A Missouri lesson for the Bluegrass State GOP

By BERRY CRAIG

AFT Local 1360

Kentucky Republicans might be wise to ponder Missourian Dan Gould's analysis of  proposition A's demise. 

"The message sent by Missouri voters is [that] the Republican supermajority is clearly either out of touch with its constituents, or they simply did not care about their constituents' opinion," he warned in a letter-to-the-editor published in The St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Last Tuesday, Show Me State voters turned thumbs down on Prop A, thus nixing the "right to work" law the state legislature passed last year--a month after Kentucky went RTW.

The vote wasn't even close. A "yes" vote would have sustained RTW. But the ballot measure lost by a whopping 67.5 to 32.5 percent. Ninety-nine of Missouri's 114 counties--89 percent, according to Gould--voted "no."  

He added: "I did not see or read about mass protests by workers demanding a right-to-work law. The law passed because of the culture in the Missouri House and Senate (gratuities, contributions and dark money)."

There were no such protests, of course. Republican lawmakers, bankrolled by big-business and anti-union groups, steamrollered the bill through the legislature. GOP Gov. Eric Greitens, his pockets lined with corporate and union-buster lucre, too, eagerly inked it.

(Greitens has since resigned. He faces a felony charge and maybe impeachment, both stemming from an investigation into charges that he tried to sidestep Missouri's campaign disclosure laws and sought to blackmail a former paramour.)   

After RTW passed, Missouri unions and their supporters led a successful petition drive to put the law before the voters.

Cheered by RTW's demise in Missouri, some Kentucky union members are hoping for a repeat in the Bluegrass State. But the Kentucky constitution does not permit voters, on their own, to overturn laws, like RTW, that the legislature passed. 

Nonetheless, Kentucky unions aren't sitting idly by. The state AFL-CIO and Teamsters Local 89 are suing to stop the RTW law. The case is in the state supreme court.

Challenged Gould: "This culture will not change until we elect people who will represent us. In November, we again have a choice. I urge you to use it wisely."

The same anti-union and anti-worker culture holds sway in Frankfort. It won't change in our capital either, until we elect a lot more pro-union and pro-worker lawmakers this November and put a pro-union and pro-worker candidate in the governor's mansion in November, 2019.

We, Kentuckians who pack union cards face the same choice our Missouri brothers and sisters face. We, too, must vote wisely.