A Missouri judge ruled the wording of a summary for a proposed ballot measure to overturn right to work is not accurate, and he rewrote the measure to ask voters if they want to force employees to make payments to labor unions as a condition of employment.
At issue are a series of initiative petitions by state AFL-CIO President Mike Louis, who wants to put the policy to a public vote.
Former Democratic Secretary of State Jason Kander approved summaries of the initiatives on his last day in office in January before the new Republican secretary of state took over.
Since then, the new Republican governor has signed right to work. It's set to take effect Aug. 28.
Republican Cole County Circuit Judge Jon Beetem in his ruling dated Thursday said summaries approved by Kander might have been sufficient at that time. But he said the main effect of the measures now would be to repeal the right-to-work law, and the petitions as written lacked context to show what effect they would have.
"Because the summary statements here do not provide this essential context, they are unfair and insufficient," Beetem said.
Requests for comment from the Associated Press to Louis and a state spokeswoman for the AFL-CIO were not immediately returned Friday.
Efforts to get the measures on the ballot can move forward but with revised summaries written by Beetem.
Under Kander's version, one petition summary would ask voters if the Missouri Constitution should be amended to "prohibit impairing, restricting or limiting the ability of employees to negotiate, enter into and enforce certain collectively bargained agreements with an employer."
Following Beetem's rewrite, the same petition asks if residents want to amend the Constitution "to remove the right to choose whether or not to join a union (right to work) and allow union representatives to force an employee to make payments to the union as a condition of employment."
National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation President Mark Mix in a Friday statement praised the ruling, which he said is an "important step" in protecting right to work.
"Show Me State citizens overwhelmingly oppose giving union officials the power to have a worker fired solely for refusing to pay union dues or fees, which is why Big Labor is trying to be intentionally deceptive about their efforts to overturn the state's new right-to-work law," Mix said.