Mark Mix talks right-to-work with club

Those who agree with the positions of Mark Mix, president of the National Right to Work Committee and the National Right to Work Legal Defense Fund Foundation who spoke to the Southeast Missouri Pachyderms Club on Thursday night in Cape Girardeau, also agree this year has not been a good one for their cause in Missouri.

Making the state "right-to-work," supporters say, would create a climate friendly for new businesses and allow workers to decide whether they would join a union and pay dues. But what was a priority for Republicans serving in the state legislature essentially went nowhere when bills never made it to the chamber floor.

Supporters of unionized labor, who are opposed to right-to-work scenarios, say allowing a change in the current laws would subject workers to less protection in the workplace, lower or stagnant wages and a lack of benefits.

Twenty-four states have passed right-to-work legislation, the most recent being Michigan and Indiana in 2012. Advocates of right-to-work saw those successes as a major turning point in their cause because of the level of unionized labor in those states.

"What we need here in Missouri is a recorded vote," Mix said to attendees of Thursday's meeting. "The legislature ought to do what they are sent to Jefferson City to do -- vote on this bill. Then you people decide who does it right and who does it wrong, and then you go to work and we build a structure that allows right-to-work."

Mix said his group does not agree with the talked-about strategy in Missouri of putting a decision about right-to-work before voters. They would instead like to see the legislature pass a bill, and if it were vetoed by the governor, he said, let a statewide debate begin. Mix gave the example that Indiana's governor, Mitch Daniels, who once said he opposed right-to-work and then signed the law. Gov. Jay Nixon also is opposed to right-to-work.

Mix originally was scheduled to appear in Cape Girardeau on April 18, but was delayed from reaching the St. Louis airport in time for the drive to Cape Girardeau. Had he made it, he would have met with local organized labor representatives -- about 50 people showed up in protest of his appearance at the Pachyderms Club meeting that night, but found the meeting had been canceled.

Mark Baker, President of the Southeast Missouri Central Labor Council, said in a news release on April 18 that the meeting was "only the latest attempt to get political support to attack the utility linesmen, first responders and other Missouri workers who are out risking their safety working for us."

Storms and heavy rain were in the area that night.

"We're out here in the weather to make sure our neighbors and friends know what's at stake in Jefferson City -- and we're not going to stop speaking up about what's going on. The same CEOs and big corporations who have been shipping our jobs overseas are now pushing to change the laws to give them an even bigger unfair advantage," Baker continued in the release.

No protesters were seen Thursday night at the meeting, which was at Dexter Bar-B-Que.

During his presentation, Mix displayed company contracts from states without right-to-work laws containing language that states union participation is a condition of employment.

"It doesn't matter to us if [workers] join or not, just as long as they have the right to decide," he said.

eragan@semissourian.com

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Pertinent address:

236 S. Broadview St., Cape Girardeau, MO