Right to Work Legislation Will Weaken Missouri’s Economy
Date Posted: August 30, 2013
Posted In: Discussion, Workforce,
This op-ed piece originally ran in the St. Louis Post-Dipatch STLToday site.
by Barry Aycock
Currently, Missouri House Republicans are in a full press to pass so-called right-to-work legislation. Even though the president pro tem of the state Senate has said it is not a priority of the Senate and it faces a certain veto by the governor, they press on wasting time they could spend working to modernize Missouri’s economy.
It’s amusing after winning a local election, some of these politicians instantly fancy themselves economic experts pushing the unproven ideas placed in their heads by a large donor or two on the state. As an agri-businessman who has used my capital to hire new employees, I can tell you from the front lines of the job creation battle that right-to-work will do nothing except lower the wages of our state and weaken Missouri’s economy.
However, let’s say at some point today’s right-wing talking point becomes tomorrow’s short-sighted law of the land; who will they blame then?
Let’s look at a case-in-point from southeast Missouri. After gladly taking millions of dollars in federal loan guarantees, Nordyne placed a new factory in Poplar Bluff. You won’t be surprised to learn that none of the Republican leaders in the area accused anyone of being a socialist or a liberal for helping the government involve themselves in private commerce. However, a few weeks ago, Nordyne announced they were moving their production and closing the factory.
According to the Republicans’ narrative, it had to have been greedy unions at the plant that chased the job creators into the welcoming arms of a right-to-work state. The facts, as they often do to right-wing ideologues, burst their bubble.
First of all, the Nordyne facility was not a union shop. There wasn’t one union even talked about forming at their plant. As bad as the wing nuts would love to, you can’t pin this on unions.
Second, Nordyne didn’t close their plant to move to a right-to-work state. They moved their operation to Saltillo, Mexico. Pass all the union-busting legislation you want, and it wouldn’t do a thing for the 700 people in southeast Missouri who lost their jobs.
Human capital is our most important resource; we should treasure employees and value their work.
Why haven’t more companies bypassed Missouri and headed straight for Arkansas, rather than wait on right-to-work to pass here? Jobs in right-to-work states are consistently lower-paying, lack health care benefits and are almost always attracted due to tax incentives, which reduce services at the expense of the citizens.
The Missouri Legislature is mimicking Kansas in dropping income taxes, even though Kansas is facing $800 million budget shortfalls. Are they now going to compete with Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, etc. to essentially “buy” jobs with tax incentives: jobs that will keep workers in poverty and on the Medicaid rolls? Anyone doing minimal due diligence will realize right-to-work states are notorious for lower wages, more on-the-job deaths, lower graduation rates, less education dollars, higher infant mortality, lower living standards and the list goes on. Eight of the 10 poorest states are right-to-work.
In fact, seven of the 10 states with the highest unemployment are right-to-work. I’ve yet to see any benefit, but the downfalls from right-to-work are impossible to ignore. Arkansas is at 7.2 percent unemployment compared to Missouri’s 6.5 percent. Oklahoma has steadily lost manufacturing jobs, and a reduction in new businesses since adopting right-to-work.
I’m a businessman; facts have to matter to me, or people lose their jobs. These right-wing politicians don’t care about the facts; they only care about the whims of a handful of wealthy Republican donors who live to blame unions for any ill they conceive. It leads me to wonder, if they are successful in lowering wages, living standards and public services, who will they blame when they don’t have unions to kick around anymore?
Barry Aycock is CEO of AgXplore International Inc.