Just months after Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder vowed to make Missouri a Right to Work state, the “Show-Me” state is once again front and center as one prominent GOP leader intends to force the issue in 2014 as nearby Ohio watches.
Setting out on a statewide tour entrenching Right to Work as a top priority for the Republican majority in the coming year, Missouri House Speaker Tim Jones (R) took his message directly to state voters.
“We’ve been debating this for six or seven years and there’s been little to no movement,” said Jones in an interview with the Washington Free Beacon. “We’re going to have to take this to the voters because the people need to weigh in on this.”
Right to Work opponents in Ohio are fighting their own Right to Work battle and are watching every move on both sides.
“We will follow every move,” said Pat Sink, Ohio’s IUOE Local 18’s business manager. “Big businesses are the biggest backers of Right to Work. Voters really need to ask themselves whether it makes sense that corporations are so eager to see passed is really what’s best for rank and file workers.”
Jones, a long-time Right to Work supporter, isn’t the first Missouri politician to suggest bringing Right to Work to ballot.
Last August, Kinder told an Associated Press reporter that he believes Right to Work is heading to the people for a vote in the form of a ballot amendment to bypass the state’s governor who does not want the measure passed.
“I believe we will pass Right to Work next year and bypass [Missouri Governor Nixon] entirely by putting it on the referendum ballot for voters,” said Kinder during the American Legislative Exchange council conference.
While some observers believe that a ballot initiative is a losing cause for Right to Work supporters, Sink knows that nothing can be taken for granted.
“Officials like Speaker Jones and Lt. Gov. Kinder are the very reason we have to fight to keep the public educated on Right to Work,” said Sink. “The more the public knows about Right to Work the more they will realize it’s a mistake for workers and the state altogether.”
In Ohio, union supporters have continued to press forward with efforts designed to educate the public on the dangers of Right to Work and ultimately defeat it before it ever gets to a ballot measure.
Opponents of the Right to Work bills, sometimes called “Workplace Freedom,” contend that the initiative’s true purpose is to kill unions and worker protections, leading to a weaker middle class. Stripping workers of their rights and freedoms would allow business owners to lower worker pay, reduce worker benefits and ignore worker rights.
To keep voters well informed on the dangers of Right-to-Work, the IUOE Local 18 union-backed advocacy group Keep Ohio’s Heritage has been running ads on cable and network television designed to educate voters on the issue.
For more information on the Right to Work and “Workplace Freedom” movements, please visit the website, www.protectohiosmiddleclass.org.
SOURCE: Keep Ohio's Heritage
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