Opposition Trounces Support During Testimony Of Union Labor Bill

By Keith Schubert, Daily Montanan

January 22, 2021

Opponents of a labor bill argued Friday that it is an overstep by the government and would chip away at the strength of unions over time by not allowing them to bargain for non-dues paying members.

“This is an MFPE killer,”said Amanda Curtis, president of the Montana Federation of Public Employees. “They’ve got both barrels of their shotgun aimed at us.”

But the bill sponsor, Rep. Bill Mercer, R-Billings, said he only wants to ensure state law aligns with a 2018 U.S. Supreme Court ruling — Janus v. AFSCME. In that case, justices found that it was illegal for public unions to require dues or partial dues in unionized companies.

“This bill does not get in the way of an employee joining a union, it simply advises the employee of what their rights are to either join or not join,” Mercer said.

Friday, the House Business and Labor Committee heard testimony on House Bill 168, one of the first bills of the 2021 session aiming to revise laws concerning unions.

If passed, HB 168 would change unions’ ability to bargain for dues and non-dues paying members. It also would prevent employers from deducting dues from an employee’s paycheck unless the employee signs a yearly consent statement.

In 2019, former Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock vetoed a union-supported bill that would have aligned state law with the Janus decision.

Mercer argued that requiring people to sign a yearly statement consenting to the “waiver of the public employee’s First Amendment rights in associating with the labor organization” gives workers more clarity on their rights to join or not.

Joel Worth, a member and representative of carpenters union local 82, said he believes by joining a union he is exercising his First Amendment right.

“The First Amendment does state there’s the right to assemble and and that is exactly what we do as union members. We assemble to address grievances, so I don’t feel that it would be prudent for us to have to sign up every year to acknowledge that we want to continue with our first amendment right,” Worth said.

More than 20 people testified against the bill and one testified in support of it. Opponents criticized the bill for going beyond just codifying the Janus decision. They also said that requiring a yearly consent form would be a logistical nightmare.

The President of the Federation of Montana State Prison Employees, Aaron Meaders, said it would be impossible to track down the 358 members belonging to the union every year, adding that it hasn’t even been able to get everybody to sign the new forms required when MFPE was formed three years ago.

“[HB 168] would create a more chaotic working environment and undo a century of labor peace in Montana,” Curtis said. “When the government interferes, it doesn’t help the situation. The unions exist to create labor peace.”

The MFPE represents 25,000 public employees including firefighters, law enforcement, nurses and teachers.

Kim Rickard-Smeltzer, business manager of Labor Local 1686, testified representing the union’s 620 public employees. Rickard-Smeltzer said the bill is “nothing more than government overreach and an assault on workers’ freedom of speech in the workplace.”

Curtis also took issue with Section 5 of the bill, which she said would take away unions’ exclusive representation — being able to bargain for dues and non-dues paying members.

Taking away exclusive representation would create two classes of employees and would lead to the deterioration of unions, Curtis said.

“If an employer wanted to get rid of a union that has bargained for good working conditions all they would have to do is negotiate a better deal with non-members … and over time, there will be no members and they will have no bargaining power,” Curtis said.

Mercer denied the bill would do that and said the bill is not trying to take union representation away from anyone.

Gov. Greg Gianforte’s office would not comment on HB 168. When asked if he thinks strong unions would help achieve his goal of attracting more workers to Montana, his office responded that he is “is focused on bringing more good-paying jobs to Montana, including the good-paying union jobs associated with the Keystone XL pipeline project.”

President Joe Biden signed an executive order this week that halted construction of the Keystone XL pipeline project.

There are at least three other bills drafted that are similar to HB 168.

Curtis compared HB 168 to SB 89, which would also alter a union’s ability to deduct dues from a member’s paycheck.

“However, HB 168 goes even further by pushing illegal policies that force an employer to stand between a worker and their union,” Curtis said in a press release referring to the yearly contract members would have to ask members to sign.

Mercer made it clear that his bill would not impact private or non-profit employees. Even so, Al Ekblad, executive secretary of the Montana AFL-CIO, said the organization opposes the bill.

“It’s an attack on labor,” he said. “For a party that says it wants less government, when it comes to workers’ rights, in this case at least, [Mercer] wants more red tape for workers to engage and make a choice to be in a union.”

Ekblad also said the bill goes against Montana’s strong union tradition. “Every one of these bills attacks 100 years of labor management in Montana. It is a part of our history to be a union state with a strong representation of workers.”

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