Bills to restrict unions have failed to gain support at the 2025 Montana Legislature. (Photo by Brandon Bell | Getty Images)
In a sea of work clothes and some hard hats, union member Richard Hackett noticed something about the attire of the people, just two, who testified in favor of a bill that purported to defend the rights of workers.
The people who supported it, Hackett said, were wearing suits.
“I don’t see anybody in blue jeans,” Hackett said at the committee hearing. “I don’t see anybody in work boots or hard hats. That should tell you something about who actually supports this bill.”
The “right to work” bill, Senate Bill 376, aimed to protect workers from having to join a union, a right opponents said already exists, and it earned strong opposition in committee last week.
At one point, the chairperson was told about 150 people were waiting in the hall to oppose it, and Saturday, members of the Senate Business, Labor and Economic Affairs committee voted unanimously to table the bill after it failed to pass on a 7-5 vote.
Later the same day, an attempt to blast the bill onto the floor failed too, 18-32.
The previous week on the Senate floor, a separate bill also opposed by unions met a similar fate. Senate Bill 94 would have prohibited union members who are public employees from doing organized labor-related work during the work day.
Montana has a deep history with labor unions, with miners in Butte and the Industrial Workers of the World, and both pieces of legislation went down with mentions of the past from opponents — and criticism from proponents that the power of unions is costing taxpayers and the economy.
“As Eric Hoffer said sometime ago, every good cause becomes a movement, and then grows into a business, and degenerates into a racket,” said Sen. John Fuller, R-Kalispell, paraphrasing the late philosopher and conservative social critic who wrote about mass movements. “Do not let the taxpayers of Montana have to pay for this racket.”
Fuller was speaking in defense of his own bill, which he said would prevent public employees from “union proselytizing” on the taxpayer dime.
Fuller said he isn’t against unions and used to be a member himself, but he believes public employees should take unpaid leave to have those conversations.
The bill also would have struck a requirement that trustees close schools annually for professional development for teachers.
Senators who opposed the idea pointed to Montana’s history and to pragmatic considerations, like the way daytime conversations take place and existing contracts.
Sen. Jacinda Morigeau, D-Arlee, said she sits on the committee where the bill was heard, and she learned some of the conversations about union activities amount to a one-minute phone call.
“So how is that person supposed to clock in and out for that?” Morigeau said.
Morigeau and others also defended the ability of union members to attend trainings on the clock, which Fuller had said last fall included LGBTQ+ issues; diversity, equity and inclusion; and critical race theory, among other topics he said were “not professional development.”
In education, those topics have become controversial, but Morigeau said just seven people attended the LGBTQ+ workshop, and six attended one on rethinking diversity.
She said from a teacher training agenda last fall with 19 pages of options, the top issues that drew more than 100 educators each included childhood trauma in the classroom, strategies for dynamic classroom management, mental health and teenagers, suicide prevention, creating a stellar yearbook program, and engaging the next generation of scientists and engineers.
“Our teachers … are getting great professional development,” Morigeau said.
Sen. Derek Harvey, D-Butte, said safety is a theme in professional trainings. He also said if a lawsuit is filed against a school because of a statement by a teacher on an LGBTQ+ topic, it will be the union, not the school, defending the teacher.
Harvey, though, also said people have to know their history. More than 100 years ago, he said, martial law was declared in his community because of horrific work conditions for union miners.
“They were literally dying at the job site,” Harvey said.
On Flag Day in 1917, he said, 168 miners were trapped and died underground after an accidental fire took off. It was the result of inadequate safety, and Harvey said over time, unions have fought for improvements.
“We need to carry on what was established for us 100 years ago,” Harvey said. “So yes, we don’t have to fight to make sure that there’s outward swinging doors on buildings anymore — because unions got that. We don’t have to fight for the eight-hour workday — because unions got that.
“But what we do have to continue to fight for is to ensure that the safeguards and protections and wages and benefits remain in place.”
The bill failed to pass when 11 Republicans joined all 18 Democrats to oppose it.
Saturday, SB 376, which addressed both public and private sector bargaining, failed to pass as well. The bill would have instated criminal penalties for workers who go on strike or picket, and it would have allowed civil penalties, among other provisions.
In response to a question about how the U.S. Supreme Court’s Janus decision related to the bill, Amanda Frickle, with the AFL-CIO, said that opinion applies only to public sector employees, and it has limitations. She said the bill goes beyond Janus.
In Montana, she said, public sector employees don’t have to join unions and pay dues — or refrain from joining and pay equivalent fees — but Frickle said the bill would apply to private sector employees and mutual agreements between workers and a business.
A business and union may enter into a private agreement that says workers may choose to join the union or pay an agency fee for representation.
Frickle said the bill would interfere in that private negotiation. She said it would mean nonunion workers won’t have to pay those fees, which means a private sector union has to provide a service for free.
Sen. Sara Novak, D-Anaconda, a union member who spoke against both bills, said she reviewed some of the statistics proponents of the “right to work” bill had provided against the state’s own Department of Labor and Industry data, and they didn’t match up.
Novak said it is disingenuous to accuse unions of causing massive layoffs.
Last fall, Sibanye-Stillwater mining company announced plans to lay off 700 workers, citing pressure from imports, and Novak said the reality is the state, the corporation and the union have helped displaced workers.
Sen. Mark Noland, R-Bigfork, sponsored SB 376, and he grew emotional when he talked about the experience of his late father, a union member. Noland said his father was forced to picket and pay dues, and “he hated every minute of that part of it.”
“When he retired, he said, ‘I’m free. Son, really think about if you’re going to go to work for a union,’” Noland said.
He admitted his bill might need to be rephrased after people said workers aren’t forced to pay dues, but he said union leaders know who supports their cause, and workers lose advancement if they don’t join.
Noland also said people are afraid of change, but he wanted Montana to become the 28th state to have “right to work” legislation.
“The other 27 states believe in freedom of choice,” Noland said.
A long line of workers and union leaders testified against his bill, telling legislators they chose union membership, and a couple of large employers opposed it as well. NorthWestern Energy, Sibanye-Stillwater, Missoula County, and the Montana Farmers Union were among the opponents.
Opposition came from plumbers and pipefitters, construction workers, a former missile site worker, a public defender, sheet metal workers, nurses, electricians, carpenters, local government employees, and others.
Some workers said wages in Montana were better than in nearby Idaho, a “right to work” state, some argued safety protocols and trainings would be out the window if the bill took effect, but workplace fatalities would go up, and at least one said he was able to start thinking about starting a family because of the insurance.
Alan Olson, government affairs director with NorthWestern Energy, said the utility is proud of its union workers. He also said union dues help pay for apprenticeships, and those trainings are valuable.
“We’re very happy with the apprenticeship programs that they run to help keep us staffed up,” Olson said.
The bill drew just two supporters, Randy Pope, with Montana Citizens for Right to Work, and John Kalb, with the National Right to Work Committee, which describes itself as opposing “the evils of compulsory unionism.”
Pope said when unions “play hardball” with wages, it simply means some workers will get laid off.
“The fact is, good unions don’t need forced dues, and bad unions don’t deserve them,” Pope said.
Frickle, with the AFL-CIO, representing 50,000 Montana workers, said workers in Montana already have the right to not join a union, and the bill illegally inserts the government into private contract negotiations.
Unions, she said, have been partners in Montana’s economy for 150 years.
“Montana would simply not be the state we are today if it were not for the working people who stood together and fought for their chance for a simple fair share of what they helped to build,” Fickle said.