Supreme Court Hears Case on Collective Bargaining Rights
The Missouri Supreme Court heard arguments on May 24 in a case challenging whether a 2018 law modifying the merit system for hiring and firing state government employees unconstitutionally interferes with unionized workers’ collective bargaining rights.
Just over a year ago, a Cole County circuit judge ruled the governor’s administration violated the constitutional rights of unionized state employees when it stopped adhering to valid labor contracts after the passage of Senate Bill 1007. Under SB 1007, most state workers now are “at-will” employees who “may be discharged for no reason or any reason not prohibited by law.”
After the law took effect, the governor’s administration stopped following the terms of labor contracts in place with three unions representing employees at several state agencies. The unions subsequently sued to enforce their members’ collective bargaining rights under the Missouri Constitution.
The circuit judge ruled that nothing in SB 1007 restricts the collective bargaining rights of state workers or supersedes negotiated labor agreements. However, the judge said the governor’s administration violated the constitution by acting as if it did and ordered the state to resume good-faith negotiations with the state employee unions.
The Supreme Court will issue a ruling in the state’s appeal at a later date. The case is American Federation of State, County and Municipal...
Founder and leader of Perez Chapel International, Archbishop Charles Agyinasare has urged Ghanaians to take responsibility for misinformation they share by retracting false claims, apologising to ...