JEFFERSON CITY 鈥 Thousands of Missouri prison guards have the opportunity to jump-start their beleaguered labor union as part of a legal settlement outlined in an email sent this week to workers at the Missouri Department of Corrections.
The message contains the settlement and outlines the process for correctional officers to opt in to having their union dues once again deducted from their paychecks.
If they agree by an Aug. 15 deadline set by Gov. Mike Parson鈥檚 Office of Administration, $5 will come out of each of their paychecks to begin rebuilding the .
鈥淚f you choose to opt in ... OA will begin deducting your dues from your paycheck during the August 16 through August 31 payroll period,鈥 said the email, which was obtained by the Post-Dispatch.
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The changes come as the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the 10.1% rate of union membership in 2022 is the lowest on record.
鈥淚n 1983, the first year where comparable union data are available, the union membership rate was 20.1% and there were 17.7 million union workers,鈥 the agency said.
However, the union membership rate of public-sector workers stands at 33.1%, which is more than five times higher than the rate of private-sector workers.
The correctional officers鈥 union has been in court since 2019, when the Republican governor鈥檚 administration abruptly stopped payroll deduction when the labor agreement covering guards expired.
That left the union scrambling for money. Staff left the organization, and its headquarters were shuttered.
It attempted to remain afloat through voluntary payment methods, but too few workers made the effort to pay dues directly to the organization, rather than through the simpler payroll deduction method.
In a 2021 decision, Cole County Circuit Judge Jon Beetem said the administration鈥檚 maneuver was unconstitutional because officials did not apply similar decisions to other unions representing state employees.
In December, the Western District Court of Appeals upheld the lower court decision calling the administration鈥檚 arguments for ending payroll deductions 鈥渁bsurd鈥 and arbitrary.
鈥淭he practical result of the rule is to give (the administration) an unfair advantage in the negotiations by starving the labor union for dues funding during the contract negotiations process,鈥 the appeals court said.
Parson, who has been in office for five years, has not renewed any of the labor agreements that represent unionized workers on the state payroll, leaving employees to operate under the terms of contracts that expired in 2019.
Administration officials have blamed the impasses on legal uncertainties and said the COVID-19 pandemic kept them away from the bargaining table.
The legal uncertainties stem from a 2018 law signed by former Gov. Eric Greitens, which placed all state employees under the same, nonmerit regulations.
The law, which has since been ruled unconstitutional, removed testing requirements to qualify for jobs and terminated the appeals process for a merit system employee who was disciplined or fired.
In addition to using a check-off system outlined in the email, union members also can contact the officers association directly to begin payroll deduction, the settlement agreement says.