Governor offers up state workers as political payback

Guest editorial

By Daniel P. Mehan, president and CEO of the Missouri Chamber of Commerce

The governor recently gave Missourians a lesson in "bargaining." His move on June 29 to sign into law through executive order the unionization of state employees, demonstrated a simple bargaining concept: if you give something you should get something back.

Gov. Holden received more than $365,000 from unions in his recent election and needs another $300,000 to cover his inauguration debt. In return, he will be paying back the unions $8 million to $10 million annually, funded through Missouri state workers' paychecks.

The governor is using state employees as a political pawn. State employees won't receive raises this year, but instead more than half will be forced to pay union dues, a portion of which will go into campaign coffers of union-owned politicians. What's even more disturbing, state employees will be required to pay fees to unions -- a so-called "fair share" fee -- whether they are a union member or not. How "fair" does that sound?

Masking this move as an effort to increase efficiency of government is a smokescreen. Gov. Holden has done nothing more than authorize a power grab for organized labor. No one else except for big labor bosses is asking for public employee collective bargaining -- not state workers, not lawmakers, and certainly not the people those lawmakers represent.

Missouri state workers already have the option to join a union, but less than 19 percent choose to exercise that option. So, now the governor is forcing four out of five workers to make union contributions.

Signing this executive order behind closed doors, Gov. Holden not only ignored the rights of state workers. He has also ignored lawmakers who have openly debated and soundly rejected the idea of public employee collective bargaining during the last several legislative sessions.

This issue has never passed the Missouri General Assembly -- most recently a collective bargaining initiative received only 73 votes out of 163 members of the Missouri House of Representatives (House Bill 166 - 3/9/99). The idea hasn't had enough support to make it to the floor of the House or Senate for debate since.

Although since taking office Gov. Holden has pointed out that the state is facing budget shortfalls, he has implemented irresponsible public policy that could easily cost the state millions more annually. According to analysis by the Joint Committee on Legislative Research, the cost of implementing collective bargaining totals at least $43.8 million in the first year, alone.

How can the governor justify incurring this cost when in the last legislative session he couldn't find a cost of living pay raise for state workers, couldn't find the money to end the diversion of highway tax dollars from the Missouri Department of Transportation to other state agencies, and couldn't find the money to carry out promised capital improvements for the state's university system?

Gov. Holden's justification is that collective bargaining will "streamline and enhance the functions of state government" according to the governor's statement released with his executive order. Any employer in the real world that has had to deal with union arbitration and strikes knows how much that claim contradicts his action.

The executive order will affect up to 30,000 of Missouri's 65,000 employees including social workers and prison guards. One wonders how long before the union pushes Gov. Holden to the next step, forcing our school teachers, police and firefighters under union control and leaving Missourians' education and safety in the hands of labor bosses.

So what have we learned from Gov. Holden's recent lesson in "bargaining?" We have learned that the actions and will of the Legislature in our supposed representative democracy do not matter to Gov. Holden when it comes to placating big labor bosses. And as a result, everyone will foot the bill for the governor's union payback -- not just Missouri state workers, but all Missouri taxpayers.