Missouri Legislative Report #5 For 2007

Dear Brother & Sister Carpenters,

The Missouri Legislative Session has come to a close for 2007.  This year Legislators filed 2,008 bills and passed 145 that are being considered or signed by the Governor.  This is about normal in past years but Legislators were in such a hurry this year to increase business subsidies and loading bills with special tax breaks that they ignored many of the bill’s problems and underestimated their impact, so the last week of session was spent repealing and fixing bills they passed the previous week.

Overall, laws and regulations that affect organized labor remain intact.  As stated each month in my report we were under constant pressure to defend our reasons anti-labor bills are not in the best interest of all in Missouri. 

Following are some of the anti-labor issues that actually had hearings and the support of some legislators, but was kept from advancing:  Right to Work, Paycheck Deception, Repeal parts of the minimum wage law that Missouri Voters overwhelmingly supported, Requirement of Labor Organizations from running for public elective office, Repeal of the prevailing wage law in 3^rd and 4^th class counties, Outlaw or restrict the use of Project Labor Agreements, (PLA’s), Dissolve the Second Injury Fund in Workers Compensation Law, Restrict Missouri workers from relief due to asbestos exposure and numerous other bills that effect teachers and other unions.   

The bright side of all of the above came about last month when the House voted 94 to 58 against House Bill #61 that would exempt work done on a school in non chartered counties from the prevailing wage requirements if approved by the local school board.  This vote changed the way legislators look at anti-labor bills and the rest of the session no more threats against labor came up. 

Again thanks to all that helped educate our Legislators about our issues explaining how anti-labor legislation would cripple our union.  The Lobby Day, the visits, meetings, breakfast with special groups, fund-raisers, and phone calls to your representative made the difference in their decisions to support our union.

Now that we know who the legislators are that vote with us on our issues we need to support them in the elections coming up and defeat those that do not seem to get the message.  Looking forward to working with all of you through out the year and thank you for your time. If you want to find out more about the status of legislation or information concerning the House of Representatives or the Senate, the websites are http://www.house.mo.gov/ and http://www.senate.mo.gov/