Missouri’s new right to work law was slated to go into effect at the end of August, but labor unions’ efforts to block it now puts it in limbo.
On Aug. 18, right to work opponents turned in more than 300,000 signatures on a petition asking for all state voters to weigh in on the recently approved law. This special referendum provision hasn’t been used since 1982, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported, but voters have repealed the laws in question 24 of the 26 times it’s been utilized since 1914. In this case, the 310,567 signatures submitted is more than triple what is required to put a referendum on the ballot.
Now, the petitions and signatures must be reviewed by Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft. Some, such as Chairman of the Missouri Republican Party Todd Graves, have claimed that thousands of people are attempting to remove their signatures after being misled about the petition. Regardless, the law will now have to wait until the Nov. 2018 election, when voters will decide.
The recently approved right to work law stated that workers cannot be forced to join a union or pay dues to a union as a condition of employment, and it has been an NFIB/MO priority for many years.
