Petitions put right to work on hold

Missouri's right-to-work law won't go into effect Aug. 28 as originally expected.

Missourians opposed to the law on Friday submitted more than 310,000 signatures to Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft's office, asking Missouri voters have the final say on the law under the state's referendum procedures.

"We are making history today," union representative Ken Menges told the crowd at a rally in the Capitol Rotunda, before they submitted 163 boxes of petitions to the secretary of state. "All of us, working together, have collected enough signatures to qualify all eight congressional districts in this state - a feat which never has been done before in the history of this state!"

Various unions and other groups joined together in a campaign called "We Are Missouri" - which defines itself as "a citizen-driven, community-based, bipartisan coalition of people from all over the state."

Not so, said right-to-work supporters.

Jeremy Adler, communications director for the group "Missouri Rising," said in a news release: "The effort to repeal this law is actually a massive, Big Labor-funded, AstroTurf campaign, coordinated by people outside Missouri who put the interests of liberal unions over jobs and economic opportunity for everyday Missourians."

Todd Graves, chairman of the Missouri Republican Party, said in a separate release: "Union bosses and Big Labor groups are being dishonest with Missourians about Right to Work."

State Sen. Bob Onder, R-Lake St. Louis and a sponsor of the law, said in a news release: "Union bosses are attempting to stifle the will of Missouri voters who voted for a pro-Right-to-Work legislature and governor in order to create jobs and protect workers. The smear campaign against Right-to-Work has one purpose: to protect union boss political power by forcing workers to provide their hard-earned wages to support their political activities."

But, during Friday's Capitol rally, Quiema Spencer, a master pipefitter from Kansas City, told the crowd: "Extreme politicians and dark money interests may not like it, but the facts are the facts - workers in right-to-work states make $681 less per month than workers in non-right-to-work states."

Under federal law, whenever a union has been selected to represent employees, the union is required to represent all of the workers - whether they are union members or not.

But in Missouri and some other states, the union can charge those non-union members a fee for that work done on their behalf.

A right-to-work law prohibits that fee collection as a requirement of holding a job, leaving the individual employee with the choice of joining a union or paying its dues and fees.

Graves said, in the GOP news release: "Right to Work simply gives individuals the choice of whether or not they want to join a union, instead of being forced to as a condition for employment.

"And that's something that terrifies the big union bosses in control of collecting mandatory union dues."

Making Missouri a right-to-work state long has been a goal of Missouri's Republican leaders and many in the business community.

But Dennis Palmer, 23-year owner of Columbia-based Coastal Electric, told Friday's Capitol rally: "For the kind of work we do, it's imperative that we have highly skilled electricians in the field - so-called right to work would put an end to that.

"Not only would substandard wages be the norm, but the quality of training would suffer as well.

"In Missouri, middle-class jobs are disappearing. Right to work would further diminish these middle-class jobs."

Gov. Eric Greitens' campaign last year included a promise to sign a right-to-work law if the Legislature sent it to him - and he signed the bill in February.

Menges told Friday's Capitol rally: "We're here today - united as Missourians and united as workers - to tell politicians and special interests, 'We will not be defeated!'

"Today, we show what we can do together - because we know that right to work is wrong for all Missourians!"

Court rulings - including one last month from the state appeals court's Western District in Kansas City - say the law targeted by a referendum petition is suspended or annulled "and has no further legal effect or consequence" until the voters either approve it or reject it.

Maura Browning, Ashcroft's communications director, told reporters: "If there are not enough signatures that are received, then the law will go into effect as expected.

"We anticipate that there will be enough signatures - so (the petitions) would be certified, and the law is suspended until the election occurs," which most likely will be in November 2018.

The secretary of state's office makes copies of the petitions turned in on Friday and sends them to the county clerks or election authorities around the state.

The local officials then must verify the signatures on the petitions.

"They have a lot of work to do," Browning said. "They'll be looking for whether or not a voter is registered as a Missouri voter, whether they signed the petition in the correct county and jurisdiction - and whether or not it's a duplicate."

Ashcroft's office hopes the local officials will certify their petition pages by Nov. 1, she said.

Since the petitions are about a state law, supporters only needed to get signatures from the number of the registered voters - in at least six of Missouri's eight congressional districts - that is equal to 5 percent of the total votes cast in that district for governor in last year's general elections.

Petition organizers said they needed only 107,510 signatures to meet that requirement but submitted 310,567 signatures.

During their Friday morning rally in the Capitol Rotunda, before giving the petitions to Ashcroft's office, supporters said they gathered the most signatures - 52,711 - in the 3rd Congressional District, which includes a part of Camden County and Cole, Callaway, Osage, Gasconade, Miller and Maries counties in Mid-Missouri and includes parts of the St. Louis area north and south of St. Louis City and County.

Friday morning's crowd was estimated at 1,500-2,000 people - with one organizer saying he thought they had 2,200 people.

Menges told the crowd: "I've lived within 6 miles of this dome my entire life - and I have never seen a group of people in this building, of this size, in 60 years!"