Anti-Union Bill Defeated In Missouri

Here's some good news for the labor movement.  A so-called "right to work" bill (or, more accurately, a "right to work for less" bill) has died in the Missouri State Senate, failing even to come up for a vote.  500 pro-labor supporters packed the Senate gallery during the debate, on the heels of more than 5000 who had protested against the bill last week.

While its Republican sponsors argued that states with "right to work" laws have less unemployment and are more competitive, this argument didn't even sway other Republican senators, much less the Democratic minority.  In fact, states with "right to work" laws have lower per capita and median household incomes than states which do not restrict the ability of workers to organize.

Wisconsin vs. Connecticut

The Washington Post is reporting that several Republican State Senators in Wisconsin are now considering voting against Governor Scott Walker's heinous union-busting bill.  If true, this is great news!  Organized labor could use a high-profile victory like this.  Indeed, it seems to me that Walker's overreaching may wind up being the best thing to happen to America's labor movement in years.

Let's contrast this with my home state of Connecticut, where Governor Dannel Malloy is trying to close an enormous hole in the budget.  Like Walker, Malloy has asked public employees for major givebacks.  Unlike Walker, however, Malloy is sitting down with the unions, in talks described as "respectful."  And it appears that Malloy, unlike Walker, will succeed in obtaining concessions from the unions without turning the state capitol into an armed camp.

The fortunes of America's labor movement directly correlate with the fortunes of America's middle class.  The golden age of union membership, from the mid-1940's through the mid 1970's, corresponds with the rise of the middle class.  But since the beginning of the assault on unions during the Reagan administration, America's middle class has been squeezed.  Let's hope that we're starting to see the re-birth of the union movement, and that Dannel Malloy's approach wins out over Scott Walker's.