After a string of victories across the country in recent years - including this Summer’s Janus v. AFSCME Supreme Court ruling - the Anti-Union/Right-To-Work (for less) Movement met its match in Missouri.  In Tuesday’s Primary Election, Missouri voters overwhelmingly rejected Proposition A, a ballot measure that would have made the State the 28th in the Nation to adopt a Right-To-Work (for less) Law.

Designed to bankrupt Organized Labor, the deceptively-named legislation would have prohibited Private Sector Unions from collecting Fair Share Fees from Workers they are legally required to represent. 

With the defeat of Prop A in Missouri, the U.S. Labor Movement has passed its first major test since the Janus decision in June, in which the Supreme Court’s Conservative Majority essentially imposed Right-To-Work on the Nation’s entire Public Sector.

“The timing of this is ‘essential.’  ‘I think everyone wants to write the Labor Movement’s obituary,’” National AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler recently said. “It’s going to energize and activate us and show that we fight back.”

“It’s going to be the ‘shot heard round the world,’” AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said last month, anticipating Prop A would lose. “It’ll ‘make waves in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania and Ohio and Washington D.C. and it will provide a powerful rebuke of the Supreme Court’s disgraceful ruling in Janus.’”

Since 2012, more States have passed Right-To-Work Legislation than at any time since the 1950s.  Even traditional Union Strongholds like the States of Michigan and Wisconsin have gone Right-To-Work.

Meanwhile, House Republicans have introduced a National Right-To-Work Bill, which President Trump has promised to sign.

In States with Right-To-Work Laws, median household incomes are $8,174 less than in non-Right-To-Work States, people under 65 are 46% more likely to be uninsured, infant mortality rates are 12% higher and workplace deaths occur 49% more often.

Missouri’s Right-To-Work Legislation was initially signed into law last February by the State’s disgraced, now-former Governor, Eric Greitens.  A Republican backed by the Koch Brothers and various “dark money” groups, Greitens served only 16 months as governor before resigning earlier this year amid a series of scandals and criminal allegations.

Greitens’ Right-To-Work Law was supposed to take effect last August, but a coalition of Labor Groups - led by the Missouri AFL-CIO, gathered 310,567 hand-written petition signatures to block its implementation and force a Statewide Referendum on the legislation - Prop A.

Prop A was originally scheduled for this November’s General Election, but this Spring, the State’s Republican Lawmakers moved it to the primary, worried that a high Union turnout in November would be a boon to Democrats in hotly contested races.

Described by Missouri AFL-CIO President Mike Louis as a “devious ploy,” the change marked the first time a referendum in the State has been moved to a Primary Election.

To defeat Prop A, Union Members and allies waged an aggressive get-out-the-vote campaign across the State, reaching some 500,000 voters through door-to-door canvassing and phone banking.  

They also got help from Actor and Missouri native John Goodman, who narrated a radio ad declaring Right-To-Work: “Will not give you the right to work.  Instead, it gives big business and out-of-state corporations the right to pay you less than they do now.”

All told, Organized Labor raised $15 million for the campaign to stop Right-To-Work in Missouri, outspending pro-Right-To-Work groups nearly 5-to-1.

But this is not the first time Missouri voters have rejected Right-To-Work.

In 1978, a similar State Ballot Initiative was defeated by a 60 to 4-0 margin, despite early polling suggesting an easy victory for Right-To-Work forces.

That victory, however, was followed by a precipitous decline in the power of Organized Labor Nationwide from the 1980s to today.

Whether or not the defeat of Prop A signals a larger shift in Labor’s fortunes remains to be seen.

If nothing else, Missouri voters’ rejection of Right-To-Work shows that the eulogies for Organized Labor post-Janus are premature.

As National AFL-CIO President Trumka says: “We’ve taken their best shot and we’re still standing.”

To Directly Access This Labor News Story, Go To: http://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/21366/missouri_right_to_work_janus_prop_a_election