Missouri Legislative Report #2 For 2007
Dear Brother & Sister Carpenters,
February was the deadline for bills to be
filled in the Senate and April 1st is the last day bills can be
filled in the House. We now have 610 bills filed in the Senate and 994 filed in
the House. At this time 126 of these bills are of interest to labor and several
are critical that must be defeated.
The Project Labor Agreement and Job Targeting
Bill that was killed last year is back again this year with compromises.
Although Carpenters are not in full support of this bill other union groups and
non-union groups have reached a consensus on Senate Bill #339 filed by Senator
Rob Mayor. The General Assembly is expected to pass this bill with the
understanding that no PLA is allowed on any public works project where more than
50% of the construction cost is funded by the state and it would be illegal to
discriminate against bidders who do not enter into an agreement with a labor
organization. In addition, the law would prohibit unions from subsidizing wages
for contractors on projects unless the rate proposed is below the prevailing
wage rate.
Senate Bill #348 sponsored by Senators Koester
and Green enacts various provisions affecting illegal aliens/misclassified
workers. If accepted, with the Carpenter’s proposed compromises, this bill is
the best out of the six filed before this General Assembly.
The House has several bills that must be
defeated as they work their way through the General Assembly:
HB 61 (Ruestman) = Exempts work done on a
school in a noncharter county from the prevailing hourly wage requirement if
approved by the school board.
HB 439 (Hunter) = Open Shop Right to Work
Bill.
HB 440 (Hunter) = Requires labor unions not
subject to the federal Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act to publicly
disclose information concerning their finances.
HB 441 (Hunter) = requires that expenditures
for political activities by labor organizations to be made exclusively from a
fund established for that purpose.
HB 566 (Hunter) = Specifies that the state
will have priority to any moneys owed to it before any union dues are paid to a
labor organization.
HB 629 (Hunter) = Changes various laws
relating to workers’ compensation.
HB 685 (Hunter) = Terminates benefits under
the Second Injury Fund for all claims occurring on or after January 1, 2008.
So you won’t get too down and out concerning
this Session we do have around 30 bills that are good for labor but space does
not permit mentioning them at this time.
My address is 1930 North Circle Drive,
Jefferson City, MO 65109
Maurice Schulte
Legislative Consultant for the State of
Missouri
TEL: 573-635-5859
FAX: 573-635-3086
schulte0@earthlink.net
