The Missouri Chamber holds that an important first step in resolving our transportation crisis is to restore the system's financial integrity. PLAs are pre-hire agreements for the purpose of governing labor relations policies and conditions for individual public construction projects. These agreements channel project awards to organized union shops and seriously restrict competition in the heavy construction industry, which in turn reduces market competition and results in higher costs. The Missouri Chamber will work to ensure that PLAs do not become the standard for highway construction projects. Another top priority is securing affordable health care for Missourians.
Employers are the purchasers of health insurance for their employees.
However, with skyrocketing costs and an increasing number of government mandates, employers are finding it harder and harder to continue coverage. As in the area of health care, the Missouri Chamber will continue to hold the line and protect the true mission of unemployment and workers' compensation programs. Every year, Missouri's employer community faces serious attempts by anti-employer interests to make it more difficult to do business. The purpose of the unemployment insurance fund, which is completely funded by taxes paid by employers, is to serve as a safety net for those employers who become unemployed through no fault of their own. In 1996 the Missouri Chamber led the opposition to the State's decision to award unemployment insurance to striking workers at McDonnell Douglas on the basis that this was a misuse of Missouri's unemployment insurance fund.