No pay raises for state workers, but they face union lug

So the Holden Lug on state workers' paychecks is becoming a reality after all.

Thirteen months after Gov. Bob Holden's infamous executive order instituting collective bargaining for state employees, a key feature of forced unionization is coming into focus.

That would be what the union bosses call fair-share fees. The union bosses generously set such fair-share fees at just $5 below the level of full monthly union dues.

Underpaid state workers, who've gone two years without a cost-of- living adjustment and are looking at a third consecutive such year under Holden, and who are watching their health-insurance costs rise, will likely pay the Holden Lug of $18 a month to the union of their -- as the kids say, NOT! -- choice.

So it is the policy of this governor to hit state workers with a new monthly lug, but not even give them the money to pay it.

Nice work, governor.

All this is dressed up by the governor and his spinmeisters as an efficiency measure that will lead to taxpayer savings. There are few level-headed Missourians who will buy that whopper.

One wonders:

How out of touch can a governor be?

Doesn't he sense the white-hot gathering of outrage among state workers to his brand of arbitrary rule?

Will Holden continue blindly down this path, to the detriment of rank-and-file state workers and all Missourians?

The apparent answer from our current chief executive is: indefinitely. And eagerly. The Associated Press reports that the governor's spokeswoman "said the governor was aware of the potential impact of his order and was not concerned about recent Republican criticism. 'We knew this was going to happen. It's exactly what is involved in collective bargaining,' Holden spokeswoman Chris Kelly said. 'The governor supports ... fair-share fees.'"

House and Senate Republicans attempted to move legislation that would have headed off the Holden Lug on workers' paychecks.

House speaker Jim Kreider, in thrall to the same Big City union bosses who call the tune with this governor, didn't even assign these bills to committee for a hearing. (All Senate bills are routinely, and in timely fashion, assigned to committees.) In the GOP-controlled Senate, we passed the bill out of committee on a party-line vote, only to run up against a Democrat filibuster that signaled passage would be enormously difficult and time- consuming.

All this further raises the stakes riding on a lawsuit filed by this writer last summer, in which I was joined by a broad coalition of Missourians, to overturn this executive order.

Kinder, et al. vs. Holden is in the Western District Court of Appeals and set for a hearing on Aug. 21 in Kansas City, Mo.

The hopes of many state workers to escape the dreaded, forced Holden Lug, as well as those of Missourians hoping to preserve the good government we now see slipping away from us, are riding on the outcome of my suit.

Peter Kinder is assistant to the chairman of Rust Communications and president pro tem of the Missouri Senate.