When Democrat Lucas Kunce and Republican U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley tangled at this year’s Missouri State Fair, Hawley’s shift on union rights was perhaps more notable than the rivals' heated argument over holding debates.
With Kunce standing next to him, Hawley said he no longer supported right to work — which bars unions and employers from requiring workers to pay dues as a condition of employment. This was a significant change for Hawley, who backed the policy when he was running for office in 2016. And it’s part of a broader attempt by the Republican incumbent to appeal to union members in the run-up to the Nov. 5 election.
“If those people don’t pay dues but get the benefit of the contract, that’s not fair,” Hawley said.
Kunce, who has received the lion's share of support from Missouri’s labor unions, said Hawley’s newfound opposition to right to work is nothing more than election year pandering. He added Hawley is “trying to remake himself during an election year because he knows that taking away our rights is not something that people want, and he’s scared about it.”
Regardless of the motivation, Hawley’s comments struck a chord with Billy Crow, who’s a second-generation member of the Sheet Metal Workers Union Local 36. The Arnold resident is a Republican who opposes abortion rights, likes lower taxes and supports a more restrictive immigration policy. He’s been waiting for high-profile Republicans like Hawley to embrace policies favorable toward organized labor, such as opposition to right to work.
“The more Republicans that can see our point of view as union members, the better,” Crow said.
Hawley’s outreach to labor comes during a national focus on how white working-class voters without college degrees are increasingly voting for Republican candidates. While Missouri unions, by and large, are still providing political and financial support to Democrats, they’re also willing to back GOP candidates on a state legislative level who are supportive of pro-organized labor policies.
And while some Hawley critics are skeptical he’ll actually follow through on his pro-labor rhetoric with pro-labor votes in the Senate, others see it as a natural consequence to national electoral realignment and the popularity of labor unions among the public.
“As the GOP is grabbing more and more votes from non-college working-class voters, some politicians like Hawley are adopting stances more in line with those voters' economic interests,” said Washington University sociology professor Jake Rosenfeld. “At the same time, this has been a kind of a now-stubborn trend of the last couple of years: Unions poll quite well. You see union approval standing at right around two-thirds of Americans out there. They poll much better than any candidate for major office. So, getting on the right side of them is smart politics.”
Missouri sees the shift
Organized labor is not a monolith.
Bernie Ryan, an electrician with the St. Louis-based International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, said fans of GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump sometimes encounter hostility at worksites. He recalled a situation where a pro-Trump electrician received a chilly reception inside a construction trailer.
“If you’re a Trump voter and an electrician, you would know just to keep his mouth shut and save it for at home,” Ryan said. “But there's other trades that are different from mine where it's more prevalent.”
There are some tangible signs that members of trade unions are more amenable to Republicans.
Democrats used to control almost all of the local and state-based offices in Jefferson County, which is home to scores of current and retired labor union members. Now, Republicans dominate politics there — as well as union strongholds like Ste. Genevieve and St. Francois counties and some parts of south St. Louis County.
Crow, the Sheet Metal Workers union member from Arnold, just won a Republican primary for Jefferson County Council. He’s strongly favored to win in November — which wouldn’t have been the case a decade ago.
“There's a lot more Republican union members than people realize, and especially than our leadership realizes,” he said.
And since Missouri is expected to remain a Republican-leaning state for the foreseeable future, unions are adapting. Jake West of the St. Louis-based Sheet Metal Workers says his union is willing to back Republicans who are with it on labor issues — especially since the GOP-controlled General Assembly could try to revive things like right to work in the near future.
“We have a saying around here that we support those who support us,” West said. “So, whether you’re a Democrat or Republican — if you support working-class people and labor initiatives, those are the people who we’re going to go out and support and try to do whatever we can to rally the membership around them.”
Hitting a ceiling?
There may be a limit to the amount of support Republicans can get from trade union members.
The Missouri AFL-CIO endorsed Lt. Gov. Mike Kehoe during the GOP primary. But that group is supporting Democrat Crystal Quade in the general election because Kehoe wouldn’t commit to vetoing right to work if he becomes governor.
Right to work often provokes visceral disdain from union members like Wendi Fortel, a member of the St. Louis County-based Plumbers and Pipefitters union. She says right to work not only allows people to get the benefits of union representation without paying dues — but it could also lead to lower pay in the long run.
“I'm getting closer to retirement age, but I have a son who has just started out. He's a journeyman pipefitter. So for the future generation, right to work would be horrible for them. And we just definitely don't want that.”
Some union leaders are skeptical about candidates like Hawley, adding that they want to see his rhetoric matched with votes for their priorities.
Missouri AFL-CIO President Jake Hummel, a former Democratic state senator and state representative, said earlier this year that many union members may have voted for Republican Eric Greitens in 2016 because they liked his opposition to gun control. But they got a rude awakening in 2017 when he quickly signed right to work into law, which led to a 2018 referendum that soundly overturned it.
“I think [Hawley’s] sitting back and looking at what's the popular message right now,” Hummel said. “Certainly worker power, I think, is on the rise. And he probably wants to capitalize on that. But, you know, actions speak louder than words.”
Rosenfeld, the Washington University sociology professor, says the real test could be if Hawley and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris win and whether Hawley will vote for Harris’ nominees to the National Labor Relations Board or back federal legislation making it easier for workers to organize.
“Saying you're no longer a supporter of right to work legislation doesn't mean you are then going to turn around and vote on a major piece of legislation as it comes before you,” Rosenfeld said. “And I'd say that so far, this kind of shift in rhetoric, and in some cases, action on the part of Hawley, J.D. Vance, Marco Rubio, the action has remained largely in the realm of symbolic.”
“But that's not to say that these words and limited actions don't matter,” he added. “I think they provide space for others in the broader GOP umbrella to kind of break with long-standing party orthodoxy and support some pro-union positions.”
Editor’s note: Rosenbaum is a member of two unions, CWA Local 6350 at St. Louis Public Radio and SEIU Local 1 as an adjunct instructor at Washington University.
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