Post-Dispatch: Right-to-Work-for-Less Debate Really About GOP Fundraising

Today in the Post-Dispatch:

[W]e’re not overly concerned that Missouri Senate Republicans trotted out an anti-union “right-to-work” law for debate on Monday, under the false auspice of creating jobs. The debate lasted less than four hours, proof that the Senate isn’t serious about passing this measure...

[F]or the moment, do what Republicans have been doing: Forget the evidence. That’s not really why the Senate debated right-to-work in the first place. It’s about money, as in the kind politicians can raise when their base gets fired up...

The bottom line is that unions matter in Missouri. They help provide a reasonable living for thousands of middle-class employees along with their partners — yes, partners — in the business community. About 4,000 of those union members rallied at Kiener Plaza downtown preceding this week’s right-to-work mini-debate, and hundreds more filled the Senate galleries Monday night just to make that point.

Even the Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry, a defacto arm of Missouri’s Republican Party, knew better than to include right-to-work legislation among its priorities this session.

But now, as the chamber and others to try to benefit from the fund-raising bonanza created by Wisconsin’s legislative madness, we have a suggestion.

Stand down. You want to create jobs? Real jobs? Work together with your union partners, not against them.