2018 Missouri Proposition A was a
veto referendum ballot measure
A referendum, plebiscite, or ballot measure is a Direct democracy, direct vote by the Constituency, electorate (rather than their Representative democracy, representatives) on a proposal, law, or political issue. A referendum may be either bin ...
held on August 7, 2018, to determine whether to uphold or overturn a
right-to-work law
In the context of labor law in the United States, the term right-to-work laws refers to state laws that prohibit union security agreements between employers and labor unions. Such agreements can be incorporated into union contracts to requir ...
passed by the
Missouri General Assembly
The Missouri General Assembly is the State legislature (United States), state legislature of the U.S. state of Missouri. The bicameral General Assembly is composed of a 34-member Missouri Senate, Senate and a 163-member Missouri House of Represen ...
in 2017. The law was defeated, resulting in its repeal.
Background
Right-to-work law
In the context of labor law in the United States, the term right-to-work laws refers to state laws that prohibit union security agreements between employers and labor unions. Such agreements can be incorporated into union contracts to requir ...
s prohibit requiring employees who are not union members to contribute to the costs of union representation. Right-to-work legislation had been previously passed by the Missouri General Assembly in 2015, but was vetoed by
Democratic governor
Jay Nixon
Jeremiah Wilson "Jay" Nixon (born February 13, 1956) is an American lawyer and politician who served as the List of governors of Missouri, 55th governor of Missouri from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic P ...
. Following the election of
Republican governor
Eric Greitens in 2016, the Assembly again passed a right-to-work law, which was signed by Greitens. However, opponents of the law gathered enough signatures to force a
veto referendum, preventing it from going into effect until the referendum was held.
Contents
The proposition appeared on the ballot as follows:
A lawsuit was filed in
Cole County to change the ballot title, arguing that using the word "adopt" was misleading, given that the law had already been passed by the General Assembly. Circuit court judge Daniel Green ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, re-writing the ballot title. The case was appealed to the Western District of the
Missouri Court of Appeals
The Missouri Court of Appeals is the intermediate appellate court for the U.S. state, state of Missouri. The court handles most of the appeals from the Missouri Circuit Courts. The court is divided into three geographic districts: Eastern (bas ...
, which reversed the initial ruling.
Results
The law was defeated in a landslide, with 67.5% of voters voting to repeal it.
References
External links
*{{ballotpedia
2018 Missouri elections
2018 ballot measures in the United States
Missouri ballot measures
Right-to-work law