A bill that prohibits labor unions from automatically withholding fees from the paychecks of public employees is on its way to the governor’s desk. The Missouri House passed the Senate version of the bill on March 3, 109 to 49. The House support is the exact number needed to override a veto.
House Bill 1891, the so-called paycheck protection bill, would only apply to public sector workers. Opponents say the bill will weaken workers’ rights, but supporters say it’s necessary to check the power of union lobbying.
The vote was not strictly along party lines. State Rep. Paul Wieland of Jefferson County, a Republican, joined most Democrats in voting “no.” State Senator Maria Chappelle-Nadal of University City, a Democrat, broke rank and joined Republicans in voting “yes.” She was unavailable for comment after the vote.
“Do we believe that union bosses should be masters of their members, or should be servants of their members?” said State Senator Bob Onder, R-Lake Saint Louis.
“Should they be able to spend their time being political power brokers that ignore their members, or should they have to go to their members and ask for the members’ permission to extract political contributions from their paychecks?”
Democrats argued that union leaders have to answer to their members, and that the bill would undermine that relationship. They blocked the bill for nearly seven hours on March 1, but reversed course after they were allowed to add language that limits the release of data collected on public employees.
That amendment specifies that unions that have members from both the public and private sectors cannot release data kept on public employees to private employees. It was sponsored by Democratic floor leader state Senator Joseph Keaveny of St. Louis.
Despite the amendment, Keaveny said it’s still a bad bill and he hopes it gets vetoed.
“That would be a good day for me, yes, if the governor vetoes it and (Republicans) don’t have the override votes,” he said. “There will be pressure to get that number down below 23.”
That’s the number of votes needed in the Senate to override a veto. But the bill passed 23-7 with Chappelle-Nadal’s support.
Lawmakers passed a similar paycheck protection bill in 2013, but Gov. Jay Nixon vetoed it and Republican leaders were unable to garner enough votes for an override.
Reprinted with permission from news.stlpublicradio.org.