Pointless attacks on unions in Kansas, Missouri
In packed hearing rooms where tempers run short and accusations fly, the Missouri and Kansas legislatures are consumed with debates on bills intended to weaken unions.
This expenditure of energy at first seems puzzling. Neither private- nor public-sector unions are especially powerful in either state. Kansas already is a “right-to-work” state, meaning non-union workers are entitled to all the benefits of union representation, as required by the federal Taft-Hartley Act, but they need not pay any union dues.
Lawmakers could better spend their time working on health care, education or other truly significant issues. Instead, key lawmakers and leaders are preoccupied with bills seeking to make Missouri a right-to-work state, and in both states to forbid unions to automatically deduct dues from paychecks, even if union members request it.
The unnecessary attacks on unions demonstrate how susceptible state legislatures are to outside forces.
Leaders from several groups that promote “free market” policies are in Jefferson City this week to push for a right to work law. The groups include the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation and National Tax Limitation Committee.
Every anti-union law passed is a jewel in the crown for these groups, and Republican lawmakers are happy to oblige.
Even some of the language of the anti-union bills comes from outside. The American Legislative Exchange Council, a corporate-funded group that pushes “model” legislation, drafted parts of the anti-union bills being considered in both states.
Lawmakers and governors talk often about “Missouri solutions” and “Kansas solutions.” But overly aggressive unions aren’t Missouri or Kansas problems. Legislators have enough divisive issues on their plates without letting outside groups embroil them in a fight with unions.
Mark Hastert
3 months, 1 week agoSimple, divide and conquer. If you strip workers of any kind of power or influence it’s easy to take advantage. Absolute power corrupts. A worker alone has no option but to take the abuse or quit the job. In the end, power out of balance harms all.
George Hunsucker
Northland
3 months, 1 week agoI thought you libs were all about CHOICE? What is wrong in giving workers the CHOICE to join a union or not? Why should the employer, be it either govt. or private industry, collect union payments? Let the union establish the mechanisms to collect from those members who CHOOSE to join the union.
Unions are anti-competitive and a relic of the past. The fact they can coerce local govt’s. to do sweetheart deals in return for political contributions should in itself be grounds to outlaw them…. Libs love the campaign dollars though……
MO will lose manufacturing jobs if they don’t become a right-to-work state. You libs don’t like this FACT, but it is real…. What employer would choose to locate a plant in MO when she/he can easily go to KS, or WI or MICHIGAN and have a non-union one?????
Mark Hastert
3 months, 1 week agoHmmm, being a right to work state didn’t save Boeing. GM is investing in the Fairfax plant and it’s a union shop. Cyrsler, GM, and Ford have increased hiring in their multiple Missouri plants.
You’re thinking is stuck in the 1950’s. Back when you were young and just getting started the dynamic was adversarial and that is changing.
Brian Acker
3 months, 1 week agoGeorge, take a look at the US economy and then take a look around the globe at some other economies…including those of Germany, Canada and Britain. Canada has a workforce with roughly 28% of them being Unionized. Britain 25%, Germany 20%. There economies haven’t been as hard hit as the US during this recession. The US Unionized Labor number has dropped to the lowest rate in a Century at 6.6%. Consumer spending makes up approximately 70-75% of the driving force behind our economy. When a realistic 18-20% of private workforce workers are unemployed or underemployed, 73.4% are NON-Union and under paid, and only 6.6% are making decent wages it doesn’t bode well for a recovery of our economy. Kansas is a right to work State and Boeing took their ball and left the playground. Workers need a voice. Workers need power to prevent Employers from taking everything and giving nothing. A great deal of Americas problems stem from the fact that so many employers have taken away wages, benefits, retirement plans and cut hours forcing workers to go out and find 2nd and 3rd jobs. Sometimes evn 4th or 5th part time jobs just to make ends meet. Why should they have to do that? Having to work that much time and that many jobs takes parents out of the home and leaves kids to either fend for themselves or be left at daycare and at the mercy of daycare providers who show no compassion, no morality, and provide no values for those children to follow. We wonder why we have high dropout rates and high crime rates among our young people these days. parents are too busy trying to make the bills and provide a home that they aren’t there for their children. UNIONS provided that opportunity over the past 100-150 years as the voice for workers rights. Instead of trying to crush them, we should be bringing them back. Workers with no voice have no power. Businesses can do whatever they want whenever they want and answer to noone. With more and more people making less and less money, there will soon be nobody to drive our economy forward. Over a quarter of jobs in the US are paying below poverty level for a family of four. Do you want to live like that? I don’t know of too many who do. Unions help guard against that. Legislation by greedy GOP lawmakers opened the door for corruption and the shipping of millions of jobs overseas. They have Legislated in an atmosphere of profit over and above ALL ELSE. Corporate greed, corporate profit, CEO pay and benefit packages all outweigh workers rights. When it all boils down to Executives and lawmakers making all the money, let’s just see how prosperous the US economy becomes. When the minimum wage is eliminated and employers can pay whatever they feel like lets see where the crime rates go and how pathetic the US becomes in the Global picture. Union labor built this Country and kept it strong for over a Century. When Unions began to crumble and came under attack is right where the downfall began. Do a the research…UNIONS WORK!!