymore, even if they still support the union.
He said paycheck-protection bill could have backfired. Had the bill passed, organized labor would've increased its visibility. It might have had organizers out three months before the annual signup and create call centers to remind their members to re-sign.
All the same, Brown was happy the bill didn't pass. It wasn't as bad as the right-to-work bill, but it was the next most detrimental thing that could've affected organized labor this year, he said.
It's "another hoop to jump through," he said.