Right-to-Work on ballot

After losing the ability to influence legislators, the union officials in Missouri have filed a ballot initiative to turn back the recent win for Right-to-Work. They came up with the slogan "Right to Work is wrong for Missouri." That is an incorrect statement.

It is an economic fact that the Right-to-Work states have a higher rate of economic growth than do the states that do not have that right. I know when I visit relatives in the Right-to-Work states I pass new car plants and manufacturing facilities. Right-to-Work is not an anti-union concept but a means to keep union leadership honest, to keep them looking after employees interests, not what is good for the union officials. RTW does not mean employees lose the right to vote in a union if they believe it is in their best interest. It does mean that employees can choose to not join the join the union or to stop paying dues if the union does something they disagree with such as backing certain political candidates or social initiatives. Union officials in some cases do not want the rank and files employee to think for themselves and want the members of the bargaining units to go or vote the way their union officials tell them to go or vote without fear of offending some of the rank and file. The effort to repeal RTW by the union leadership is an effort to hang on to power and as little more nothing to do with what is good for the working people in Missouri, Economic growth and keeping right to associate with or refrain from association with a group as a basic right is what is at stake.

-- Richard (Rich) P. Montgomery

Poplar Bluff