Holden's collective bargaining order returns to play in party flap

[Freddie Stubbs]

Much to the glee of Republicans, last week's dust-up between Rep. Richard A. Gephardt's camp and two unions backing Howard Dean appears to have resurrected the controversy over collective bargaining rights for Missouri state employees.

That could be bad news for unions and the Democrats who backed Gov. Bob Holden's 2001 executive order that granted about 30,000 state workers the right to join unions. They'd hoped that the fight was over after the courts threw out the legal challenge.

One of the leaders in that court fight, state Senate President Pro Tem Peter Kinder, R-Cape Girardeau, still maintains that Holden's order was payback for the unions' crucial support in Holden's razor-thin election victory in 2000. Critics also accuse the governor of circumventing the Legislature, which repeatedly has rejected various collective bargaining proposals for state workers.

At a news conference last week, Kinder and state House Speaker Catherine Hanaway, R-Warson Woods, reaffirmed their opposition to the order. They said they will file bills when the Legislature returns next month to prohibit the "forced collection of service fees" from state employees who join unions.

more: http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/columnists.nsf/Jo+Mannies/D50867E5E4A25A6886256DF600191726?OpenDocument&Headline=Holden's+collective+bargaining+order+returns+to+play+in+part&highlight=2%2CJoyce%2CAboussie

[leetrisck]

1. Got to keep "them uppity" workers

down - who the hell do they think they are anyway? Just typical for this part of the country. Makes me so angry. So many people have no eartly idea what a Union is all about