Push is on to stop paycheck deception

From the Labor Tribune

Following Gov. Jay Nixon’s veto of the Missouri Legislature’s paycheck deception bill (HB 1891) Missouri Labor leaders and volunteers have been conducting front porch meetings with union members urging them to contact their representatives and ask them to vote “No” on a veto override.

The anti-union, anti-worker paycheck deception bill, sponsored by Rep. Holly Rehder (R-Sikeston), would require public employees to give annual consent for money to be taken out of their paychecks for union dues or political activity. The Republican-controlled Senate passed a Senate substitute for HB 1891 by a vote of 23-7. The House approved the Senate substitute by a vote of 109-49, a so-called veto-proof majority.

Even with Gov. Nixon’s veto, unless some legislators change their votes on a veto override, it will become law.

That’s because several lawmakers who had stood with working families during last year’s right-to-work effort voted for paycheck deception, based on the alleged promise of House Speaker Todd Richardson (R-Poplar Bluff) that if paycheck deception passed no other anti-worker bills would be moved this session.
The problem with that logic, says Pat White, president of the St. Louis Labor Council, is that it chips away at workers’ rights and Labor’s bargaining position.

“If you keep doing that every year, we’re going to run out of things to trade,” White told last week’s meeting of the FaithLabor Alliance in St. Louis.

“Right now, the supermajority in the Legislature is right where they need to be to override the veto.”


CONTACT YOUR LEGISLATORS

If you haven’t contacted your senator or representative asking them to vote against paycheck deception, the time is now.

You can find your senator and representative here. Just enter your street address and hometown in the boxes provided.

Let your legislators know you’re counting on them to stand against paycheck deception.

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