Following a full day of committee review and the passage of right-to-work legislation by the Missouri House, today the Missouri Senate took up two important labor reform issues during a Senate committee hearing. Sen. Dan Brown, a Republican from Rolla, presented Senate Bill 19, legislation to make Missouri a right-to-work state, and Senate Bill 21, legislation to protect public union workers’ paychecks from going to political campaigns.
Senate Bill 19 is similar to legislation moving in the Missouri House, and would protect Missouri workers from being forced to join and financially support unions.
Senate Bill 21 would bar unions from automatically withholding dues from public employees and is often called “paycheck protection.”
Paycheck protection legislation covering unionized public workers was passed in the 2016 Legislative Session, but was vetoed by former Gov. Jay Nixon.
“Employees should have a right to say what is taken out of their paychecks for political campaigns; just like each year employees have the option to choose how much money is taken out of their paychecks for their Cafeteria or 401K plans,” said Dan Mehan, president of the Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry. “The legislation doesn’t keep an employee from making a contribution, but it gives the employee the choice.”
For more information on this issue, contact Brian Bunten at 573.634.3511.
