Senator Betrays Pro-Right to Work Missourians

Flip-Flopper Josh Hawley Now Backs Federally-Imposed Forced Dues

In October 1986, top D.C. Beltway establishment Republican politicians, along with the capital’s political pundits and powerful union bosses, were overwhelmingly convinced that Idahoans would overturn the Gem State’s then-nascent Right to Work law in an upcoming ballot-box showdown.

Idaho’s freshman Republican U.S. Sen. Steve Symms and Republican gubernatorial nominee David Leroy had both been strong supporters of the law’s enactment.

But both were under intense pressure from putative supporters to distance themselves publicly from Right to Work before the issue derailed their campaigns.

Propaganda Blitz Never Caused Idahoans’ Support For Right to Work Principle to Waver

Mr. Symms rejected the so-called “wisdom” of political insiders.

He doubled down on his support for Right to Work, and was ultimately reelected in a generally abysmal year for freshman GOP senators seeking a second term, on the same day that Idahoans confounded the Beltway by upholding Right to Work, 54% to 46%.

At the time he made the important decision to stand by Right to Work supporters, Mr. Symms had no way of knowing whether or not the union bosses’ amply funded scheme to restore their forced-unionism privileges in Idaho would succeed.

Throughout the late summer and fall of 1986, wildly false Big Labor TV and radio ads were flooding Idaho’s airwaves with claims that a “yes” vote on Referendum 1, backing retention of Idaho’s Right to Work law, would slash workers’ wages.

Just before Labor Day, a respected poll showed support for Referendum 1 at just 41.5%, far below the majority it needed to pass.

But union propagandists’ efforts never shook Idahoans’ support for the Right to Work principle. It fell only slightly from February 1986 to late August that year, when it stood at a still overwhelming 70.5%, with 23.4% opposed.

David Leroy Wanted to Have It Both Ways on Right to Work Statute

Mr. Symms evidently decided he would be better off standing with his constituents on principle rather than allowing union bosses to dictate his stance on Right to Work and Idahoans’ fate by manipulating a referendum campaign.

Meanwhile, his fellow Republican and would-be governor David Leroy made the opposite choice. 

Speaking before a luncheon meeting of the Idaho Press Club a week before the election, he announced that, if Referendum 1 went down to defeat, he would veto any future Right to Work measure that might reach his desk.

This calculated move, which the state media depicted as a flat-out repudiation of Right to Work, outraged grassroots activists who had previously backed Mr. Leroy without garnering him any new supporters. He subsequently lost the November election to openly pro-forced unionism Democrat Cecil Andrus.

“David Leroy is just one of a long line of Republican politicians who have hurt themselves politically by trying to have it both ways on voluntary vs. compulsory unionism,” observed Mark Mix, president of the National Right to Work Committee.

“The latest example is Missouri Republican U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley.

“If Mr. Hawley wanted to hark back to Idaho 1986 for his political role model, it should have been an easy decision for him to pick Steve Symms, who was reelected that year, 52% to 48%. Instead, he went with David Leroy, who lost an eminently winnable governor’s race!”

In 2015, Josh Hawley Bitterly Denounced GOP Politicians Who Didn’t Back Right to Work

In the years after the Great Recession of 2008-9, Right to Work momentum was building in Missouri and several other states, just as Right to Work had gained strength in Idaho during the late 1970’s and early 1980’s.

In 2015, pro-Right to Work lawmakers sent a bill banning forced union dues and fees to then-Gov. Jay Nixon’s (D) desk, only to be blocked by his veto. Though Republicans controlled veto-proof majorities in the state House and Senate, Right to Work allies could not override the veto due to a handful of GOP defections.

In a tweet, Mr. Hawley, then an attorney active in the conservative movement, denounced these Big Labor-appeasing Republicans: “Time for an end to union-backed candidates in the GOP.”

The following year, GOP gubernatorial nominee Eric Greitens made his commitment to turning Missouri into a Right to Work state a key issue in his campaign. Meanwhile, union bosses spent, by their own admission, more than $10 million to stop him and ensure the election of pro-forced unionism Democrat Chris Koster as the state’s chief executive.

Mr. Greitens won the race by a solid six-point margin. Meanwhile, Missourians returned to office all Right to Work-supporting legislators in the state House and Senate who sought reelection.

In February 2017, Right to Work legislation was sent to Mr. Greitens’ desk, and he promptly kept his campaign pledge to sign it.

“The only reason Missouri isn’t a Right to Work state today,” said Mr. Mix, “is that Big Labor was able to use a quirk in state law to block implementation of the ban on forced union dues and fees by gathering petitions from roughly one-sixth as many citizens as those who had voted for Eric Greitens.

“The union bosses’ petition drive also put on the ballot a measure to permanently wipe out Missouri’s Right to Work law.”

Now Mr. Hawley Wants to Reward Big Labor For Its Effective Smoke Screen

Mr. Mix continued: “Union bosses in the ‘Show Me’ State were, by all evidence, no more successful in persuading Missourians that it’s okay to force workers to pay union dues, or be fired, than they had been in ‘converting’ freedom-loving Idahoans in 1986.

“But they were successful in confusing the issue with often flatly false economic claims and other distractions from the core issue.

“With Eric Greitens sidelined by an impeachment probe launched on dubious grounds, and without any other courageous officeholder in the mode of Steve Symms around to refute Big Labor’s falsehoods, defending Missourians’ Right to Work against the $16 million repeal campaign was a steeply uphill battle.

“National Right to Work did everything we reasonably could, but in the end no one could prevent Big Labor from killing Missourians’ Right to Work in August 2018.

“Now, incredibly, despite the fact that he pledged during his successful U.S. Senate campaign that very year to support a national Right to Work law, Josh Hawley wants to reward Big Labor for putting up a successful smoke screen in his home state.

“The primary beneficiaries of Right to Work destruction in Missouri have been shady Big Labor bosses like Al Bond, until recently the head of the carpenters union in St. Louis and Kansas City. In early 2023, his attorneys secured dismissal of a civil suit alleging massive misappropriation of funds.

“But Mr. Hawley is now citing this very ballot result as his excuse for breaking his campaign pledge and openly opposing national Right to Work legislation. Even in Washington, D.C., this is extraordinary cynicism.”

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