Progress Missouri: Senate bills show focus is not on jobs, but destroying unions

It is as business as usual, big business that is, in the Missouri State Senate, according to a news release from Progress Missouri.

Instead of a focus on bringing much-needed jobs to the Show-Me State, pre-filed legislation is clearly targeting unions.

Progress Missouri has been closely watching the legislation filed for the new legislative session, and is extremely concerned with radical politicians’ continued focus on attacking the rights of workers.

In 2011, a bipartisan coalition of elected leaders worked together to defeat Right to Work for Less, Paycheck Deception, and the suspension of Missouri’s Prevailing Wage. Sadly, the same bad actors are at it again, making it clear that ideological attacks on behalf of greedy CEOs and the wealthiest 1% are their top priority -- not job creation and economic development.

Here are just a few of the bills legislators have pre-filed for the legislative session to begin on January 4 that attack the rights and freedoms of Missouri’s working families:


· SB435, Paycheck Deception, Sponsored by Sen. Jason Crowell
The 2012 version of this legislation is nearly identical to last session’s SB 202, which would have prohibited public employees from choosing how to spend their own paycheck. It attempts to silence public workers like teachers, firefighters and social workers, and would interfere with the right of members to voluntarily pay dues and belong to a union of their choice. As it stands, union members have a choice. No worker can be forced to fund a union’s political and legislative activities, and SB435 is a blatant attempt to silence working families and give corporations and their right-wing backers increased influence in the political arena.


· SB438 / SB514, Right to Work for Less, Sponsored by Sens. Rob Mayer and Jason Crowell
Even though voters and legislatures in Missouri and across the country have rejected Right to Work for Less, some Missouri politicians insist on continuing their divisive and unnecessary attacks on workers. Backers of this legislation deceptively term it “Right to Work,” but studies have found that in Right to Work for Less states, the average wage of workers is reduced by $5,333. Right to Work for Less legislation also harms workers by weakening unions that continually work to ensure worker safety by fighting for strong health standards. According to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, the rate of workplace deaths is 51 percent higherin states with Right to Work for Less where unions are unable to speak up on behalf of workers. Missouri legislators should be striving to put workers back on the job instead of attacking their rights and ability to organize.


· SB439, Suspension of the Prevailing Wage, Sponsored by Sen. Rob Mayer
Prevailing wage laws protect communities and workers from unscrupulous contractors low-balling bids on taxpayer-funded construction projects by setting wage rates to the local or prevailing standard. Politicians in Missouri are using natural disasters and tragedies as an excuse to eliminate prevailing wage laws that protect working families. Defeated more than once in the 2011 legislative session, anti-worker politicians are again attempting to attack middle class workers who only want to have a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work. In their attempt to eliminate the prevailing wage, politicians are using tragedies, such as the Joplin tornado, to payback their corporate backers who are willing to trample on the fair wages of working families in an effort to see increased profits.