Unions See Chance for Victory in Missouri Tuesday After Year of Setbacks

This week, Missouri voters will decide whether the state should adopt a "right-to-work" law impeding unionization, which will be nullified if a majority votes against it, reports the Washington Post . Twenty-seven states currently have right-to-work laws on the books, with five having adopted them since 2012 mainly due to GOP dominance of state legislatures. The Missouri vote comes after multiple setbacks for unions at the national level and in other states, as Republicans have used control of the federal government and most legislatures to expedite the reduction of organized labor's influence to its weakest point in decades. Overturning the law would give unions a victory after a Supreme Court defeat in June, when the court ruled it was unconstitutional for public-sector unions to require collective bargaining fees from employees. Unions were already prohibited from using mandatory dues for campaign funding, but the ruling effectively permitted any worker to opt out of paying for any union activity. The Illinois Economic Policy Institute's Frank Manzo says union membership has shrunk in 20 of 26 states that have adopted right-to-work laws. "Missouri went for Trump, but a lot of the workers here are strongly against right to work, because they understand wages are going to go down, period," says the St. Louis City Labor Club's Tom Madden.