Minnesota governors can't veto proposed constitutional amendments.
But governors have bully pulpits. DFL Gov. Mark Dayton used his during last week's State of the State address to take a swipe at a bad idea that some GOP legislators want to add to the Constitution -- a ban on labor contracts that require all workers employed under the terms of the contract to pay a share of union costs.
Dayton noted that Minnesota enjoys an unemployment rate lower than four of the five states that top the conservative-backed Tax Foundation's business climate rankings. Four of those five states also ban union payment requirements.
"We must be doing something right" without that ban, Dayton said. "In fact, we're doing a lot right."
Moments later, he added a plea: "Let's not forget what has lifted us from below average to above average to outstanding. Let's not destroy good wages and benefits ... in search of another strategy of unproven value -- or one of proven less value."
That well describes the implications of a proposal that acquired the misleading label "right to work" (RTW) 65 years ago, when the federal Taft-Hartley Act gave states authority to outlaw workplaces that make union membership a compulsory condition of employment. RTW laws soon followed in union-averse regions.
Contrary to what its label implies, it would give no one the right to a job. Rather, it would allow workers in union shops the option of a "free lunch" -- the chance to benefit from collective bargaining without paying for it.
For many of the workers who might exercise that option, the free lunch wouldn't last -- because the union wouldn't last. Right-to-work laws weaken and kill unions.