NewsPublic-sector union employees in Missouri filed a lawsuit [text, PDF] on Monday in the St. Louis County Circuit Court challenging Missouri’s “paycheck protection” law [text, PDF], arguing it violates the state’s constitutional protections to free speech, association and petition, as well as equal protection, protection against impairment of contracts, and the right to organize and bargain collectively.
Plaintiffs argue that the law, signed by Governor Eric Greitens, effectively aims [press release] to destroy collective bargaining rights and lower wages. According to the complaint, the law, “creates a new public-sector collective- bargaining regime that imposes a raft of harsh restrictions on a disfavored set of public-employee labor organizations and their members, while completely exempting a more favored set of public-employee labor organizations and their members from the same.”
The plaintiffs are public-sector union employees, including teachers, patient care professionals, maintenance workers, and some public safety workers. There are some employees exempt from the law, including police officers, firefighters, nurses and physicians.
