NEA opposes so-called "Paycheck Deception" bill

In a legislative update issued today, Missouri NEA addresses the so-called Paycheck Deception bill, the latest in a long series of GOP attacks on labor.

The Senate Governmental Affairs and Fiscal Oversight (GAFO) Committee met on January 23 to hear SB 71 (Mike Parson, R-Bolivar). The bill would ban public labor union payroll deductions for any purpose, including collection of union dues. The bill also requires annual authorization of member contributions for political action. The bill exempts unions representing "first responders," such as firefighters, from the bill. The bill also exempts unions that do not represent any public employees.

The Association strongly opposes the bill. This arbitrary attack is just more of the same old politics. All employees have the constitutional right to an effective union voice in their employment and to work together to support political campaigns without undue interference from state policies that would undermine those rights. The bill would take away local control to allow payroll deduction for dues and other payments, interfere with public employees' freedom to participate in their union and impose unnecessary and burdensome paperwork requirements on political contributions by public union employees.