‘RTW’ will be on the ballot next year; education effort now begins

By TIM ROWDEN

Editor

So-called “right-to-work” will be on the ballot in Missouri in 2018. Now the work to defeat it begins.

“Hundreds of thousands of Missourians signed the petition this year to put this harmful legislation on the ballot,” said Mike Louis, president of the Missouri AFL-CIO. “While we only needed 107,510 signatures in six of the eight congressional districts to qualify for the ballot, hardworking Missourians submitted an unprecedented 310,567 signatures, nearly three times the amount required, including signatures from all 114 Missouri counties, with enough to qualify ALL eight congressional districts.”

Of those, Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft certified 250,327, a total of 80.6 percent of the original 310,567 to ensure working Missourians have a chance to make their voices heard.

Now the work to educate voters must begin.

WORK TO DO

“This may be a historic moment, but we have a lot of work to do,” Louis said. “Greedy corporate CEOs and their dark money politicians have already started dumping their resources into Missouri to misinform and sway voters against us.”

But, Louis said, middle-class families WILL NOT BE STOPPED OR TRICKED!

So-called “right-to-work” (RTW) bans union represented businesses from negotiating labor contracts that assure workers will either pay dues or a smaller “fair share” fee to cover the union’s cost of bargaining and representation for them. The idea is to financially starve unions, which, by federal law, must represent all workers in a union shop whether they pay dues or not, thereby limiting the union’s ability to negotiate and represent workers.

The GOP-controlled Missouri Legislature rushed the legislation through earlier this year and Republican Gov. Eric Greitens, who campaigned on the anti-worker measure measure, signed it.

The legislation was set to take effect on Aug. 28 but was forestalled through the initiative petition process until voters have a chance to decide the issue for themselves.

“There will be a lot of work to do over the next year,” Louis said. “We are going to be up against billionaires with bottomless pockets.”

DONATE $18 FOR ’18 TO HELP REPEAL ‘RTW’

We Are Missouri, the coalition of workers’ groups behind the initiative petition campaign has now shifted into education mode to get the message out to all Missourians that RTW is wrong for Missouri’s working families.

Winning at the ballot box will require fighting back against corporate propaganda. It will be expensive and it will be hard, but our middle-class families, jobs and economy depend on it.

You can help by donating to the “$18 for ’18” campaign to defeat RTW. You can donate online by visiting wearemo.org and clicking the red “Donate” button at the top of the page.

Or, if you prefer, you can mail your donation to:

We Are Missouri
227 Jefferson St.
Jefferson City, MO 65101