Senator Bob Onder Responds to Union Lawsuit Against HB 1413
LAKE SAINT LOUIS —This session the Missouri General Assembly passed HB 1413, the Government Worker Protection Act, a law to enact comprehensive government union reform, including provisions calling for workplace democracy through recertification elections, paycheck protection, financial accountability, and greater transparency through the collective bargaining process. Yesterday a group of government unions filed a lawsuit in Circuit Court in St. Louis County attempting to block this needed reform bill.
State Sen. Bob Onder, R-Lake Saint Louis, Senate handler of the bill, issued the following statement about the lawsuit:
“This is a politically motivated lawsuit by government union bosses to keep the status quo. The Government Worker Protection Act creates accountability and workplace democracy so that public sector union members can have a voice and a vote. This is about making government unions accountable to their members and to taxpayers. Dues money is often used on politics, and union members have a right to know how their hard-earned wages are spent. I am confident Missouri courts will reject this self-interested lawsuit and protect the rights of our government workers and the taxpayers of Missouri.”
The lawsuit details, in paragraphs 32 and 33 on page 17, how unions use members’ dues money on politics.
The arguments made by the unions in the lawsuit are not new. Similar arguments have been made and rejected in Iowa courts, the Wisconsin Supreme Court, and the U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals.
###