GOV. HOLDEN'S LESSON IN BARGAINING

JEFFERSON CITY -- Gov. Bob Holden recently gave Missourians a lesson in bargaining. His move 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.

Holden received more than $365,000 from unions in his recent election, and he 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. Instead, more than half of them 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 is that state employees will be required to pay fees to unions -- the so-called fair-share fee -- whether or not they are union members.

How fair does that sound?

Masking this move as an effort to increase efficiency of government is a smokescreen. Holden has done nothing more than authorize a power grab for organized labor. No one else except 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 state workers to make union contributions.

Signing this executive order behind closed doors, Holden not only ignored the rights of state workers, but 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 General Assembly. Most recently, a collective-bargaining initiative received only 73 votes out of 163 members of the Missouri House (House Bill 166, March 9, 1999). The idea hasn't had enough support to make it to the floor of the House or Senate for debate since then.

Since taking office, Holden has pointed out that the state is facing budget shortfalls, but 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 for state workers 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?

Holden's justification is that collective bargaining will "streamline and enhance the functions of state government." Any employee 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 Holden to the next step: forcing our schoolteachers, police and firefighters under union control and leaving Missourians' education and safety in the hands of labor bosses.

So what have we learned from 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 Holden when it comes to placating Big Labor bosses. As a result, everyone will foot the bill for the governor's union paycheck -- not just state workers, but all Missouri taxpayers.

Daniel P. Mehan is the president of the Missouri Chamber of Commerce.